628 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



men t the gaTderis^Vete^ established; the great distance of the station 

 fromrits source of management, and the opinion of Commissioner Georg 

 <&. L/briog: tbat;^thj<?liinatic conditions are not favorabJe for it" (Re- 

 port for 1883), combined to cause the total abandonment by the Govern- 

 ment of the gardens which it had established, at great expense, on a 

 portion of the Newington plantation, and only a mile or so distant from 

 Pinehurst farm, which also constituted a part of the same large estate. 



The present experimentation owes its undertaking to the belief that 

 the previous trials to produce American tea were arrested before reach- 

 ing definite conclusions; that more careful cultivation and preparation, 

 which might be the result of a lengthier local observation, and the sub- 

 sequent production of a higher class of teas, might reverse the generally 

 entertained opinion that, as an industry, the cultivation of tea in this 

 country must always prove a failure; and that, if successful, this new 

 field for agricultural enterprise would furnish a wide and comparatively 

 easy outdoor employment for many who are unequal to those rougher 

 operations whose accomplishment under a summer's sun can be borne 

 by but few in this climate. 



It needed only the announcement of a revival of tea experiments in 

 this country to excite the liveliest interest in and assistance for the 

 undertaking. The U. S. Department of Agriculture, under the direc- 

 tion of the honorable Secretary, J. M. Rusk, and Assistant Secretary, 

 Edwin Willits, has manifested a deep concern in the project, and has 

 generously borne a very considerable part of the expenditure for pro- 

 curing consignments of tea seed from far Asia. The Department of 

 State has kindly issued orders to its consuls at the tea ports to obtain 

 these samples, and our foreign representatives have spared no effort to 

 secure the best quality of seed. At our own chief ports and marts the 

 most experienced tea-tasters and merchants have freely given their 

 valuable opinions and advice on the samples of tea which have been 

 submitted to them, and the press has spread over all our wide land 

 whatever reports have appeared concerning the progress made. 



It is in deference to this general interest that a report of progress is 

 herewith made, with the intention of limiting its scope to the consider- 

 ation of the climatic obstacles which have been regarded as insur- 

 mountable, and the addition of some of the experience which has been 

 gained during the past few years at Pinehurst. There is an extensive 

 tea literature, but it is not intended to reproduce it here. Those desir- 

 ous of gaining a general knowledge on the subject are referred to a 

 lecture by Mr. William Saunders, Superintendent of Gardens and 

 Grounds, U. S. Department of Agriculture, delivered before the New 

 York Horticultural Society October 7, 1879, and constituting Special 

 Report No. 18, Department of Agriculture, on "Tea Culture as a Prob- 

 able American Industry;" as also to the prize monograph of Col. Ed- 

 ward Money, a The Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea," 4th edition, 

 1883, London, W. B. Whittingham & Co. 



REQUISITE CONDITIONS OF THE TEA INDUSTRY. 



The requisite conditions for success in the tea industry are numerous; 

 they embrace sentimental, commercial, and agricultural factors. Under 

 the first belongs the special taste of the people who are to be asked to 

 buy the product. Not only does one country frequently prefer green 

 to black tea, or vice versa, but in the same land different sections de- 

 mand different sorts or " blends." Any general change in taste is 

 naturally slow. The sentimental factor in deciding whether a tea is to 



