636 



TEA 



TEASEL 



smaller the dry leaf particles the better is the 

 brew. 



Enemies. 



Thtis far the only enemies developed by the 

 American tea experimentation have been the red- 

 spider, during exceptionally dry weather and on 

 weak plants, and the mealy-bug on bushes in the dim 

 light under the covering of the shelter-tea frames. 

 Pruning and burning are the most effective reme- 

 dies for these pests. Cattle, goats and the general 

 farm-thief do not molest tea gardens ; and the dep- 

 redations of the army-worm must be regarded as 

 an advantage, as the worm spares the tea while 

 destroying the grass. 



Quantity versus quality in the product. 



The production of large yields is generally at the 

 expense of quality, as frequent flushes appear to 

 interfere with the formation of those chemical 

 combinations which impart value to the leaf. 

 Nevertheless, the problem of quantity or quality 

 steadily presents itself to the average tea-planter of 

 the Orient, and the profit of production vacillates 

 between the two. Of late there would seem to 

 have been more money in poorer and cheaper teas. 

 The price of tea has fallen to about half the price 

 it held one generation ago. If the quality had been 

 maintained, which under the circumstances was 

 impossible, the only sufferers might have been the 

 producers ; but as matters now stand, the poorer 

 classes in losing their health from the consumption 

 of inferior teas are most to be pitied. First came the 

 terrible struggle of the Indian and Ceylon planters 

 with China for the supremacy of the world's 

 tea markets ; and once accustomed to a steady 

 decline in price, the dealers, both wholesale and 

 retail, have never ceased to demand yet greater 

 cheapness of the commodity, even though incom- 

 patible with the real enjoyment or healthfulness of 

 the beverage. Good tea is imported into this coun- 

 try and commands its proper price, but it plays a 

 subordinate part to the great bulk of cheap, often 

 harmfully astringent or worthless stuff made from 

 inferior leaf. 



At the very commencement of the Pinehurst ex- 

 perimentation, the impossibility as well as the 

 undesirability of attempting to compete with the 

 cheaper oriental teas was acknowledged because of 

 the great difference in the price of common, un- 

 skilled labor. It was foretold that success could 

 be attained only by the production of high-class 

 teas, the product of intelligent labor and suitable 

 machinery. It was felt that the distinctly charac- 

 teristic cup qualities of American teas, while 

 operating against their introduction, must prove 

 their main reliance because they precluded the 

 substitution of foreign articles for them when once 

 their use had become habitual. For this reason and 

 because the Pinehurst teas possess purity, strength 

 and, withal, freedom from astringency, they have 

 found favor in large sections of the country. The 

 large variety of foreign tea plants, carefully 

 Delected from the best sources and intelligently 

 cultivated, has enabled Pinehurst to place on the 



market a number of different teas, thus appealing 

 to the tastes of all and solving the question as to 

 the disposition of the output. 



Literature. 



. Samuel Boildon, The Tea Industry in India ; A. J. 

 Wallis and C. E. Tayler, Tea Machinery and Facto- 

 ries; Claud Bald, Indian Tea: Its Culture and Manu- 

 facture (1903); S. Ball, Cultivation and Manufac- 

 ture of Tea (1848); John Ferguson, Ceylon in 1893; 

 Robert Fortune, Three Years' Wanderings in the 

 Northern Provinces of China (1847) ; John H. 

 Blake, Tea Hints for Retailers (1903); Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Eward Money, The Cultivation and Manu- 

 facture of Tea (1883); David Crole, Tea,— A text- 

 book of tea-planting and manufacture (1897); W. 

 Kelway Barnber, Chemistry and Agriculture of 

 Tea, including growth and manufacture (1893); 

 The Tea Cyclopedia, compiled by the Editor of the 

 "Indian Tea Gazette" (1881); The Tea-Planter's 

 Vade Mecum, compiled by the Editor of the "Indian 

 Tea Gazette"; Dr. Charles U. Shepard, Bulletins 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture ; 

 George P. Mitchell, Home-grown Tea, Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 301. 



TEASEL. Dipsaeus FuUonum, Linn. Dipsaeem. 

 Figs. 858-860. 



By a W. Clark. 



The teasel is a biennial plant, the heads of which 

 are used in tearing or raising a nap on cloth. It 

 is a stout herbaceous 

 plant with opposite 

 leaves and with flowers 

 in heads or whorls. 

 During the second sea- 

 son the plant grows 

 into a bush about six 

 feet high, with numer- 

 ous branches (Fig. 

 858), at the extremity 

 of each of which a tea- 

 sel forms. The main 

 stalk produces the 

 largest and strongest 

 teasel, known as the 

 "king." This is called 

 a "male" teasel and is 

 the only one of the 

 kind on the plant, al- 

 though there are usu- 

 ally a large number of 

 "queens" or "medi- 

 ums," as they are gen- 

 erally known, at the 

 extremities of the lat- 

 eral branches. From 

 the subdivisions of 

 these laterals, smaller 

 branches produce the 

 "buttons," as the 

 smallest teasels are termed. The male teasel sheds 

 pollen over the others, without which fertile seed 

 will not be formed. If the "king" be removed, the 



Fig. 858. Fuller's teasel, ma- 

 ture plant. Larger heads 

 ready for cutting, smaller 

 ones still in bloom. 



