X. 



IN 1858 the United States Government ordered and 

 received about 10,000 tea-plants from China in 

 Wardian cases in which the seeds were sown just 

 previous to shipment, many of them germinated dur- 

 ing the voyage, the plants averaging 18 inches in height 

 on their arrival in this country. Being immediately 

 placed under propagation they were in a very short time 

 increased to over 30,000, which were widely distributed 

 throughout the Southern States, the propagation and dis- 

 tribution of tea-plants forming a prominent feature in the 

 operations of the Agricultural Department up to the 

 commencement of the civil war in 1861, which put a stop 

 to all experiments in the industry. For several years 

 after its close but little attention was given to the propa- 

 gation of the plant in this country, still at no time was 

 it entirely abandoned by the Department during this 

 period. It being fully understood, that so far as the 

 growth of the plant was concerned it could undoubtedly 

 be successfully cultivated over a large extent of the 

 country. But many of those interested sharing in the 

 belief that the amount and cost of the manual labor 

 required in its manipulation for market was so great as 

 to preclude the probability of competing with low-waged 

 Asiatics, no special efforts were again made to dissemi- 

 nate plants or to multiply them further than to supply 

 such applicants as desired to make experimental tests. 



