34 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



encouraging that the society ventures the opinion " that 

 in time Russia may compete with China and India in 

 supplying the Western nations with tea." Efforts are 

 also being made to introduce it into southern Italy, but 

 while the soil and climate of those countries may be 

 found admirably adapted for the purpose, there is no 

 skilled labor lo prepare it properly. 



The cultivation of tea was attempted in the warmer 

 parts of Brazil in 1850, some tea of very fair quality being 

 produced in the vicinity of Rio Janeiro, and while the 

 plant was found to flourish exceedingly well in the 

 adjoining provice of Sao Paolo, the tea when prepared for 

 use was found to be entirely too bitter and astringent for 

 practical purposes. The lack of skilled labor and high 

 cost of manufacture preventing its cultivation for profit, 

 it was inferred that with everything else in its favor, tea 

 as produced in Brazil would never be able to compete 

 with that of China even for home consumption. 



Some few years since plantations were opened for the 

 cultivation of tea in Mexico, Guatemala, and in some of 

 the West India islands, but to the present no reports favor- 

 able or otherwise, have been received regarding its pro- 

 gress in these countries. Still, in the face of all draw- 

 backs, with the example of the many failures and final 

 success achieved in India and Ceylon, much may yet be 

 accomplished in Brazil and other South American coun- 

 tries by intelligent cultivation, modern machinery and 

 perseverance in solving the problem of growing at least 

 their own tea. 



With regard to the efforts to introduce the tea-plant 

 into the United States, the earliest notice which comes 

 under observation is that contained in the Southern 

 Agriculturist, published in 1828, and in which it is stated 

 that " the tea-tree grows perfectly in the open air near 



