258 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. Chap. XV. 



acquainted with the principles of vegetable physiology 

 must be aware that the practice of constantly pluck- 

 ing the leaves from the tea-bushes must be very 

 injurious to their health. But it so happens that at 

 the period when this operation takes place there is a 

 great deal of moisture in the air, caused by frequent 

 showers, which fall copiously about the time when 

 the monsoon changes from north-east to south-west. 

 The buds burst out again with fresh vigour, and the 

 bushes are soon covered with new leaves. After a 

 careful consideration of this subject, it seems plain to 

 me that, however favourable the climate may be as 

 regards temperature, and however good the soil and 

 situation of the plantations may be, yet without these 

 early summer rains it would not be possible to culti- 

 vate the tea-plant with success. This only shows how 

 many things have to be considered before one can 

 assign the true reason for the success of any natural 

 production in one place, or for its failure in another. 



Cultivation and management of plantations. — In 

 the black-tea districts, as in the green, large quan- 

 tities of young plants are yearly raised from seeds. 

 These seeds are gathered in the month of October, 

 and kept mixed up with sand and earth during the 

 winter months. In this manner they are kept fresh 

 until spring, when they are sown thickly in some 

 corner of the farm, from which they are afterwards 

 transplanted.* When about a year old they are 

 from nine inches to a foot in height, and ready for 



* Sometimes the seeds are sown in the rows where they are destined 

 to glow, and, of course, are in that case not transplanted. 



