CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



as is done in India ? What would a Minnesota farmer say if told that 

 the only implement with which he could profitably rear a crop of corn 

 was the hoe, wielded by an attenuated skeleton of a man ? If the 

 hundreds of wealthy Tea planters in Assam were told that they must 

 return to the original system of manufacturing their Teas by hand, 

 they would throw up their farms in despair. Seventy million pounds 

 of Tea are now annually manufactured by machinery in India and Java, 

 and I have satisfied myself that green Teas, suitable for the American 

 market, can be manufactured at one-third the cost of the black Teas 

 prepared by machinery for the English market. There is but one 

 division of Tea culture into which the labour question would enter at 

 all, and that is the picking of the leaves. Everything else can be 

 carried on with the mechanical precision of the cultivator, reaper, and 

 floutring mill. Is not the real truth of the matter to be found in the 

 fact that the American people know nothing absolutely nothing of 

 the modern system of Tea culture and manufacture, and are therefore 

 in no position to form a sound judgment of the possibilities of their 

 country and countrymen in regard to Tea ? I say again, as I have 

 often said before, that the question of labour will prove no barrier to 

 successful Tea culture in America. Let any who are interested enough 

 in this subject to feel sceptical about it favour me with a call at No. 

 229 East Fourth Street and I will take pleasure in showing them what 

 achievements modern skill and mechanical genius have already 

 attained and what may very easily be accomplished in America. I 

 believe that then there is a bright future in store for successful Tea 

 culture. 



In another place Mr. Jackson says he has always culti- 

 vated with ploughs, and done it successfully. Naturally 

 this would make his cultivation much cheaper, and it is 

 high time, as I say elsewhere, that we in India should try 

 and do the same thing. 



We, all the world knows, how ingenious, how inventive 

 the Americans are, and thus it is possible they may by the 

 use of machinery for all branches of manufacture, by 

 improved steam-ploughs and other agricultural instruments 

 which shall dispense with hand labour for cultivation, so 

 cheapen the cost of Tea that its production will pay in 



