SPECIAL REPORT ON TEA-RAISING ltf.bj[TT4 "Q-AROLIN/A;' 639 



with pine straw during the first wiiitrs/eHofcS' 9$&jjp.tt$p f be 

 averted, even on the repetition of the weatner o'f*l92-'93, several 'acres 

 are now being planted with the best Ceylon tea seed. 



Other seedings and young plants, particularly in exposed situations, 

 have not infrequently lost their top foliage; but the loss is inconsider- 

 able, although involving the retardation of their development. 



Among the larger and older plants the injury from the cold weather 

 shows itself in two directions, viz, a splitting of the bark of the trunk, 

 whereby the latter becomes denuded and the plant dies. This form of 

 damage has happened to not exceeding 1 or 2 per cent, but the 

 plants thus affected were (as might be expected) among the thriftiest 

 and finest in the tea gardens. The other injury was the loss of the 

 youngest leaves and twigs on plants of apparently greater suscepti- 

 bility. But it does not seem to involve further destruction, except in 

 comparatively few cases. Very careful examination of the older 

 gardens shows that the total loss from cold during the past winter is 

 decidedly less than 5 per cent of the total plants. 



The location and drainage of the tea gardens are of the first impor- 

 tance in climates where there is liability to such extreme cold. Even 

 tender Assam survived the experience of this winter where sheltered 

 by trees from the wind and on a dry hill. It may be well to avoid 

 encouraging by autumnal manuring the growth of plants during the 

 winter where it is apt to be cold. 



TABLE 1. Showing frequency of prolonged periods of low temperature at Charleston, S. 

 C., for January, February, and December, 1871, to date (January, 1893), inclusive. 



[Furnished for C. TJ. Shepard, M. D., Summerville, S. C.] 



