TEA-CULTURE IN THE CAROLINAS. 



8i 



blance to a clinched fist, which is the meaning of the 

 name. A plant of this variety, much reduced, is illus- 

 trated on the opposite page. 



D. SATivA, L. ; Jap. Maruba-dokoro, is a wild species 

 with pungent roots which require soaking in water, or 

 better still in lye, before they are edible. The Kashiit- 

 imo is a cultivated form that properly belongs to this 

 species. The bulb is rounded, with many fibrous roots ; 

 the vine is thick and angular, leaves large, alternate; and 

 the bulblets [i)wkago) in the axils are large and globular. 

 A portion of the vine, with a leaf and bulblet, is illus- 

 trated on page .S3. 



All the cultivated forms are usually propagated by 

 pieces of the root, which are planted in rich, deep and 

 moderately moist soil. On a trellis made of bamboo 



sticks the vines are trained, the farmers maintaining 

 that the roots grow both larger and smoother when the 

 vines are thus supported than when they trail on the 

 ground. They can also be propagated by the bulblets 

 or from seed, but neither method is to be recommended 

 when pieces of root can be obtained. 



The yams can be dug at the end of the first season's 

 growth, if desired, but as they continue to gain in size 

 for several years, they are seldom dug the first fall. They 

 usually remain three years in the ground, the bulblets 

 alone being gathered yearly. These also are eaten, but 

 they have a rank taste like potatoes exposed to the sun- 

 light. All the forms, both wild and cultivated, serve as 

 a source of starch. 



C. C. Georgeson. 



COLOCASIA ANTIyUORUM InGO-IMO. 



One-fourth natural size. (See page 78.) 



TEA-CULTURE IN THE CAROLINAS. 



THE FACTS IN THE CASE TOLD. 



EARS ago, when General 

 Le Due was United States 

 Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture, he inaugurated ex- 

 periments in tea-culture in 

 the hope of introducing a 

 new money-crop for the 

 South. General L e D u c 

 went out of office before he had time to demon- 

 strate what could be done with tea, and flippant 

 penny-a-liners ridiculed the effort so that his suc- 

 cessor dropped it. 



The tea-garden planted under the auspices of the 

 department at Summerville, S. C, was abandoned to 

 grow up into a wild thicket, and the general opinion 



seemed to be that the effort was a failure. Had the tea- 

 plant been of such a hardy nature as to thrive at the 

 North, there is no doubt that private enterprise would 

 long since have pushed the growing of it to success. 

 But the southern people, impoverished by the war, could 

 not afford to experiment with new things, and so tea- 

 culture dropped out of notice. But here and there all 

 over the South a few tea-plants have been scattered, and 

 individuals made a little tea in a rude and uninformed 

 way. Even before the war, and before General LeDuc's 

 experiments, tea had been planted in North Carolina. 

 In i860 Mr. Smith made quite a tea-garden near Fayette- 

 ville, N. C. A short time ago I visited this plantation. 

 The tea-plant has had literally no attention since the 

 war, and has had to struggle for existence with pines, 

 cherry-laurels, green briers and all manner of wild 



