BEVERAGES 73 



est importance as sources of tea were given. Tea is also a 

 commercial product in Natal, the Caucasus, Jamaica, Fiji, 

 Java, the Andamans, Tonquin, Burma, etc. The importation 

 of tea into the United States has fallen from 102,653,000 

 pounds in 191 1 to 97,800,000 pounds in 1914. In the amount 

 of their tea imports the first three countries are Great Britain, 

 Russia, and the United States, in the order named. 



The United States has taken little part in the business of 

 producing tea. It has been grown experimentally at Pine- 

 hurst, South Carolina, and also in Hawaii. It is impossible, 

 however, for us to compete with the cheap labor of China 

 and India. While the planting and cultivation of tea requires 

 no more hand labor than is customarily applied to fruit crops, 

 the picking of the leaves is a tedious process of hand labor 

 which would make the cost of production disproportionately 

 high, except where labor is very cheap. From statistics 

 prepared in recent years by tea companies in Ceylon, it ap- 

 pears that the cost of production, plus the freight to London, 

 is 8 to 14 cents per pound of tea. The wholesale prices of 

 tea in New York in the past 10 years have ranged from 12 

 to 39 cents per pound. This indicates only a narrow margin 

 between the cost of production and wholesale price and shows 

 quite clearly that any considerable increase in the cost of 

 hand labor would necessarily involve an increase in the whole- 

 sale price of tea in order to keep the industry in a prosperous 

 condition. 



CACAO 



The cacao tree, being a native of the American Continent, 

 was not known to the European world until sometime after 

 the discovery of America. As compared with tea and coffee, 

 its history as a commercial beverage is therefore relatively 

 short. The importance of cocoa and chocolate, the two chief 

 trade products derived from cacao is, however, increasing from 

 year to year. 



