SPECIAL REPORT ON TEA-RAISING IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



SIR: In compliance with the suggestion of the Assistant Secretary 

 of Agriculture, I have the honor to submit the following report upon 

 experiments in the cultivation of the tea plant at the Pinehurst 

 Experimental Tea Garden, near Summer vi lie, S. 0. It embraces, also, 

 certain general observations regarding the varieties grown, yield, profit 

 and loss, and an account of the damage to the plants by the winter of 

 1802-'93. 



Very respectfully, 



CHARLES U. SHEPARD. 

 Hon. J. M. BUSK, 



Secretary. 



THE TEA PLANT IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The first tea plant in this section was set out by the French botanist 

 Michaux in 1804, at Middleton Barony, on the Ashley lllver, and dis- 

 tant some 15 miles from Charleston; with it was planted out the first 

 representative of its cousin , 1 he Camellia japoniea. As I saw the former 

 a lew years ago, it had grown into a small tree about 15 feet in height, 

 while of the latter there were many specimens fully twice as tall. 



The publications of the U. S. Patent Office and the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture record the results of many subsequent attempts to inau- 

 gurate an American tea industry. Nor is it strange that repeated 

 failure has not checked the ardor of those experimenters who constantly 

 enjoy the realization that their climate is especially favorable for the 

 outdoor cultivation of the Camellia japoniea, Azalea indica, and many 

 other subtropical plants, and have read that the flora of the tea-pro- 

 ducing countries of the East finds, to a certain extent, its counterpart 

 here. The little patches and, in some instances, larger gardens which 

 have resulted from these attempts have produced tea of fine flavor, 

 although very generally devoid of that strength of infusion which ap- 

 pears to constitute a most desirable quality for very many drinkers. 

 It may be presumed, however, that this failure in pungency was largely 

 due to defective curing, and especially to inadequate rolling of the leaf, 

 in consequence of which the cup qualities of the tea were not fully 

 developed. So far as is generally known, it remained for the National 

 Department of Agriculture to begin, about ten years ago, the first 

 serious attempt to produce American commercial tea on a scale suffi- 

 ciently large to arrive at a decisive result. 



The retirement from office of Commissioner William G. Le Due, to 

 whose great interest in this subject the inception of the experiment was 

 duej the death of Mr. John Jackson, under whose experienced manage- 



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