634 



TEA 



TEA 



prolonged droughts seriously curtail the production. 

 Downpours are certainly to be dreaded as of little 

 utility and frequently very destructive. 



The mean temperature for the cropping season 

 is about 71i° Fahr. When it falls below 70° Fahr. 

 the yield is scant, especially if accompanied by a 

 dearth of water, and the quality is higher. Unques- 

 tionably, an equable amount of heat and rain is 

 safest, but the largest yield has been obtained 

 where both were at their highest. The occurrence 

 of zero temperatures is destructive to all of the 

 plant above ground unless it has entered into full 

 hibernation and its stem is well protected by foli- 

 age or snow. Bushes raised from tropical seed very 

 largely succumb if the thermometer falls into the 

 twenties. Late frosts in spring and cool nights in 

 summer have a prejudicial effect on the crop. 



Fig. SS7. Plucking leaf in a young Daijeeling tea garden at Pinehuist. 



The importation of tea seed from the Orient is 

 attended with very considerable risk. Unless the 

 seed be carefully gathered, packed and expedi- 

 tiously forwarded, and unless it be zealously pro- 

 tected from cold and excessive heat on arrival, and 

 during its further transportation through this 

 country, the chances of securing successful germi- 

 nation are exceedingly small. 



Seeding. — The seed should be planted in the late 

 winter or early spring in nurseries, in well-drained, 

 ordinarily fertile garden soil, at distances of 3 x 4 

 inches, at about two inches depth, and well cov- 

 ered with pine or other straw as protection from 

 the cold. Where droughts may be expected, it is 

 desirable to command a handy water-supply for 

 keeping the soil fairly moist. Later, when the 

 shoots begin to appear, a moderate shelter from 

 the sun should be raised above the beds and most 

 of the straw removed ; with the advent of autumn 

 the shelter should be gradually dispensed with. 

 The beds must be kept clean of weeds and grass. 



Transplanting. — The seedlings may be allowed 

 to grow until a foot or more in height, when they 

 may be transplanted to the future tea garden, 

 which here is best done in the late autumn. 



There are two ways of planting : (1) by checks, ' 



in single hills at distances conformable to the habit 

 of the bush and the fertility of the soil, at 4 x 4 

 feet to 6 X 6 feet, either rectangularly or alter- 

 nately ("quincunx"), the latter being preferable 

 as affording more plow-ways. Such planting re- 

 quires 1,200 to 2,700 seedlings to the acre. Or (2) 

 the plants are set out for hedges, say five feet by 

 fifteen inches apart. The latter method requires 

 much more hoeing, but is better adapted for slop- 

 ing land, where, by running the rows at right 

 angles to the declivity, the washing of the top 

 soil is largely obviated. 



Subsequent care. — The cultivation of tea in this 

 country demands the substitution of plows and cul- 

 tivators, drawn by horses or mules, for the hand- 

 work with spades, forks and hoes in vogue in the 

 Orient. It requires that the soil should be kept 

 free from weeds and grass and as permea- 

 ble to rainfall as possible, without injur- 

 ing the surface roots of the plants. Where 

 rainfall is excessive or the site too slop- 

 ing, suitable measures must be taken to 

 prevent the washing away of the top soil ; 

 where danger of drought prevails, steps 

 for the conservation of moisture are in 

 place. Experimental artificial irrigation 

 has not proved successful at Pinehurst, 

 although theoretically suggested. Here 

 it has been found much more urgent to 

 get rid of water in the subsoil than to 

 supply it superficially. 



Pruning. — Aside perhaps from differ- 

 ences of individual opinion in the pro- 

 cesses of manufacture, there is no subject 

 on which tea-growers present greater 

 divergence of views (and few can resist 

 the temptation to rush into print thereon) 

 than on pruning. , The necessity of prun- 

 ing lies in the evergreen character of the 

 tea plant and its arborescent tendency under favor- 

 able conditions of growth. Ordinarily, after the 

 bush has attained a medium size the production of 

 young leaf is small, but withal the growth upward 

 would soon extend beyond the reach of the pluckers. 

 Hence, both to facilitate the gathering of leaf and 

 to stimulate the production of young growth by 

 forcing nature to its utmost effort to restore the 

 natural equilibrium between the roots, stems and 

 leaves, the tea-planter deprives the bush of a greater 

 or less quantity of the leaves, which constitute not 

 only its lungs but also the physiological laboratory 

 wherein the material for future growth is perfected. 

 Usually it is not necessary during the first few years 

 more than to trim the plant into proper shape, and 

 afterward to cut back (in this climate, after the 

 severest cold of the winter) the growth of the past 

 season to within a few inches of the older wood. 

 But this limitation does not suffice for the purposes 

 already stated, and it becomes necessary every five 

 or ten years to subject the bushes to a more vigor- 

 ous pruning, perhaps to the very ground. Finally, 

 where the winter temperature is liable to drop 

 below 20° Fahr., it is advisable to substitute a 

 clump or sucker-growth for the single-stem bushes 

 of tropical climates, if necessary by the removal of 



