No. 216] 281 



The plantation now requires no more care than any ordinary fruit 

 orchard, for three years, when the plant has acquired sufficient 

 growth and the leaves sufficient maturity to pluck for use. The 

 Plant, however, continues to improve for seven years, when it comes 

 to full maturity. But the plant continues to thrive until it attains 

 the age of from ten to twenty years. This is the Chinese mode of 

 planting. But my own method is to plant the seeds in drills about 

 four inches apart, in rows fifteen inches apart, which allows sufficient 

 room for hoeing and cleaning between the rows. Whatever blanks 

 may be discovered in the rows by the failure of the seed to vegetate, 

 may easily be supplied from the young shoots, and the plants thus 

 stand all in regular compact rows, ready for final transplantation. 

 The lands in China, farmed out in small lots among an exceedingly 

 dense population, are so valuable, that the occupants often cultivate 

 green vegetables between the rows of Tea Plants, and thus extend 

 their crops. Necessity may compel, and perhaps justify, such an 

 unwise mode of cultivation. But unless the land is very highly 

 manured, nothing is gained, but labor lost, what one plant gains, the 

 other loses. Both are partially starved, neither fully fed. 



2. Cultivation — There cannot be a greater mistake in the art 

 of cultivation, than that of huddling plants one upon another. It ia 

 like setting one potatoe before two Irishmen; there is not enough for 

 both, and being equally hungry, they are very likely to quarrel for 

 possession. The roots and fibres of plants are far more numerous, 

 and extend three or four times the distance that is generally imagined, 

 and they are just as sensitive to short commons, as the farmer himself. 

 Let them have elbow-room and plenty of food, and it must be a bad 

 season, if they do not flourish. 



3. Gathering. — There are three pickings of leaves, sometimes 

 four, during the season. The husbandman will perceive when the 

 leaves are ready for gathering. In the district of Chekieng, near 

 Ningpo, Lat. 31°, the first crop of leaves is gathered about the mid- 

 dle of April, varying, of course, according to location, and the early 

 or late appearance of spring. This gathering consists of the young 

 leaf -buds just as they begin to unfold, and makes the finest quality 

 of Tea. They call it China, Young Hyson or Gun Powder, and it 

 is held in the highest estimation by the natives. In two or three 

 weeks from the first picking, or early in May, the shrubs are again 

 covered with fresh leaves, and are ready for a second gathering. 

 This is the most important. The leaves are more full grown, more 

 abundant, and less labor is bestowed in the gathering. The leaves 



