96 



TEA. 



vember, and December. From present appearances, I think the blossoms of 

 some of the late plants will continue to unfold until spring. It is not an un- 

 usual thing for the blossoms and the fruit to appear at the same time upon the 

 same plant. In this particular it differs from any plant I have seen. As my 

 chief object, at present, is to cultivate and increase the tea -nut, it will be a year 

 or two perhaps before I attempt to convert the leaf into tea. The root supports 

 the leaf and fruit, and the leaf the root, so that neither can be spared without 

 detriment. 



This climate appears congenial to the growth of the plant, and the soil is so 

 diversified in this mountainous district, that there is no difficulty in selecting that 

 best adapted to seed-growing plants, or that designed for the leaf only. Upon 

 the plantation purchased this summer, I have light-yellow, dark-brown, and red 

 clay subsoil, of a friable character, with a surface soil sufficiently sandy to an- 

 swer the demands of the plant. I do not see any reason to doubt, from a year's 

 experience, that the tea-plant in its varieties will flourish in what I heretofore 

 denominated the tea-growing district of the United States, as well as in any part 

 of China. 



The slowness of its growth requires patience. But when once established, 

 the tea-nuts will supply the means of extending cultivation, and the duration of 

 the plant for twenty years diminishes the expense of labor. To illustrate the 

 hardihood of the plant, I may observe, that notwithstanding the zero severity of 

 February frost destroyed the leaves and branches of most of the plants, and 

 those now blooming in great beauty and strength are from roots the growth of 

 this summer, I have one green tea-plant the stem and branches of which with- 

 stood the frost of February without the slightest protection, and is now a splen- 

 did plant, covered with branches and evergreen leaves, affording undeniable 

 evidence not only of its capability of resisting frost, but of its adaptation to just 

 such a degree of temperature. 



I have often remarked that the tea-plant requires for its perfection the influ- 

 ence of two separate and distinct climates, the heat of summer and the cold of 

 winter. The thermometer in this vicinity during the heat of summer generally 

 ranges from 74 at 6 o'clock a.m. to 82 at 3 o'clock p. m., only one day during 

 the summer so high as 86, 



This is a most agreeable temperature, nights always cool, which the tea-plant 

 enjoys, and the days hot and fanned with the mountain breeze. 



The drought I found the most difficult point to contend with, owing to the want 

 of adequate means for irrigation. I lost 20 or 30 plants through this, and learned 

 that no tea plantation should be established without irrigation. After two or 

 three years there wiU be little necessity for it, because the depth of the roots 

 will generally then protect the plant. 



My plantation at Golden Grove is well supplied with water, or I should not 

 have purchased it at any price. 



It is the first and most important point to secure a southern or western as- 

 pect, a gentle declivity the second, salubrious air and suitable soil the third. 



Our country is filled with natural tea plantations, which are only waiting the 

 hand of the husbandman to be covered with this luxuriant and productive plant. 



I know the public is naturally impatient of delay. Like corn, it is expected 

 that the tea -nuts will be planted in the spring, and the crop gathered in the au- 

 tumn. But they forget that the tea-plant does not interfere with any other crop, 

 and when once planted it does not soon require a renewal. 



I have sometimes felt this impatience myself, and longed for a cup of tea of 

 my own growing, but I have never had one. As a husbandman, I must wait 

 some time longer, and let patience have her perfect work." 



Again, under date May 1, 1850, he states that he has succeeded 

 admirably in the culture. The plants bear the winter well, and 

 their physiology and general characteristics remain unchanged by 

 the change of climate and soil. The leaf puts out at the same 

 period of the year that it does in China. 



On the 27th of May, 1850, Dr. Smith received a further batch 



