128 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



more favourable here and the product could be shipped directly 

 from the port of Tsuruga. 



From the above we perceive that the chief tea-district of Japan 

 lies in the island of Hondo, between 34° and 16° N. Lat. Tea 

 raised at a distance from these boundaries is of poorer quality and 

 of a lower price. 



This is particularly true of all tea shipped from Nagasaki, and 

 Niigata to Yokohama. In the former case the cause is the care- 

 less treatment of the tea-plant, in the latter it is climatic. The tea 

 sent from Niigata comes from the districts of Murakami, Mura- 

 machi, Kurokawa, and Niidzu, that is to say from the northernmost 

 parts of the province of Echigo. The tea-plant is kept trimmed 

 very low there and carefully cultivated, yet it is impossible to give 

 it adequate protection against the effects of a long winter and the 

 night frosts in April, despite the covering of straw and snow during 

 the former. Its leaf is consequently tough and bitter. 



The above mentioned regions are, at any rate, the most northerly 

 in which tea-bushes can be profitably and largely planted. In 

 Akita-ken, under the fortieth parallel, where I saw the last tea- 

 gardens, they can be maintained only by special protection in 

 winter. My observations led me to believe that successful tea- 

 culture ends with the wild-growing camellia, in 38 i° N. Lat, in 

 northern Echigo. 



Much can be learned from the table in the appendix. First we 

 observe that the provinces of Suruga, Mino, Totomi, Ise, Musashi, 

 Shimosa, Yamashiro, Omi, Hitachi, and Yamato stand in advance 

 of all the others in the area devoted to tea-culture, and Suruga 

 alone has more than one-eighth of all tea-gardens in Japan. In 

 these ten provinces tea-gardens take up 07 per cent, of the area, 

 in Suruga 1-5 per cent. There is no doubt that the extensive tea- 

 culture of Suruga is due in part to the great protection afforded 

 by Fuji-san and other high mountains against the rude north 

 winds. 



Of the total area in 1881 given up to tea-culture, 42,224 cho or 

 41,874 ha, the proportion was as follows : 



kin. 



Tencha or Hikicha, i.e. pulverized tea . . i6,()6% 



Giyoku-ro or dewdrops 167,728 



Sencha or common tea ..... 14,797,945 



Bancha or ordinary tea 14,294,895 



Hiboshi or tea dried in the sun \ 



Kamairi or tea heated in the pan I . . 4,940,277 



Kuroguchi or badly heated tea j 



Kocha or Congo 450,124 



Uriyo or Oolong 319,604 



Total kin 35,007,241 

 or 21,040,724 kilo. This makes 480 kilo per ha. 



