October i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
273 
THE CHINESE TEA: 
Its Cultivation and Manufacture.* 
The consumption of tea is so universal amongst a 
large portion of the inhabitants of the globe, and its 
culture in of such importance to the vast Chinese em- 
pire, that a full exposition of the culture, preparation, 
and uses of this plant will be hero in its right place. 
The plant which produces the common kinds of tea in 
commerce, is the Thea cliinensis, of which there are a 
number of more or less constant varieties, so that 
nil botanists have made not only two, but three, 
dial t specios, viz., Thea viridis, Th. bohea, nnd Th, 
strieta. I shall afterwards return to the reasons which 
determined me to receive one species as furnishing the 
Chinese tea. 
China is the native country of tho tea plant: it is 
found there as high as the 40th degree of north 
latitude, as well as in the mountainous districts in the 
southern parts of the country, particularly on the 
mountains which separate China from the Biniiau 
empire. That the culture of the Chinese tea is also 
oarried on in Ava, the Hirman cm [tire, and on the 
eastern bordors of Thibet, Hitter has proved from 
accurate sources. Rut tho tea plant has recent ly been 
found wild in Assam, and, indeed, in the territory 
which belongs to the English, where the mountains 
are not above b,U00 or 8,11110 feet high ; and therefore 
great hopes aro entertained that the culture of tea 
on a large scale will soon be so successful there that 
Hie trado in this article will soon be snatched from 
( Inna. A large quantity of ordinary tea is produced 
in Cochin China ami in Tourpiin, yet here I bis branch 
of agriculture is much neglected. Whether the plant 
1^ w ild here, or whether it has been introduced, wo do 
not yet know ; the latter might almost be supposed, 
lor the tea-plant thrives best in the sub-tropical zone, 
consequently it will be indigenous mil, as well as OH 
Mi" heights ol mount tin-. eorros| ling to this zone. 
Tho uso of tho warm infusion of the leaves of this 
plant, which is known by the name of tea, stretches 
hack into the earliest times of Chinese history, aud it 
is at printout so universal throughout the empire, that 
the consumption of lea leaves can scarcely become 
greater, that is if "the pnpulut ion does not increase. 
Much has aire idy been written on the origin and 
on the native country of the tea, and old Chinese wri- 
tings are continually brought forward as authorities. 
Siobohl has very lately tried to disseminate the opinion 
that the tea has been introduced into China from 
Kaorai, which, however, Khiproth has shown to be 
erroneous. Me has shown that the oldest notices of 
tin- use ot tea stretch back to the years from '205 to 
•lit). In the Chinese writings which bears the title 
Bohi-lohae, wo Bud that in Mm mid lie of the fourth 
eeutury a minister of thu public buildiug, Wanir-mung 
bv nam", used tin- te.i-plaut, wbirh in Chinese is called 
Ming, hi tho your c'i'li t he plant was recommended by 
11 priest to an emperor of China, who suffered much 
ftrom headache, and as tho illness was soon cured by 
using tea, the use of it was speedily adopted every- 
where. Tsohha is a synonym for the plant rniug, aud 
by that name the dried plant was first brought into 
in. tic. by tho rortugue.su and Spainards; the word 
■ is i\U.> common iu all the northern provinces 
ol ( tuna. Khiproth considers the word Thea to be tho 
Mala) Teh, which is derived from the C :inese word 
" From "Outlines ol tho Geography of Plants: with 
l'.u ticular Enquiries Concerning the Native Country, 
Mo- Culture, and the I si s of the Principal Cultivated 
Plant* on which tho Prosperity ol Nations is liasi d." 
Hy V. J.F. Mryn, Ph. D., M. D„ late Extraordinary 
Profcsoor o( Botany in the I 'uivemity of Berlin, m\ 
TraiislaU'd by Margaret 'allusion. Loudon : Piloted 
forth.- lUyBooiety, L840, The original Gorman was 
written m 1-1'.. — A. M 1 Jit. 
•93 
Theo. The culture of Tea in China must have been 
very considerable as early as the 8th century, for in 
703, at a taxing of the empire, a duty of 10 per cent, 
was laid 011 tea, and since that time the government 
has always derived a large revenue from this useful 
plant. At the present time the tax on tea is collected 
in the following manner; none of the country people 
aro allowed to sell tea without permission ; but these 
permits are obtained at the Custorn-house of tho pro- 
vince, and for the precise quantity which is to be sold 
a doublo receipt is issued, one of which the seller 
keeps, while the buyer receives the other, in order 
at any time to prove the legality of tho sale. Tea has 
been known in Japan since 810, and it has been culti- 
vated in tho Corca since 828. Its culture also has been 
attempted iu Bengal, and great success is expected 
from it, nay, this question has been very recently 
discussed by Boyle, yet, as it seems, with great parti- 
ality to India. I shall subsequently attempt to show 
that even though the tea-plant can be grown in all 
the cooler parts of the tropical zone, over the whole sub- 
tropical, and even for within the temperate zone, to 
about tho 40th parallel, yet there are other circum- 
stances neces>ary in order to a profitable culture of the 
plant. The chief one is a low price of labour, which 
is, indeed, vory low in Bengal, as well as iu China ; 
but that it is in India only one-fourth or one-half as 
high as iu China, which Beeves has asserted in 
Boyle's work, may well bo doubted ; if it were so, 
then Bengal would sonu furnish cheaper tea than 
China The day's wage may indeed be eightpeuce 
at Canton, where Mr. Beeves lived, but in the interior 
of China it is only a fourth of this sum. Besides, 
in these countries, tea has been planted in Ceylon 
and Java, whence some thousands of chests are 
annually exported. The tea of Java has lately reached 
the market of Amsterdam, and excited much attention 
thore, for above 1,400,000 lb. have already been obtained, 
so that the Dutch will probably within twenty years 
draw I he whole quantity of tea they require from Java. 
According to Marsdeu few tea bushes were cultivated 
in Sumatra in the lost eeutury. The tea has also been 
planted at the Cape of Good Hope, in .St. Helena, and 
at Rio Janeiro, where there are still large plantations 
of it in the Botanic. Garden, but these are in a miser- 
able condition. Plantations of tea are formed by sow- 
ing the seeds, which are set more or less regularly. 
In the first yenr the middle shoot is stopped, that it 
may not grow tall and slender, but may become 
bushy, and be covered with a greater quantity of leaves. 
The crop of leaves begins in tho fourth or fifth year. 
1 have visited such tea plantations, and found them 
in hilly situations which is said to be the case through- 
out the country. The plants in these plantations were 
in general only two and a half or three feet high, and 
they stood about three feet apart: a few branches only 
shot beyond the rest aud reached a hoight of five feet. 
1 have found women sitting beside these bushes aud 
plucking oil" tho leavos by hand iu the ordinary way. 
From the different statements respecting tho time 
of gathering them, it seoms to vary much in different 
parts of Chinese and Japanese empires; however, 
the principal crops end iu May ami June, for in Sep- 
tember and October fresh supplies of tea from the 
interior of tho country reach Canton. 
The mode of manuring those plantations differs 
much in different parts ; in China, however, the most 
usual manure is a compost of humau excremout aud 
calcareous clay. We everywhere see iu tho Chinese 
fields close to the cultivated laud, large walled-in pita 
or enclosures sunk in the ground and filled with this 
compost. In Japan according to Siebold's statement 
other very strong manures »re used for tea, viz., the 
expressed juice of the .lap mese mustard dried anchovies, 
also thu oil-Cake of Brassica oriontalis and other 
plants. 
The h aves of tho tea-plant, when freshly plucked, 
have nothing of the odour and flavour of the dried 
leav. s; the) have ■>• ithtT a sharp, nor an aremvic, 
nor a bitter taste The properties which they afterwards 
show a> prepared tea, and for which they an; so highly 
prized, viz., the plensaut taste aud delightful odour, 
arc the ell' els ot tho roasting by which tho leave* arc 
