52 CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION. 



With regard to climatic essentials the plant endures a 

 tropical temperature well, at the same time accommodat- 

 ing itself to the cold of winter without injury. But when 

 cultivated for commercial uses in such latitudes the 

 seasons are found too short for its profitable production 

 there, and while it is successfully grown at zero cold in 

 some districts, it is nevertheless most lucratively culti- 

 vated in climates where the thermometer rarely falls more 

 than six degrees below the freezing point. The climate 

 varies to a considerable extent in the different districts of 

 China where tea is grown, being excessively warm in the 

 southern, and intensely cold in the northern provinces, 

 snow being on the ground for days together in the latter 

 or green tea producing districts. And though it has 

 been proved by experiment that this variety will bear a 

 greater degree of cold than the black, considerable snow 

 falls annually in the province of Fo-kien, where Black 

 teas are grown. The most important climatic consider- 

 ation, however, is the amount of rain-fall, a dry climate 

 being altogether unfit for tea cultivation ; a hot, moist or 

 damp one being proved the best. The rain-fall in the 

 most profitable tea districts ranges from 80 to 100 

 inches per annum, the more falling in the spring months 

 the better, and that too must be equally diffused. But 

 where irrigation can be systematically introduced, this 

 is of less importance. 



PLANTING AKD PICKING. 



Tea is invariably raised from seed, in China, collected 

 in the fall after the last crop has been gathered and placed 

 in sand to keep them fresh during the winter months, 

 and sown the following spring in nurseries. In sowing the 

 seed from six to eight are put in pots about an inch below 

 the surface, usually four feet apart, and covered with 



