344 
much exceed fifty thousand pounds weight, independently of what little 
might be then perhaps clandestinely imported. The Company’s annual sales 
now (the year 1797 ) approach to twenty millions of pounds ',; being an in¬ 
crease of four hundred fold in less than one hundred years, and answers to 
the rate of more than a pound each, in the course of the year, for the indi¬ 
viduals of all ranks, sexes and ages, throughout the British dominions in 
Europe and America. 
Since the year 1 797, it is probable that the importation of tea has much 
increased, and that at least thirty millions of pounds are annually imported 
into Europe alone.* 
PROPAGATION AND CULTURE. 
In Japan the Tea-tree is cultivated round the borders of rice and corn¬ 
fields, without any regard to the soil. Seeds contained in the seed-vessels, 
from six to twelve or fifteen, are put into one hole, four or five inches deep. 
The seeds contain a large proportion of oil, which is liable soon to turn ran¬ 
cid; hence scarcely a fifth part of them germinate, and this makes it neces¬ 
sary to plant so many together. The seeds vegetate without any farther 
care: but the more industrious annually remove the weeds, and manure the 
land. 
The leaves are not fit to be plucked before the third year s growth. In 
seven years the tree is usually cut down, and abundance of fresh shoots spring 
up. Some defer cutting it till it is of ten years growth.^ 
In China , wherever it is regularly cultivated, it rises from the seeds sown 
in rows, at the distance of about four feet from each other, in land kept free 
from weeds. It is seldom sown on flat or marshy ground, which is reserved 
for rice, but vast tracts of hilly land are planted with it, particularly in the 
province of Fo-chen. Its perpendicular growth is impeded for the conve¬ 
nience of collecting the leaves. Its long and tender branches spring up 
almost from the root, without much intervening naked trunk. 
The tea-tree is cultivated in several of the provinces of China, but sel¬ 
dom more northerly than thirty degrees beyond the equator. It thrives best 
between that parallel and the line that separates the temperate from the 
'* Embassy, Vol. I. p. 22. 
f Kaempfer. Lettsom, p. 20. 
