THE TEA PLANT. 83 



disadvantageous circumstances ; whence they have 

 been transplanted to other soils and sites which ex- 

 perience has shown to be more congenial or more 

 convenient, and which are now in the vicinity of 

 towns and hamlets in part, if not entirely, owing 

 their rise and present support to the cultivation of 

 that shrub. 



In districts suitable to its growth it obviously 

 must be the endeavour of everv farmer to have his 

 little plantation of tea. Thus Yon Siebold informs 

 us, that at Japan the husbandman grows his tea 

 for domestic use in hedges and detached parts 

 of his farm, which are less favourable for tillage. 

 He adds, it is principally from these plantations, 

 which appear to the traveller like scattered hedges 

 and bushes, that tea is rendered available to the 

 lower classes.* The farms which Mr. Fortune saw 

 in Fokien, " were all small, each consisting of from 

 one to four or five acres. "f 



Mr. Gordon saw at Amoy a little nursery at- 

 tached to each tea plantation, where plants were 

 " growing to the height of four or five inches, as 

 closely set as they could stand." It may also be 

 remarked, that the Chinese adopt the same practice 

 to bring forward their second crop of rice. Thus, 

 in harvest time, the young seedlings being ready 

 to transplant, reaping, threshing, irrigating, plough- 

 ing, and transplanting, may be seen all going on at 



* Nippon, part 6. t Wanderings in China, p. 201. 



g 2 



