&6 SOIL THE MOST SUITABLE. 



flourishes, and arrives at a high degree of excel- 

 lence in a soil rich in decomposed vegetable matter, 

 and comes in contradiction of the supposition that 

 a poor, sandy, or gravelly soil, with little accumu- 

 lation of vegetable mould, is alone favourable to 

 the cultivation of the tea plant.* 



When cultivated on the embankments of garden 

 grounds or fields of grain, the soil obviously must 

 partake of the nature of those fields, being in some 

 cases a light garden mould, and in others of a more 

 compact and argillaceous character. 



The embankments here alluded to are generally 

 about from six to eight feet wide on their summits, 

 and from their inclined position and construction 

 favour filtration. They form sometimes divisions 

 of fields, and sometimes fences, against the en- 

 croachments of rivers. They are mostly planted 

 with fruit trees, or other useful plants, as the tea, 

 the mulberry, the orange, and the plantain. 



With respect to the outer range of the Bohea 



* Mr. Fortune states that the soil of the plantations he saw 

 in Fokien and Chekiang consists of a rich sandy loam. He 

 moreover shows that the tea shrub requires a rich soil. ( Wa?i- 

 derings in China, p. 200, 201.) Mr. Jacobson of Java con- 

 siders that a " temperate" and moderately fertile soil is the 

 best for tea. This may consist of a half or two thirds of a foot 

 of rich decayed vegetable matter or humus (which he also terms 

 moer-aarde (peat-earth ?), with a substratum of a compact brown 

 clay earth, which is sometimes termed mountain ground, not 

 rich but by no means poor, and which is of an adhesive character 

 without sticking, when rolled between the forefinger and the 

 thumb. (§ 22.) 



