444 Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



like extensive plantations of currant bushes with the bushes about five feet 

 apart in regular rows. Nearer by, of course, the shrubs more nearly resembled 

 some of the glossy leaved dwarf almonds. When we visited the plantation 

 the field hands were hoeing out the small weeds between the rows of tea plants, 

 and while the labor was cheap we found that the results were poor. Superin- 

 tendent Simonson would gladly have employed higher-priced European 

 laborers, feeling sure that in the end he would have had a better return for 

 the outlay. Far better results could have been obtained by the use of horse- 

 cultivators driven by intelligent European, or better still, American farm 

 laborers. 



Figure 190. The great tea house or factory on the Emperor's estate. 



At the time of our visit, — the latter part of August, — leaf-picking was 

 not going on, so that we did not see this part of the work of tea-making. We 

 were shown, however, how the picking is done, and this appears to be the 

 one difficult and expensive operation in the whole process. Attempts have 

 been made to do this by machines, but with little success. The great tea-house 

 on this estate is a large, plain structure, looking like a very clean and well 

 kept barn, with an unusually large number of windows. It has two stories; 

 in the lower the heavy machinery and the furnaces are placed, while in the 

 upper are the lighter machinery and the tables for the hand-pickers. In this 



