128 



TEA. 



another feeds the fir?, the leaves on the top being occasionally turned ; vrhen 

 they are a little withered, the fire is taken away, and the leaves brought do^vn 

 and manufactui'ed into tea, in the same manner as if it had been dried in the 

 sun. But this is not a good plan, and never had recourse to if it can possibly 

 be avoided," 



In 1810, a number of tea plants were introduced into Brazil, 

 witli a colony of Chinese to superintend their culture. The 

 plantation was formed near E-io Janeiro and occupied several 

 acres. It did not, however, answer the expectations formed of it, 

 the shrubs became stunted, cankered and moss grown, and the 

 Chinese finally abandoned them. The culture was again tried in 

 1817. The plantations lie between the equator and 10 deg. south 

 latitude, nearly parallel with Java, and of course are exposed to 

 the same intemperate climate, and sufterin a similar manner. In 

 addition to these physical disabilities, the enterprise has had to 

 contend with the natural indolence of the natives, the universal 

 repugnance to labor, the crushing effect of committing so im- 

 portant a work to the superintendence of slaves and overseers, 

 the amazing fertility of the soil, the extent of unappropriated land, 

 the ease with which subsistence can be obtained and the low degree 

 of personal enterprise. These are froAvning features, and would 

 rather seem to indicate a failure, before the attempt at ciiltivation 

 was made. But, nevertheless, the plant does flourish to some ex- 

 tent, even in Brazil, under all the disparaging circumstances wliich 

 surround it. Erom the Brazilian Consul Greneral, I learn that 

 although the plant for some years after its introduction received 

 but little attention and was almost abandoned, yet witliin the 

 last few years the cultivation has revived and is now prosecuted 

 with energy and with a corresponding success. Some of the 

 large and wealthy land proprietors of Brazil have directed their 

 attention to tea culture, and one gentleman has given up his 

 coffee plantation and directed his attention exclusively to the 

 cultivation of the tea plant. The market of Eio Janeiro is said 

 to be largely and almost entirely supplied with tea of domestic 

 growth, and the public mind is awakened to the prominent fact, 

 that no plant cultivated in Brazil is more profitable and none is 

 deserving more decided attention. 



Experimental cidtivatioii of the tea plant in Brazil. — I now 

 proceed to notice the report of M. Guillemin, presented in 1839 to 

 the French Minister of agriculture and commerce, on the culture 

 and preparation of the tea plant in Brazil — in a climate of the south- 

 ern hemisphere just equivalent to that of Cuba in the northern. The 

 report enters very minutely into the incidents of temperature and 

 cultivation, and cannot fiiil to strike the attention when disclosiug 

 the important fact, that ihe 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. 



"^sthe tea shrub," says M. Guillemin, is gro^\-n in several plantations 

 about two days' journey distant fi'om Eio, in difterent directions, 1 hired a 



