I 
July 1, 1900.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
35 
TEA GARDENS m THE SOUTH, 
PLANTING AND PLUCKING AT PINEHURST — THE TEA 
SCHOOL — NEW PLANTATIONS. 
The picturesque and profitable industry of tea- 
cnltnre, whose successful prosecution lias hitherto been 
confiued to the Orient, seems to be gaining ground in 
this country. The introduction and progress of any 
occupation, atlording healthy out-door work to men 
and women, and to little children under conditions 
not operating against their mental advancement, is 
well worthy to be chronicled in a religious journal ; 
and The Christian Herald presents with pleasure some 
interesting facts and pictures supplied through 
courtesy of Dr. Charles U. Shepard, Special Govern- 
ment Agent in charge of tea culture investigation. 
Dr. Shepard may be called the father of the industry 
in this country, for although the problem had been 
under discussion for many years and several fairly 
successful efforts to solve it had been made, it is to the 
practical and persistent demonstrations afforded in his 
tea-gardens at Pinehurst, Summerville, S. C, that 
we owe renewed governmental appropriations to the 
project. 
The experimentation at Pinehurst bsgan about ten 
years ago on a small scale, gradually enlarged as 
results justified, until about fifty acres are now planted 
in tea, which should produce about 10,000 pounds in 
full bearing. The problem for providing labor for 
picking tea leaf has been solved, so far as a stead)', 
and skilful band of nimble-fiugered children goes ; 
but its price — extremely high as compared with the 
price of labor in the Orient — materially effects the 
question of profit in hooae-srown tea. It was indis- 
pensable to procure a reliable corps of pickers. To 
meet this condition, there was built a comfortable 
schoolhouse and a competent teacher engaged. The 
colored families of the neighbourhood were then 
invited to send their children to tlie school free of 
charge, They v/ould be instructed in the ordinary 
branches, and also taught how to pick tea, and so earn 
money to buy food and clothing. The offer was 
accepted, and now there is a good list of pupils to 
draw pickers from as required ; only children of suit- 
able age and size are permitted in the gardens. The 
older children earn from thirty to fifty cents a day 
in tea picking season; younger ones in proportion. 
In one season, the gardens were picked twenty 
times, or once every ten days, and it took three days 
for the force of children to make the rounds. The 
establishment of such tea-picking schools as Pine- 
hurst's will be a moral as well as intellectual and in- 
dustrial influence favorable to inhabitants of the 
Black Belt. 
Dr. Shephard has had no difficulty in selling all 
Pinehurst tea (black) at one dollar a pound, retail. He 
says :" Without undue endeavour I sold my crop of 
1898, about three thousand pounds, as also about 
five hundred pounds, of the previous year., altogether 
about three thousand five hundred pounds, at a rea- 
sonable profit, although there is no protective duty on 
tea." 
Dr. Shepard sensibly suggests : "There is a class of 
people who might profitably add the cultivation of tea 
to that of flowers and vegetables, filling out the 
corners of their gardens and home fields with tea 
bushes, as they do in China, or substituting useful as 
well as ornamental hedges of that plant for fences. As 
one result, families would be able to supiily their own 
tea, fresh, pure and invigorating. As another, the 
multiplication of little tea-gardens would mean the 
establishment of tea-factories in neighbourhoods where 
the product would be bought and sold for commercial 
purposes." The industry can be undertaken, however 
only in sections where the temperature rarely falls 
below 25 degrees F., and never below zero ; there must 
be abundant water supply. 
Pinehurst has a well-equipped factory. Two of the 
processes of manufacturing green tea is shown on this 
page ; the fresh leaf is roasted in an iron pot and then 
SsUed by haniJ on ^ (jaljl? j no megbanical sutistitute 
for these combined operitions has beeu invented, and 
the necessity for baud labor is the factor which raises 
the cost of green tea. The green , color of the Pine- 
hurst brand has attracted much attention. Oriental 
teas, lose it, and other qualities that go with it, before 
reaching this country. A journey through the tea- 
gardens of Pinehurst, when the workers are among the 
velvety green bushes, and over the factory where 
children are bringing in trout baskets filled with the 
leaves, and men are busy spreading these out in the 
drying-room, and rolling and packing tea in other 
departments, is quite interesting, and to the Eastern 
traveler somewhat like a chapter out of the Orient. 
Christian Herald and Signs of Our Times, May 2. 
TEA IN ST. HELENA. 
Accoiding to official reports, that tea will £;row 
in St. Helena is proved by the e.\istence of some 
China plants which were introduced in the time 
of the East India Company. The e.\perinient was 
tried in 1896, a native of India who had been 
for nine years an overseer on a tea estate in 
Assam was taken out. Seed was procured and 
a number of plants were reared, but the GoTernor 
iiavinj,' to return to England and recall his tea- 
pianter, the plants were left unprotected ; on his 
revisiting the Island, lie found that the rabbits 
had devoured the young tea seedlings, and so 
ended an experiment which cost nearly a hundred 
pounds. — Planting Opinion, April 28. 
CINCHONA AND QUININE, 
The Java correspondent of the Straits Budget 
reports that the cinchona planters have latterly 
grown weary of being fleeced by bark and quinine 
dealers in Europe, who had combined to secure low 
market rates for raw material. The planters struck 
the first blow at the ring by starting a factory at 
Bandong to manufacture quinine from the bark 
locally produced. The quinine was sent to Europ* 
for sale. The ring so managed matters that the 
planters failed to get fairly remunerative prices for 
the Java-made drug. The planters upon this, decided 
to sell their quinine at Batavia. The first auction 
sale proved to be a greaL success, and the prices 
realised far excceeded the limit. The continuance of 
quinine auction sales at that port ia now a certainty 
— Chemist and Druggist, April 14. 
Dendrobium Falconerl-A very finespecimen 
of this graceful and sliowy Dendrobium is in flowel" 
at the present time in the collection of HT Pitt 
Esq., Rosslyn, Stamford Hill. There were at on4 
tune no fewer than iee fully expanded blooms on 
the plant D. lalcDnen which was first des- 
cribed by Dr. Lindley in the Gardeners^ Chronic 
cle, 18..b, p. 692 has, since then, been imported 
from various districts in the highlands of Bin. 
dostan, but owing to its requirements not beine 
generally understood by cultivators, few have snn 
ceeded in making it grow satistaetotilv for anv 
length of time. The best) position for ic is said 
to be one that is close to the glazed end of « 
moist intermediate-house, or in some similar nosi. 
tion where its slender, knotted stems can be sua 
tamed in a plump condition. Liglit spraying dail» 
during growing time is also recomnfenaed The 
iiowers on Mr. Pitt's plant are three inched 
across, white, tipped with amethyst-purple; the 
hp having a maroon-purple disc, with omn^e 
blotdies on each «de.-(?«r<^««fr«' Ghr9ms^ 
