508 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb.  x,  1893. 
its  effeot,  and  fair-prioed  Indian  teas  snpply  these 
conditions,  which  are  frequently  wanting  in  low- 
priced  China  teas.  This  subject  is  of  importance  to 
the  public  generally,  but  more  especially  to  retail 
grocers — particularly  at  a time  like  the  present,  when 
a substantial  rise  has  taken  place  in  India  teas — 
but  we  have  full  confidence  in  our  readers  being  able 
to  gauge  the  wants  and  tastes  of  their  customers, 
and,  by  carefully  studying  the  art  of  blending,  be  in 
a position  still  to  produce,  tea  at  a price  which  will 
not  only  leave  them  a reasonable  profit,  but  also 
please  the  palates  of  consumers.  The  great  thing, 
however,  is  to  avoid  the  tendency  to  deal  in  inferior 
tea  because  the  price  is  low.  The  public  will  pay  a 
fair  prioe  if  the  article  be  good  enough. 
Tea  in  Australia. — While  on  the  subject  of  tannin, 
there  is  a miserable  picture  drawn  in  a new  book  called 
“ Australian  Life,”  published  by  Messrs.  Chapman  and 
Hall,  of  the  way  they  drink  stewed  tea  at  all  times 
in  the  Australian  bush  and  the  results  arising  there- 
from. It  is  quite  time  that  something  was  done  for 
Australia  in  the  way  of  introducing  Indian  and  Ceylon 
teas  in  place  of  the  miserable  compressed  rubbish  they 
drink  npcountry.  The  writer  of  the  book,  Mr.  Francis 
Adams,  says : — ' The  heathenism  of  the  bush  is  intens  . 
Everyone  is  at  heart  a pessimist.  The  horrible  con- 
dition of  the  coatings  of  stomaohs  perpetually  drenched 
with  tannin  (speoiously  termed  ‘ tea’)  doubtless  counts 
for  something  in  the  action  and  reaction  of  body  and 
climate.  After  a good  spell  of  drought,  endured  on 
a diet  of  mutton,  bread,  jsm,  and  stewed  Bohea,  one’s 
indifference  to  life  becomes  remarkable.  There  is 
nothing  wild  or  hysterical  about  it.  It  is  merely  a deep, 
quiet,  stoical  heedlessness  of  danger  and  death.  In 
certain  natures  it  becomes  combative,  and  the  drawl- 
ing 1 blow  ’ (Anglicb,  boasting)  of  the  competitive 
bnshman  borders  on  an  anger  which  is  so  high-strung 
as  to  threaten  insanity.  Gordon,  with  the  acute  im- 
pressionability of  a poet,  absorbed,  all  the  natural 
influences  of  the  climate  and  the  life,  and  has  become 
the  absolute  spokesman  of  its  morality.”  This  is 
not  drinkiDg  tea,  it  is  making  and  consuming  soup. 
In  the  first  place  the  tea  is  bad  and  in  the  seoond 
it  is  stewed.  The  man  who  can  drink  stewed  tea 
and  not  become  a pessimist  must  possess  the  consti- 
tution of  an  elephant — H.  and  C.  Mail,  Dec.  2. 

TEA  ESTIMATES  AND  RESULTS  FOR  1892. 
(By  a tea  planter.) 
J.  L.  Sliand  has  good  reason  to  be  proud  of 
his  estimates  for  this  year.  I agree  with  him 
in  thinking  pruning  was  too  long  delayed  in 
many  instancies,  14  months  in  the  lowcountry 
and  18  on  the  hills,  seem  to  be  the  best  system 
of  pruning. 
I cannot  say  that  if  each  and  every  planter  had 
got  his  estimates  this  year  the  total  would  have 
reaohed  85,000,000,  or  that  only  two  or  three 
months’  bad  weather  and  fine  plucking  prevented 
estimates  being  got.  The  weather  has  been  blamed 
throughout  the  year,  sometimes,  I think,  without 
reason : certainly  it  was  wet,  cold  and  ungenial 
from  July  to  October;  but  I do  not  think  the 
plucking,  as  a rule,  had  muoh  to  do  with  it. 
The  curious  thing  is,  that  estates  oan  be  selected 
in  almost  every  district  that  have  done  well, 
much  better  than  last  year. 
But  apart  from  these  few  luoky  places,  the  fall, 
ing  off  between  results  and  expectations  on  the 
same  acreage  is  so  great  that  one  wonders  how 
the  total  has  exceeded  that  of  last  year.  Even  in 
the  Kelani  Valley,  where  the  excessive  wet  and 
wind  did  not  prevail,  several  of  the  largest  estates 
are  giving  absolutely  less,  and  considerably  less 
than  last  year.  This,  too,  with  a larger  area  in 
bearing. 
Our  P.  A.  Chairman  may  find  the  cause  in  the 
actinism  of  the  sun’s  rays.  In  the  declining 
years  of  ooffee,  between  ’81  and ’85,  this  prinoiple 
often  did  duty  as  an  explanation  why  crops 
were  short. 
Increased  age  and  area  have  saved  us  from  a 
total  export  considerably  less  than  that  of  ’91. 
AMERICAN  TEA. 
MR.  HENRY  COTTAM  AGAIN  TO  THE  FORE. 
Now  and  then  we  hear  the  term  “ American 
grown”  tea.  It  is  not  usually  taken  seriously  how- 
ever. The  brief,  fugitive  newspaper  paragraphs  in 
which  it  is  met  are  treated  by  northerners  in  much  the 
same  way  as  sensational  news  from  remote  lawless 
regions,  whose  bad  name  gives  probability  to  the 
fabrication,  and  whose  remoteness  makes  it  hard  to 
disprove.  Thus  often  very  readable  news  is  coined. 
But  American  grown  tea  is  not  the  figment  of  a press 
agency’s  fancy.  It  is  a reality,  neglected  instead  of 
exaggerated  by  the  authors  of  despatches.  The 
production  of  it  is  likely  to  become  an  important 
Southern  industry,  an  industry  that  has  already 
emerged  from  its  experimental  stage.  Its  growth  is 
worth  looking  into. 
Summerville,  South  Carolina,  has  the  distinction 
of  being  the  place  where  the  initial  attempt  to  grow 
tea  in  America  was  made.  There  at  Pinehurst,  an 
e-tateof  600  acres,  tweny-two  miles  from  Charleston, 
the  State  capital,  Dr.  Charles  U.  Shepard  renewed 
the  experiment  that  the  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Agriculture  had  begun  on  the  same  ground  shortly 
after  the  war.  The  efforts  of  the  Commissioner  were 
premature,  as  the  South  was  in  a state  of  industrial 
and  financial  prostration  unfavourable  for  any  eco- 
nomic departures  of  this  kind,  and  tea  culture  was 
abandoned  until  Dr.  Chas.  U.  Shepard  undertook  it 
at  Pinehurst.  He  succeeded  in  bringing  tea  to 
maturity  at  four  years  of  age.  Export  knowledge  was 
necessary,  however,  to  bring  his  experiments  to  their 
most  successful  issue,  and  this  was  supplied  by  Mr. 
Henry  Cottam,  who  at  the  critical  time  in  Dr. 
Shepards  labors  at  tea  cultivation  was  taking 
advantage  of  colder  climates  to  recruit  his  strength 
after  attacks  of  fever.  Mr.  Cottam  had  spent  twenty- 
five  years  in  the  island  of  Ceylon  as  a tea  and  coffee 
planter,  and  consequently  was  just  the  man  to  render 
the  assistance  Dr.  Shepard  needed.  Mr.  Cottam  has 
written  thousands  of  columns  for  the  press  on  tea 
subjects,  and  is  the  author  of  boobs  on  tea.  He  has 
few  equals  in  this  department  of  knowledge.  He  gave 
to  Dr.  Shepard  the  modus  operandi  of  growing  and 
preparing  tea  for  commerce.  He  corrected  a mistake 
in  the  mode  of  drying,  sun-drying  having  caused  the 
tea  to  be  red  leafed  instead  of  a good  black  tea,  a 
result  which  spoiled  its  value.  After  shadewithering, 
careful  rolling,  firing  at  a proper  temperature  of  280 
degrees,  and  sifting  through  proper  sieves,  made 
specially  for  the  purpose,  Mr.  Cottam  succeeded  in 
turning  out  as  good  a tea,  he  claims,  as  was  ever 
produced  in  India  or  Ceylon,  and  shows  samples  that 
either  of  those  dominions  might  be  proud  of.  He 
believes  that  the  United  States  can  produce  all  the 
90,000,000  lb.  of  tea  it  consumes,  and  does  not  consider 
that  conditions  of  climate,  soil  or  economy  stand 
n the  way.  There  are  millions  of  acres  that  in  his 
opinion  are  suitable.  These  lands  are  inside  the 
yellow  pine  belt,  where  the  camellia  japonioa  grows 
to  a height  of  30  feet.  The  tea  plant  being  a sister 
(camellia  thea)  it  will  do  equally  well.  Tea  will 
stand  all  the  cold  it  is  likely  to  suffer  in  the  South, 
because,  he  argues,  it  grows  successfully  in  high 
elevations  in  tropical  climates,  and  he  holds  that 
the  same  amount  of  rainfall  is  not  so  necessary  in 
countries  so  distant  from  the  equator.  The  average 
rainfall  of  60  inches  in  S.  Carolina  he  regards  as 
equal  to  80  or  90  iuches  in,  the  tropics.  The  Indian 
planters  at  the  outset  said  that  tea  could  not  be 
grown  in  Ceylon  because  of  the  cold  of  high  lands, 
but  now  Ceylon  produces  half  as  much  tea  as  India. 
Dr.  Shepard  will  have  no  difficulty  in  securing  cheap 
labor,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  chief  advantage 
in  favour  of  Asiatic  tea  growers.  He  has  a school 
on  his  estate  in  which  he  gives  a free  education  to 
the  children  of  the  district,  and  thus  has  them 
