TEA-CULTURE, A PROBABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 261 



itself entirely at home where it is growing. There cannot be the 

 least doubt but that the tea-plant will flourish in South Carolina 



Mr. W. M. Ives, Jr., Lake City, Fla., suggests : 



Tea cultivation might be made profitable here, but our people 

 do not pay enough attention to such objects as promise returns in 

 future years. The method of drying the leaves is a very simple 

 process. Many families already possess a number of tea-plants, 

 but they grow them simply for their beauty and novelty. It has 

 been proven that tea can be grown in Georgia as well as in Florida. 



Dr. A. W. Thornton, Portland, Ore., declares : 



That the tea-plant is admirably suited to Northern California and 

 Southern Oregon I have no question ; more especially as the light 

 on the coast is so abundantly charged with actinic rays, as shown 

 by the richness of the foliage and gorgeous tints of the fruits and 

 autumnal foliage, whicn supports the view that any plant, the active 

 principle of which is located in the leaves, would prima facie yield 

 a richer product where actinic rays are abundant (which are known 

 to have an important influence upon chlorophyl and leaf develop- 

 ment) than in less favored climes. Some years ago, Mr. Samuel 

 Brannan started the cultivation of tea at Calistogo, in Napa county, 

 California, but through some mismanagement at the outset the 

 crop did not succeed. But to this day solitary plants can be seen 

 in that locality, exhibiting vigorous growth, proving the suitability 

 of both soil and climate. Since that time a gentleman has started 

 a plantaticn of tea at Modesta, in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada 

 mountains, Stanislaus county, California, in which the plants have 

 done so well that from the last accounts he was so far encouraged 

 as to extend his plantation. 



Mr. Arthur P. Ford, Charleston, S. C., says: 



About four or five years ago I obtained from a friend some seeds 

 of the tea-plant, and planted them in my garden, twenty-one miles 

 from Charleston, inland. The plants came up readily, were duly 

 transplanted, and are now fine shrubs three feet high, and seven 

 in number. The foliage is luxuriant; and the plants bear the 

 coldest weather here without any ill effects, the mercury on more 

 than one occasion marking 16, the plants being encased in ice at 

 other times also. 



