1774 



TEA 



TEA 



artificial irrigation of tea fields, whereby it is designed 

 to better approximate to the oriental supply of water 

 during the cropping season, although, of course, it will 

 be needless to attempt to imitate the tropical deluges 

 which not only run off from, but with the soil. 



The selection of the most suitable location for the 

 establishment of a tea estate, becomes, then, of the 

 greatest importance. The choice of fertile, flat lands, 

 underlaid by a porous subsoil, susceptible of irrigation 

 by gravity, as a safe-guard against droughts, will obvi- 

 ate the necessity of applying artificial enrichment, of 

 underdrainage, and of elevating by applied power the 

 water needed for irrigation. By a careful observance of 

 these details and the selection of the right sort of seed, 

 the American tea-garden may be made to yield as much 

 or more than the parent bushes from which it sprung. 

 And as the successful commercial tea estate must be on 

 a large scale, like similar undertakings in sugar,whether 

 beet or cane, it will be necessary to consider the means 

 of transportation and accessibility to markets, abundant 

 supply of labor and healthfulness of situation. 



The part played by purely manual labor in the culti- 

 vation and manufacture of black Tea upon the best 

 equipped British tea estates in India, is being steadily 

 encroached upon by mechanical appliances until now it 

 has been almost relegated to its last functions of plant- 

 pruning and leaf-plucking, where it is probably secure. 

 It is true that the cultivation of the soil on the above- 

 mentioned gardens largely depends on manual labor 

 with the hoe, spade and fork. This is the natural se- 

 quence of the heavy rains which otherwise denude them 

 of a uniformly well-pulverized surface soil. By avoid- 

 ing hillsides and by planting sufficiently far apart it is 

 possible to use plows and cultivators, and thus reduce 

 the cost of cultivation. As yet no mechanical contri- 

 vance has been found for dispensing with human labor 

 in the pruning of the tea bushes and the gathering of 

 the leaf. But a ten cent duty on foreign Tea should in 

 many sections of the southern states somewhat com- 

 pensate for the difference in the cost of these opera- 

 tions here and in the Orient. The testimony before the 

 U. S. Labor Commission has shown that where the 

 negro population is congested, their wages, beyond a 

 scanty supply of food and clothing, are strictly nominal. 



2472. Tea plant (X 



On well-arranged tea estates producing black Tea, the 

 human hand hardly touches the plucked leaf from the 

 moment when it is caught up by a trolley line for trans- 

 portation to the factory, until the dry Tea is subjected 

 to the final elimination of whatever foreign matter 

 (stems, chips, etc.) may have got mixed with it. Until 



very recently the manufacture of green Tea has required 

 a large amount of handwork for the roasting and roll- 

 ing of the leaf. But most recently it has been demon- 

 strated at Pinehurst that green tea of a high quality 

 may be made solely by machinery, by means of the 

 "Rotary Witherer," invented by the writer, in conjunc- 

 tion with the previously employed rolling and drying 

 machines. And thus, by the substitution of mechani- 

 cal operations, not only should the production of Tea on 

 a scale commensurate with the cost of such an establish- 

 ment, be made cheaper, but the product should be more 

 uniform and free from the possible contamination of 

 frequently unclean hands (and feet!). 



It was to be expected that the different climatic con- 

 ditions should exert their effect on the foreign tea 

 plants and somewhat alter the taste of their product. 

 This experience has been the rule with Tea, and it has 

 cost a considerable, oftentimes disheartening, effort to 

 successfully launch upon the market the output of each 

 new locality. The very limited production at Pinehurst 

 has probably prevented any obstacle to the sale of its 

 crops; the novelty of its product may have largely 

 assisted in readily disposing of it. But were the produc- 

 tion of American Tea to suddenly rise into the millions 

 of pounds, it would most certainly have to fight against 

 the prejudice of taste and the established trade in Asi- 

 atic Teas. The natural remedy lies in the greatest pos- 

 sible adaptation to already formed habits of taste and 

 a lowering of price. Time, study, perseverance and 

 money are necessarily demanded, but success seems 

 to be reasonably assured. 



It should not surprise any one familiar with the Teas 

 consumed in the United States and Great Britain that 

 the sorts most highly valued in the Orient, the product 

 of one thousand or more years of discrimination and so 

 highly prized as often to be commercially unattainable, 

 rarely commend themselves to the tea-drinkers in the 

 former countries. 



For nearly ten years the experimentation at Pinehurst 

 was mainly carried on without outside assistance. The 

 National Department of Agriculture, however, con- 

 tributed very welcome assistance by the gift of tea- 

 seed, publication of reports and other important ways; 

 and for the past two seasons has rendered most effec- 

 tual pecuniary aid, under the direction of the Secretary 

 of Agriculture, the Hon. James Wilson, who has en- 

 listed the interest and support of Congress in the work. 

 The proprietor of Pinehurst appreciates most deeply 

 this assistance, both in money and sympathy, which he 

 recognizes as being indispensable for the ultimate in- 

 auguration of the hoped-for industry. Under the 

 instructions of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture he will diligently continue the experiments 

 which seem most calculated to produce at low cost the 

 medium grades of both black and green Teas, not losing 

 sight, however, of the possible growth and manufac- 

 ture of the finer varieties. 



The first tea plant in this country was set out by the 

 French botanist, Michaux, about 1800, at Middleton 

 Barony, on the Ashley river, distant some 15 miles 

 from Charleston and 10 from Pinehurst plantation. As 

 seen a few years since, it had grown into a siiiall tree 

 about 15 feet high. The reports of the U. S. Patent 

 Office and the Department of Agriculture record the 

 results of many subsequent attempts to introduce and 

 cultivate the tea plant in the southern states. In 1848, 

 Mr. Junius Smith, of Greenville, S. C., being convino< d 

 from the letters of his daughter, then in British India, 

 of the feasibility of raising Tea in this region, began his 

 well-known experiments in this direction. In spite of 

 many trying difficulties, they were diligently prosecuted 

 to the time of his death, which occurred a few years 

 later. It required only slight encouragement from the 

 Government, by the distribution of plants and seeds, to 

 call into active participation the ardor of many experi- 

 menters living in a climate particularly favorable for 

 the outdoor cultivation of the Camellia Japonica, Aza- 

 lea Indica, and many other subtropical plants. The 

 Scotch botanist, Mr. Robert Fortune, was employed by 

 the Government to gather Chinese tea seed, which WHS 

 distributed in 1858 and 1859 throughout the southern 

 states. The outbreak of the Civil War, shortly there- 

 after, seriously interfered with the prosecution of these 



