254 TEA-CULTURE, A PROBABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 



Meanwhile the progress of tea-culture in India was 

 watched with interest. The successful results of modern 

 methods of cultivation and the introduction of various 

 labor-saving machines for preparation which were being 

 made from time to time by the planters of that country, 

 suggesting the probability that the production of tea 

 could eventually be made a profitable industry in many 

 sections of this country, where labor-saving appliances 

 usually follow closely upon the knowledge of their 

 necessity. Basing their hopes on these results, fresh 

 supplies of tea-seed were subsequently imported from 

 Japan, which enabled the Department to again distribute 

 many thousand of plants throughout the country. 

 These renewed efforts being materially enhanced, when 

 about 1867 it was found that an abundance of tea-seeds 

 could be procured in many of the Southern States from 

 the plants which had previously been disseminated from 

 the importation of 1858. Encouraged by the reports of 

 successful culture which were in many cases supple- 

 mented by samples of manufactured tea, of undoubted 

 good quality, in a number of instances, more decided 

 and energetic efforts were made toward establishing the 

 industry. More than 100,000 tea-plants were distributed 

 during the past ten years, the Department having under 

 propagation, at the present time, over 20,000 plants which 

 are ready for dissemination in localities where they are 

 most likely to succeed. By this means it is expected to 

 popularize the cultivation of tea as a domestic product 

 in this country, with the hope that public interest will in 

 time be directed to its cultivation as an article of com- 

 mercial value also. 



The cultivation of the tea-plant is as simple as that of 

 the currant or gooseberry, and tea-gardens may be estab- 

 lished in a similar manner to those of other economic 



