256 TEA-CULTURE, A PROBABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 



suitability of our soil and climate to produce as good an 

 article of tea as is now grown in India, Java and Ceylon 

 are untenable, all practical farmers being aware that 

 soils and climates exert certain influences upon all vege- 

 tation, these same influences being potent everywhere, 

 and that natural causes are not spasmodic in their opera- 

 tions anywhere. The latitudes in which teas are grown 

 in China, Japan and India correspond exactly with those 

 of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida in the south, 

 and with that of Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama in the 

 southwest. 



But while the question of making its production a 

 commercial success is conceded by many authorities, 

 some contend that while we can undoubtedly cultivate tea 

 of fair quality in many sections of the country, we cannot 

 supply the cheap and skilled labor necessary to prepare 

 it for market, advancing the argument that from the time 

 the leaves are picked until they are packed for export 

 they are subjected to a continued series of manipulations, 

 demanding an immense amount of such labor without 

 which it is next to impossible to produce a merchantable 

 article. But while it is admitted that the greater part of 

 the cost of tea in the producing countries is that of 

 labor, it must be taken into account that much of the 

 manipulation and packing of tea in these countries is for 

 the purpose of fitting it for the ocean voyages, and to 

 protect it during transportation the leaves must be 

 repeatedly fired and sorted before shipping, in order to 

 better protect them from damp and moisture in transit. 

 But even with all these extra firings and precautions 

 the original aroma developed by these processes is 

 largely dissipated before the. tea reaches its destination in 

 the importing countries. It is a well-established fact 

 that the best teas are only to be had in their highest 



