102 Memorandum of an Excursion to the Tea Hills. [Feb. 



is gathered up a little round their root ; that leaves are taken from the 

 plants when they are three years old, and that there are from most plants 

 four pluckings in the year. No manure is used, nor is goodness of 

 soil considered of consequence, neither are the plants irrigated. Each 

 shrub may yield about a Tael of dry tea annually (about the 12th of a 

 pound). A Mow of gi-oundjriay contain three or four hundred plants. 

 The land tax is 300 cash (720 doll.) per Mow. The cultivation and ga- 

 thering of the leaves being performed by families without the assistance 

 of hired labourers, no rate of wages can be specified ; but as the cur- 

 ing of the leaf is an art that requires some skill, persons are employed 

 for that particular purpose, who are paid at the rate of 1 dl. per pecul 

 of fresh leaf, equal to five dollars per pecul of dry tea. The fire-place 

 used is only temporary, and all the utensils as well as fuel are furnish- 

 ed by the owner of the tea. They stated that the leaves are heated 

 and rolled seven or eight times. The green leaf yields one-fifth of its 

 weight of dry tea. The best tea fetches on the spot 23 dls. per pecul, 

 (133^ lbs.) and the principal part of the produce is consumed within 

 the province, or exported in baskets to Formusa. That the prevailing 

 winds are north-westerly. The easterly winds are the only winds 

 injurious to the plants. Hoar frost is common during the winter months, 

 and snow falls occasionally, but does not lie long nor to a greater depth 

 than three or four inches. The plant is never injured by excessive cold, 

 and thrives from 10 to 20 years. It is sometimes destroyed by a worm 

 that eats up the pith and converts both stem and branches into tubes, 

 and by a gray lichen which principally attacks very old plants. The 

 period of growth is limited to six or seven years ; when the plant has at- 

 tained its greatest size. The spots where the tea is planted are scattered 

 over great part of the country, but there are no hills appropriated en- 

 tirely to its culture. No ground in fact is formed into a tea plantation 

 that is fit for any other species of cultivation, except perhaps that of 

 the dwarf pine already alluded to, or the Camellia Obeifora. Mr. 

 Gutzlaff understood them to say that the plant blossoms twice a 

 year, in the eighth moon or September, and again in winter, but that 

 the latter flowering is abortive. In this I apprehend there was 

 some misapprehension, as seed of full size, though not ripe, were 

 proffered to me in considerable quantities early in September, and none 

 were found on the plants which we saw. I suspect that the people 

 meant to say that the seeds take eight months to ripen, which accords 

 with other accounts. We wished much to have spent the following 

 day (the 13th) in prosecuting our inquiries and observations at Tawand 

 and its neighbourhood, but this was rendered impractible by the state 

 of our finances. We had plenty of gold, but no one could be found who 



