276 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



Farmers 9 Bulletin No. 301, of the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington tells all about this. 

 Write for George F. Mitchell's report on "Home- 

 grown Tea, " stating the number of the bulletin as 

 above, and it will be sent you free. 



Very amusing are the accounts of the early 

 attempts to introduce to a skeptical public the 

 plants we now use so commonly that we assume 

 they have always been used. China taught the 

 other Eastern countries to drink tea. Tradition 

 says that in the days of "good Queen Bess" a 

 package of tea was sent to an old couple in England 

 by their son who was a sailor, and saw much of the 

 world. They brewed the tea as he told them to, 

 but threw away the brown liquid, and ate the 

 leaves spread on their bread! About the middle 

 of the seventeenth century a tea house was opened 

 in London, but the new beverage was expensive 

 and did not come into general use until many 

 years later, when British India began to send home 

 tea grown in her own tea gardens. The beginning 

 of this great enterprise dates at the year 1840. 

 The contest between India and China, the two 

 great rivals for the tea trade of civilized countries, 

 has been going on ever since, and the British 

 growers have beaten their competitors. But 

 China has a big home market, and Asiatic countries 



