TAXUS 



TEA 



1773 



in diameter: bark bright red: branches ascending: 

 lvs. usually falcate, thickish, distinctly and abruptly 

 mucronate, dark green above, pale fulvous green or 

 pale green beneath, %-l in. long: fr. like that of T. 

 baccata, Japan. Very similar to T. liucnila, but 

 branches more upright, stouter and lvs. somewhat 

 broader, more abruptly mucronate and thicker in tex- 

 ture. Var. nana, Hort. ( T. brevifdliu, Hort.. not Nutt.), 

 is a dwarf compact form with shorter leaves. 



Canadensis, Marsh. (T. baccata, var. minor, Michx. 

 T. baccata, var. Canadensis, Gray. T. minor, Britt. ) . 

 Fig. 2471. Prostrate shrub, with wide-spreading slen- 

 der branches, rarely more than ;i ft. high: lvs. shorter 

 and narrower, less crowded and of a lighter, more yel- 

 lowish green than those of T. baccata, assuming in win- 

 ter usually a reddish tint: fr. ripens about 2 months 

 earlier than that of T. baccata: lis. monoecious (at least 

 usually). Newfoundland to Manitoba, south to Va. and 



Iowa. B.B. 1:61. V. 14:252. — In cultivation it 1 >mes 



usually a more upright and less straggling shrub. 



T. breeifblia, Nutt. Tree, 40-50 or occasionally 80 ft. high, 

 with slender horizontal or somewhat pendulous branches 

 forming a broad, open, pyramidal head: lvs. sharply pointed, 

 dark yellowish green. '.-', in. long. Brit. Col. to Calif. S.S. 

 10:514. Probably as hardy as T. baccata.— T. Flaridana, 

 Chaptn. Bushy tree, 25 ft. high or sometimes shrubby: lvs. 

 slender, %-l in. long, dark green. Fla. S.S. Hi: 515. 



Alfred Rehder. 



United States, are facts sufficiently well known as to 

 require no elaboration in the present article. The 

 present condition of China and the fear that a devas- 

 tating war may at any moment invade the tea-pro- 

 ducing provinces, seriously threaten the Tea supply 

 from that country. Again, friction among the world- 

 powers may at some future time entangle the United 

 States in war with a strong naval power, in which case 

 it is easy to foresee that commerce with the antipodes 

 might be arrested and our supply of oriental Tea cut off. 

 Or the outbreak of some such vegetable disease as that 

 which not many years ago destroyed the coffee industry 

 in Ceylon might readily sweep over the tea-gardens of 

 Eastern Asia; and if wholly dependent, upon them, the 

 world might be deprived of its cup of Tea. It becomes, 

 therefore, a question of national importance to provide 

 against these contingencies. 



To these advantages should he added the diversifica- 

 tion of our industries, supplying easy and healthful 

 occupation to thousands of needy people, especially 

 women and children, who are well adapted for the gen- 

 erally light labor involved in the growth and manufac- 

 ture of Tea; and converting countless acres of now 

 idle land into blooming and remunerative tea-gardens. 

 Where in Assam was once a dismal jungle, the borne of 

 the tiger and cobra, and full of deadlier fevers, almost 

 uninhabited by man and practically worthless, is now— 

 thanks to the tea-industry — a fertile, comparatively 



2471. Spray of Taxus Canadensis (X \i) 



TEA. The Tea plant is described in this work under 

 Camellia Thea, together with its varieties Bohea and 

 viridis, of which the former was supposed to yield 

 black Tea and the latter green Tea. Both kinds can be 

 produced from either variety, the difference lying in 

 the process of manufacture. Tea is an agricultural 

 rather than a horticultural crop. It is fully treated in 

 general cyclopedias and elsewhere. For these reasons 

 no general article on Tea is here included. The fol- 

 lowing article gives an idea of the present condition 

 of the tea-growing industry in America. The Tea 

 plant is shown in Fig. 2472. L H. B. 



American Tea. — Previous to the inauguration of the 

 Pinehurst experimentation in South Carolina, it had 

 been abundantly demonstrated that parts of the south- 

 ern states were well adapted for the growth of those 

 varieties of the Tea plant which do not require a tropi- 

 cal climate; and before the Civil War many families 

 supplied themselves with Tea grown and made at 

 home, the result of the distribution of oriental Tea 

 seed throughout the southern states by the national 

 government. But it remained to be solved whether 

 Tea might be produced on a large scale at a profit. The 

 Pinehurst experiments have shown that American tea- 

 gardens are capable of yielding as much as the aver- 

 age Asiatic, and that the quality of the leaf is not less 

 satisfactory. 



The advantages in favor of raising Tea in this country 

 are the avoidance of long transportation, which generally 

 induces deterioration in quality; security from the in- 

 terference of war with the importation of foreign Teas ; 

 and the protection of the industry by a duty which shall 

 offset the difference in the price of labor. That some 

 sorts of Tea do not keep well, that the high "firing" of 

 Tea to prevent mildew, necessarily deprives it of much 

 of its flavor, and that for these reasons the best of the 

 oriental Teas are rarely exported, least of all to the 



healthy, civilized region, affording lucrative employ- 

 ment to thousands of Europeans and natives. As much 

 can be brought about in many neglected parts of the 

 southern states; but probably, as was the case in Assam, 

 only through the long category of persistent labor, se- 

 vere trials, frequent mistakes, temporary depressions 

 and final success. 



The disadvantages which operate against the estab- 

 lishment of an American Tea industry are, chiefly, au 

 insufficient rainfall, the higher price of labor, and the 

 conversion of tea-drinkers to the taste of a new sort of 

 Tea. Of secondary importance is the disinclination of 

 capital to embark in the undertaking which, although 

 apparently new, has, undeservedly as we think, the 

 stigma of previous failures. Further experiments to 

 relieve the burden of the above objections will, it is 

 believed, pave the way for a hearty endorsement of the 

 practicability of the industry, and then there will be no 

 withholding of the requisite means. 



The Pinehurst experiments have shown, other things 

 being equal, the dependence of the productiveness 

 of the tea-plant upon an abundant supply of mois- 

 ture, whether of precipitation or percolation, or by arti- 

 ficial irrigation. The yearly rainfall in the oriental 

 Tea countries varies from CO to 150 inches, and even 

 more. Almost all of it occurs in the leaf-producing 

 months; whereas here the aqueous precipitation, dur- 

 ing the same season amounts to about thirty inches. It 

 becomes necessary, therefore, that the American tea- 

 planter should conserve and supplement this supply to 

 the utmost, by a system of tillage which shall absorb 

 and yield to the plant as much as possible; by the dis- 

 tribution of the trenches and the terracing of the land 

 with a view to preventing the denudation of the surface 

 and the loss of water during the heavier rains. These 

 objects are largely attained by placing the tea-gardens 

 on well-drained, flat lowlands or former pond-beds. 

 Very recently special attention has been paid to the 



