118 



TEA. 



A report by M. Guillamin was presented about a quarter of a 

 century ago to tbe French Minister of Agriculture and Commerce on 

 the culture and preparation of tea in Brazil. It entered very 

 minutely into the incidents of temperature and cultivation, and dis- 

 closed the important fact that the tea plant grows luxuriantly with 

 the coffee and other valuable plants of the equatorial regions, and 

 even on low-lying lands on a level with the sea, and exposed to the 

 full rays of a burning sun. 



In Brazil, the culture of tea has been extended in the provinces 

 of San Paulo, Minas, Parana, and Eio Janeiro. Eight yeai's ago 

 Brazil produced about 300,000 lbs. of tea annually, and the quan- 

 tity has since augmented ; but it will never send much into com- 

 merce, as it has not labour to spare from coffee culture, and Yerba 

 mate tea is preferred for local consumption. The Brazilian tea 

 resembles, it is said, in flavour, the tea of Japan, and possesses a fine 

 aroma. 



North America. — The American Commissioners of Agriculture 

 reported some four years ago that tea culture was just becoming a 

 feature of importance in the Western and Southern States, and that in 

 a few years enough tea would be grown in those sections to meet the 

 home consiunption. The Department had sent out to various parts of 

 the country over 50,000 plants, nearly all of which have lived, and is 

 now distributing seeds from plants raised in South Carolina. 



The following instructions have been issued for guidance in North 

 America : — The adaptation of various sections to the gi'owth of 

 the plant has been abundantly demonstrated, and plants from seed 

 grown in the Southern States have, from time to time, been raised by 

 the Dej)artment of Agriculture for distribution. So far back as 1848 

 the late Dr. Junius Smith abundantly proved that the mountains of 

 South Carolina would produce and mature tea, although it was there 

 subjected to severe freezing, and heavy falls of snow. It was grown 

 in Florida and Georgia, and even farther north. Even in the grounds 

 of the Department at Washington the plant has passed through a 

 very severe winter without having been absolutely killed. 



In the present state of the labour market the Americans cannot be 

 expected to proceed on the plan of the British in the East Indies and 

 establish large plantations. It would not pay to do so ; but the 

 intelligence of the farmers of the country, and the improved agricul- 

 tural machinery in use, will render completely easy there what proved 

 an insuperable difficulty in India, viz. the growing of tea for family 

 use. The apathy of the Hindoo races, their dislike of anything new, 

 and the fact that tea is not their popular beverage, militated against 

 the production of tea for their own wants in anything like a general 

 system. Isolated points occur where they acquire a taste for tea, 

 and then they grow and manufacture it very well, but they cannot 

 accustom themselves to cultivate it with any care. 



Experiments in raising the tea plant have been tried with more or 

 less success in Tennessee and South Carolina, but it has been reserved 

 for California to attempt the culture on a large scale. A German 

 gentleman, Herr Schnell, recently brought a small colony of Japanese 

 to the State. Schnell had been a resident in Japan for ten years, was 



