276 [Assembly 



Lat. 32 to 35. Parallel: North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor- 

 gia, Alabama, and Mississippi. 



5. We now come, as we proceed southerly, to the maritime and 

 central provinces of China, formiag the finest and most productive 

 agricultural districts of the Empire, and producing the greatest 

 abundance of Tea. From these provinces the bulk of the Tea ex- 

 ported, which by the way is but a very small proportion of the 

 quantity grown, is principally derived, and from the latitude we can 

 easily perceive the corresponding districts of our own country. 



Kiang-nan, Latitude 30 to 35. 



Che Kiang, " 29 to 30. 



Kiang See, " . 24 to 30. 



Fokian, " 27 to 28. 



Ilamur, " 25 to 30. 



Kwangsi, " 22 to 25. 



Kiang See, " 30 to 35. 



Kwangtung, " 22 to 25. 



All these provinces are intersected by mountains and hills, num- 

 berless rivers wind their course from the mountains and high lands 

 to the ocean, and the soil is as diversified as the surface. 



The productions common to all, are Tea, Cotton, Silk, Rice, 

 Grain, Tobacco, and all kinds of vegetables and fruits grown in tem- 

 perate climates, &c. Indian corn is the production of every State 

 in the Union, but in some it grows more luxuriantly and is cultivat- 

 ed more generally than in others. It is the same with regard to 

 cultivation of Tea in China. It covers the Empire and yet is more 

 ])roductive and more generally cultivated in some districts than in 

 others. 



Upon the authority of Dr. Abel, the district more particularly ap- 

 priated than any other to the cultivation of the Green Tea, lies at 

 the base of a ridge of mountains which divides the provinces of the 

 Che Kiang and Kiang-nan, N. Lat. 30 to 32°. The Black Tea 

 District in the province of Fokian, is situated on the south-eastern 

 declivity of a ridge of mountains dividing the provinces of Fokian 

 from Kiang See, Lat. 25 to 28. Very little Tea is produced in the 

 neighborhood of Canton, or south of that city, Lat. 23° 8'. 



Experience proves that the solar heats of equatorial latitudes are 

 incompatible with the vigorous and productive growth of the Tea 



