THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
374 
true when he finally quitted Ceylon in his 71st 
year in 1890. He is now in his 79tli year and 
continues to take a great interest in Ceylon 
affairs, though his health wil not permit of his 
moving about as freely as he did ever since he 
went home until very lately. He carried on a 
brisk correspondence in the Observer some months 
ago on the Currency question, pointing out how 
China Tea must sjore at the expense of Ceylon, 
with silver and exchange so much in favour of the 
former. The latest letter we have had from the 
veteran was still clearly written and hopefully 
expressed. For industry, cheerfulness and in- 
domitable pluck, few Colonists ever came to Ceylon 
who equalled Mr. Charles Shand : may his shadow 
never grow less ! 
MAY TEA BE PROFITABLY GROWN 
IN THE (AMERICAN) SOUTHERN 
STATES ’ 
It is not a question whether individual plants inay 
not be successfully grown so as to present interesting 
and beautiful objects, in landscape or other gar- 
dening, nor w<hether .small patches of the hardier 
varieties of tea may not produce sufficient leaf to 
supply the limited demands rf a household, or even 
those of a country neighbourhood. Those problems 
have been satisfactorily answered long ago, in several 
of the Southern States. The price of labor and the 
yield per plant are not important factors under the 
latter conditions. Several large profits have been 
reaped on the imported commodity before it is sold 
over the village counter; and no account of the 
value of the labor expended in raising and preparing 
the domestic article is apt to be taken. 
But the problem to whose solution much time and 
attention have been expended at Pinehurst, viz : the 
economical raising of tea on a comparatively large 
scale, is confronted by several serious obstacles, and 
much more than the past few years must be devoted 
to experimental work before a satisfactory solution 
may be obtained. 
First and foremost is the difference in the price 
of labor between the tea-producing countries of the 
Orient and the Southern States of America. It costs 
almost as much to pick, with us, of fresh leaf suffi- 
cient to make a pound of tea as it does to raise, 
pick and pack the same quantity of by farthelaiger 
part of the teas sent to us frorrr Asia. There are, 
therefore, two alternatives presented to the w'ould-be 
American tea-grewer; he must raise the quality of 
his product above that of the cheaper Oriental grades, 
or he must reduce tie cost of production below that 
attained by us. The former couise has been steadily, 
maintained at Pinehurst, and w'iih promising results. 
The establishment of a productive tea garden 
involves very considerable expense. A well appointed 
garden, of good quality and of large leaf production, 
with few vacancies and of vigorous growth, a suffi- 
cient body of reliable lab;rers, and a suitably 
equipped factory, cost a great deal of n oney and 
attention. That there conditions are essential in the 
production of good tea must readily appear on a little 
reflection. A v:cU ap 2 >ornte.d lea f/ai den favor- 
able conditions of soil and exposure to the sun 
with protection from winhy 1 lasts ai d theavoidar.ee 
of ftegnant water about the icots of the plant. (Jood 
qwlily means Hu t the plants have been i aised from 
ihe best seed attrinab’e or capable of being grown 
in the loi al climate. It is cirtainly nccefsary to 
distinguish at least time sorts of tea plants. Ihe 
Assam uriquestionably leads. It derives its name 
from the north-oastei ri province of British India 
which was wrested from Bur mah early iu this cen- 
tury. It was found growing to the height of tl i:ty 
[Dec. I, 1897. 
feet in the dark, steaming jungles along the banks 
of the Brahmapootra river, where the atmosphere 
Vitas always damp and frost unknown. Its leaves 
are bright green and large, often attaining a length 
of seven or more inches, and broad in proportion. 
Few regions elsewhere appear to be favourable to 
the growth of this variety, although long ago the 
forests of those jungles have given place to well 
ordered tea gardens, where the indigenous plants bask 
in full sunshine — a requisite for the renumerative 
production of tea crops. The attempt is being made 
at Pinehurst to cultivate some of this variety ; but 
the severe weather (15° F.) to which this section of 
South Carolina is liable, makes success less than 
probable. It may be that fully hardened and woody 
plants are capable of enduring such extreme cold, 
and that by grafting or otherwise, a slightly lower 
type may be obtained for successful use. At the other 
extreme is the Chinese variety. Not that all or even 
the greater part of Chinese tea plants should fall 
under this catagorjq for unquestionably very many 
deserve far better treatment ; but as the type exists 
to a considerable extent in China, and especially in 
its colder provinces, the name may be retained. 
This variety is a low, bushy shrub, slow of growth, 
adapting itself to a great range of climate, and capable 
of withstanding frost, snow and ice. The leaves are 
of a dark green color, tough and small, i. e., from 
two to three inches in length and quite narrow, 
(lancet shaped). This stunted and generally unpro- 
fitable description of tea plant is supposed to be 
the result of the exposure of the better varieties for 
centuries to dry and cold climates, and to a lack of 
pjroper cultivation. 
Intermediate betw’een the Assam and Chinese types 
stand the so-called *' Hybrids, ” and reproducing in 
their countless varieties the characteristics of both 
the parent sorts. Strictly only few of them have 
been obtained by the direct hybridization of the before 
mentioned varieties ; most of them are the result of 
endless crosses of different kinds, as also of the 
effect of climate and cultivation. It has been observed 
at Pinehurst how few tea plants are not susceptible 
of great improvement in form, productiveness and 
quality by liberal cultivation ; and that gardens of 
widely different origins exhibit, under the same treat- 
ment, a tendency to produce a local tjpe of leaf, 
with marked and distinctive characteristics. 
It is generally held, especially bj’ English authori- 
ties, that those hybrids which stand nearest, by origin 
and in their nature, to the Assam, are to be more 
highly prized. There are substantial reasons for our 
advice to plant only the best seed that can be grown 
in each locality. The Assam plants produce, in their 
own climate, about twenty ihtshes a year, whereas 
the average number of pickings iu China do not 
exceed more than three or four. And it may be well 
to hei'e explain what is meant is meant by a “flush.” 
The work of the tea planter is to produce from the 
seedling and as rapidly as possible a vigorous bush 
of from two to five feet in height, according to the 
variety of seed. He then proceeds to deplete the 
plant of by far the greater part of its foliage, which 
is usually done in the cold season. Nature makes 
a prodigious effort to restore the natural equilibrium 
between roots and foliage, and with the advent of 
warmer weather, throws out from every branch a vast 
trumber of tender shoots and leaves. The planter 
immediately plucks off as much of this young foliage 
as his experierree has taught him to be wise, i. e., 
without injury to the vitality of the plant or loss to 
the subsequent pickings. For the struggle between 
him and the plant goes for rvaid through the entire 
season. These successive crops of young leaf are 
terrrred “ flushes. ” The wise planter will not strip the 
plant of .youi'g foliage at any picking, and thus thei e 
is a steady gain in the size of the tea plant during 
the growing season. Wilh the return of cold weather, 
a more rrroderate pruning is resorted to, severe 
pruning beitTg enforced only every three cr four years 
The length of years that a tea plant can endure this 
struggle is uncertain, but it should, under favorable 
circumstances, produce at least ten good yearly crops. 
