iyo THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



lina. It is an expression of the faith of Dr. Chas. U. Shep- 

 ard in the possibility of American tea culture. The difficulty 

 has not been that of a want of hardihood on the part of the 

 tea plant, which readily adapts itself to a great variety of 

 climatic conditions, but to the labor problem which Dr. Shep- 

 ard seems to have satisfactorily and ingeniously solved. 



The wide areas over which tea is cultivated throughout the 

 world indicate the range of conditions to which the plant will 

 adapt itself. India, China, Japan, Formosa, Ceylon, Java, 

 South Africa, the Russian Caucasus these indicate the 

 world-wide adaptability of the plant. Within the torrid quar- 

 ters of the equator and almost down to the sea level, in 

 Ceylon, it is in commercial cultivation ; and again, on the 

 same island at an elevation of 7,000 feet above the frost line, 

 it is found growing luxuriantly. It is said to be cultivated 

 also, though less successfully, in regions where ice and snow 

 hold sway during considerable portions of the year, as in the 

 valleys of the Himalaya Mountains and the interior of China. 

 The different localities produce different grades of tea, and 

 all are not equally good. There is one condition, however, 

 which the plant must always have, namely, an abundant rain- 

 fall. A light, fertile, well-drained soil is also desirable. 



During the last 100 years there has been an enormous in- 

 crease in the use of tea throughout the world ; an enormous 

 increase, therefore, in the production of tea, and in its ex- 

 portation from the lands where it is grown. There has also, 

 for some reason, been a change in the grades demanded by 

 the consumers, declining steadily towards the inferior and 

 cheaper varieties, until to-day in many families even of the 

 well-to-do the taste of high grade tea is unknown. Coinci- 

 dent with the change in the grades consumed, but whether as 



