TAXI'S 



TEA 



1773 



ill diameter : bark briii;hr ml ; 1 tranche.^ aseemlin.i,^: 

 Its. ur^ually falcate, thirkivh, distinctly and abruptly 

 niuoronate. dark irreeu alH.vr. pak- t'alv.'U^ irrnt'ii mt 

 pale tJ:reen l>eiieath. '--1 in. b-n:,': fr. likt- that of T . 

 baC'-'itii. dapau. Very .similar To T. Inirrata. tnit 

 braiudirs more upri^■br. sroutor an<l Ivs. s,uiir\vliat 

 broaiU'r. iti^re abruptly niurronate aM<l tbirki-r in t.-\- 

 ture. Var. nana, Hort. i T. hn rifo/i.r , Hort ., nnt Xuit, ), 

 is a dwart' ri,'niiiaL-t form ^viIh shorter leaves. 



Canadensis. ^Marsh. ( T. h-irr.'/f,,. var. m) »<>,■. Miidix. 

 T. har'-nti,, \-ar. <_''f >nnl.'»s> s . iivny. T. iH'wr.Bvin.K 

 Fig. 2471. I'ro-sirato shniii. w ivli wido-sproadiuij: slan- 

 der bratiebes. rarel\" iiiiTo tban 'A tr, bii,''li; h"s. shorl cr 

 and narrower. less crowded and of a liirltter. morf yel- 

 lowish jjreeu than those of T. }i>n:<-.ii,, . assuming in win- 

 ter usually a reddish tint: fr. ripfiis :ib<iut 2 nionrbs 

 earlier than that of T. Imrcifii: [is. uiona?ciMus (at least 

 usually). Xewfoundland tr. :\Ianiti>ba. -.luiib to Va. and 

 Iowa. B.B. lii'.l. V. 14:2.'i2. — In i-ultivLitiou if becomes 

 usually a more upright and le>s straggling sbrtib. 



T. hrerifolia. Xutt. Tree, 4i>-ria or occasionally 80 ft. hiL;h, 

 ^th slender l^orizontal or somewhat pendulous branclies 

 formins a broad, open, pyramidal bead: Ivs. sharply point'-il, 

 dark veHowish green. ^..--^ in. long. Brit. Col. to Calif. S.s. 

 10:ol4. Prol-aldy as hardy as T. baccata.— T. FJoridana. 

 Chapm. Bushy tree. 25 ft. high or sometimes '^hrubliy: Ivs. 

 slemJer. ■'4-I iu. long, dark green. Fla. iS.S. li;:.31.'- 



Alfred Kehder. 



I'nited -States, are facts .suflicimtly well known as to 

 rc(|uirp nu tdab.ir-atKin in the pres,^nt article. Tlio 

 pi-o>cut c<in<litn>n '4 China and rbe fear that aii(-\-;is- 

 lating war may at any moment invade tlie te.a- pro- 

 ducing' provinces, seriously threaten the Tea supply 

 from that country. A-ain. friciiMn aimuit,' the world- 

 i'owers nmy at sunie future time ent;inule the United 

 States in war with a stron- naval powei', jn which ease 



it is easy to foresee that c, .mmecce w il h the anti]iodes 

 luiglit he arrested and our su[ipl\ of orii'tit;il Tr>a cut off. 

 ( Ir ibe oiitln-eak of -uine ^uch \-'eu-eTable di-ease as that 

 whi(di not many >ears a-o ,lestro\ i-d the eMile^. industry 

 iu Ceylon mi^-lit readily sweep over the ti-a-gardens of 

 KasternAsia: and i f wlndiv dependent upon them, the 

 world might be deprived of its cup of Tea. It becomes, 

 therefore, a .juesth-n of national importance to provid(! 

 a^rainst these conriui;-encies. 



To these advaiifa-a- sboubl be added the diversifica- 

 tion of our industries. >u]iplyinu' easy and healthful 

 occupation to tlmusanils of needy people, especially 

 women and children, win- are well adapted for the gen- 

 erally liu-ht labor involved in the i:rowth and manufac- 

 ture of Tea: and converting countless acres of now 

 idle land into blooming and remunerative tea-gardens. 

 Where in Assam was once a dismal jungle, the home of 

 the tiger and cobra, and full of deadlier fevers, almost 

 unii^habited by man and ]u-actically worthless, is now— 

 thanks to the teadndustry — a fertile, i-omparatively 



TEA. The Tea plant is described in this work under 

 Canulli'i 27?t'7. together with its varieties J!->]na and 

 viriflis, of which the former was stipp">osed to yield 

 black Tea and the latter green Tea. Both kimls can be 

 produced from either variety, the difference lying in 

 the process of manufacture. Tea is an a, i.'-ri cultural 

 rather than a horticultural crop. It is fully treated in 

 general cyclopedias and elsewhere. For these reasons 

 no general article on Tea is here included. The fol- 

 lowing article gives an idea of the present cmdirion 

 of the tea-growing industry in America. The Tea 

 plant is shown in Fig. 2472. j^ jj p,_ 



Amekicax Te.\. — Previous to the iuauLrnration of the 

 Pinehurst experimentation in South (.'aroliiui, it had 

 been abundantly demonstrated that |>arts of the south- 

 ern states were well adapted for the ^-rowth of those 

 varieties of the Tea phmt which do not require a tr<ipi- 

 cal climate; and before the Civil War many families 

 supplied thein selves with Tea grown and nunfe at 

 home, the result of the distribution of oriental Tea 

 seed throughout the southern states by the luitiomd 

 trovernraent. But it retrained to be solved whether 

 Tea might be produced on a large scale at a protit. The 

 Pinehurst experiments have shown that American tea- 

 gardens are capable of yielding as much as tlie aver- 

 age Asiatic, and that the quality of the leaf is not less 

 satisfactory. 



The advantages in favor of raisiuL' Tea in this country 

 are the avoidance of long traus]iortati'in. whicli irenerally 

 induces deterioration in quality: security from the in- 

 terference of war with the imp'U-tation of foreign Teas: 

 and the protei^tion of the industry by a duty which shall 

 offset the difference in the price of labor. That some 

 i^orts of Tea do not keep well, that the high "Hring" of 

 Tea to prevent mildew, necessarily deprives it id' much 

 (■jf its flavor, and that for these reasons the best of the 

 oriental Teas are rarely exported, least of all to The 



healthy, civilized region, atfordiug lucrative emjiloy- 

 nient to thousauds of Eurcipeans and natives. As nuich 

 can be brought abmit in many nei,dected piarts of the 

 southern states ; in it pr'jbably. as was the case in Assam , 

 (july throuirh the long cateirory of persistent laber, se- 

 vere trials, frequent mistakes. tenip<jrary depressu.ms 

 ami linal success. 



The disa<l vantages which operate against the estab- 

 lishment of an American Tea industry are. chiefly, an 

 iusutficient rainfall, the higher price of labor, aiul the 

 (.■onversion of tea-drii^kers to the taste of a new sort of 

 Tea. (_>f secou'lary importance is the disinclination of 

 capital to embark in the itndertaking which, although 

 apparently new. has. undeservedly as we think, the 

 stii'^nia of previous faihtres. Ftirtlier experiments to 

 relieve the burden of the abi.>ve <ibiectious will, it is 

 helie-\-ed. pave the way for a heart}" i-ndorsement rd' the 

 )iracticaliility of the industry, and then there will be no 

 withhohling of the reqriisite means. 



The Pinehurst experiments have shown, other thiutrs 

 beint,'- eijual. tlie depeudence of The ].roducrive|ies^ 

 (if the tea-idant upon an alu.mdant sn]']dy ut mois- 

 ture, whether of precipitatii">n or perc^dati'in. or by arti- 

 ticial irriiration. The yearly rain fall in the '.u'ienta 1 

 Tea ccitintries varies from ilO to l.'t) inches, ami even 

 more. Almost all of it occurs in the leaf-pri'dnciug 

 months; wliereas here the aqueous precipitation, dur- 

 ini,' the same season ani<mnts to about thirty inches. It 

 becomes lu-ces.sary. therefiuv, that the American tea- 

 ]>Uinter should conserve and snpjilenu--nt this sup]dy to 

 the utmost, by a system of tillage which shall abs,,iii 

 and yield to the plant as nun?h as possible: by the dis- 

 tribution of the trenches and the terraciuL: of the land 

 with a view t'> pre'v'enting the denudation of the surface 

 and the loss of water during the heavier rains. These 

 objects are larijely attained by placing the tea-gardens 

 'ui well-drained, flat lowland's or former pond-beds. 

 \'ery recent I}' special attention has been paid to tlie 



