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^TRY H 
Voii. XXXIX. No. 42, 
Whole No. 1603. 
[Entered according: to Act of Congress, in the 
whereas the English teas of the breakfast class 
are all fermented in different degrees according 
to the quality desired. 
Tea culture in China, as at present practiced, 
is the result of long experience and the devo¬ 
tion of much capital to the Industry, nntil a 
system peculiar to the climate, labor and cus¬ 
toms of the people has grown into existence, 
which can hardly be copied in the United 
States, unless coolies be imported and given 
the labor. As this is impracticable, the next 
thing is the employment of negro labor, as the 
locations found best adapted to the growth of 
the tea plant are those where malaria renders 
it unhealthy for white labor. 
The cultivation of the plant, which grows to 
TEA CULTURE 
Considerable apace is this week given to 
illustrations of the cultivation and curing of 
the tea-plant in the East Indies. Tea culture 
is not an established paying industry In the 
Ucited States, as yet, but there is a consid¬ 
erable number of tea plantations where the 
plant has been growing for several years, and 
the feasibility of developing the industry is at 
least promising. 
As a resume of what has been done in the 
United States, chiefly in Georgia and South 
Carolina, in tea cultivation, we give the state¬ 
ment of General LeDnc, Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture, with reference thereto as made to ns. 
“ The tea-plant had been grown and distribu¬ 
ted by the Department of Agriculture for some 
years, more as matter of curiosity than with 
the effort to make a tea garden, or to establish 
its growth as a business, although some few 
persons had obtained seed from China and 
elsewhere, and had made efforts to raise and 
manufacture tea, although with but little re¬ 
sult in any case. Probably the largest number 
of plants collected by any one person, are 
those collected by Dr. Jones, of Liberty county, 
Georgia, near Savannah, who some time be¬ 
fore the Rebellion undertook to raise a num¬ 
ber of plants with a view of makLng tea. His 
plantation was practically abandoned, and 
after the war, his daughter, Mrs. Scraven, 
prepared tea in a rude manner from leaves 
picked from the old trees of which there were 
three or four hundred growing wild in the edge 
of a forest, the seeds falling from which scat¬ 
tered through the brush, had grown into quite 
an extended thicket, from which Mrs. Scraven 
was in the habit of selling plants and seed to 
those persons who wished to purchase. 
When, as Commissioner of Agriculture, I 
wished to promote the cultivation and manu¬ 
facture of tea in this country. I purchased 
from Mrs Scraven plants abd seeds for dis¬ 
tribution, and I scattered these throughout the 
South, and we are now reaping the reward of 
this effort by learning from the growth and 
condition of these plants the soils and climates 
beBt fitted for the production of this necessary 
article. 
It is unnecessary to go Into details at this 
time, and I will simply say that by great good 
fortune, a Mr. John Jackson, who had for 
fifteen years been cultivating tea in Assam, 
India, traveling in this country, had his atten¬ 
tion drawn to my efforts tending to enconraga 
the cultivation of tea, and entered into corres¬ 
pondence with the Department, and visited me 
at Washington. The result was that Mr. 
Jackson took a trip through the South, visiting 
the various localities in which the t tea-plant 
was growing, and was so entirely satisfied 
with the prospect of successful and profitable 
cultivation that he purchased the plantation 
of Mrs. Scraven, and commenced to establish 
a tea garden, with the assurance that the De¬ 
partment would aid him by all proper means. 
Mr. Jackson employed a large force of negro 
laborers, put up some necessary houses, and has 
already 165,000 plants growing in fifty acres 
which he proposes to increase to several hund¬ 
red acres as rftpidly as he can obtain proper 
seeds or plants. After some earnest solicita¬ 
tion, and with the untiring effort of Hon, D. 
Wyatt Aiken, member of the House for South 
Carolina, a small appropriation was obtained 
from Congress in aid of this industry. I have 
made an examination, assisted by Mr. Jackson, 
of a large area of South Carolina, in which are 
found many locations in which the soil and 
climate were pronounced by Mr. Jackson as 
exceedingly favorable for the production of 
the tea plant. This preliminary examination 
showed more laud suitable for tea culture In 
the belt of country about forty or fifty miles 
back from the coast, the best land being mostly 
situated in that portion which is regarded as 
per pound. The teas heretofore manufactured 
and submitted to New York and London houses 
to ascertain their value, were of the English 
breakfast sorts, which are not so much used in 
this country as in London, where they are 
largely used for mixing with inferior teas to 
raise the grade.” 
The leaf of the tea plant is manufactured in 
different ways to secure tbe different brands of 
tea for the markets in which it is put. The 
difference lies in the manipulation of the leaf 
Green teas are made without fermentation, 
than any they conld purchase at the stores. 
Notably this has been done in the last two 
years, or since the publication and circulation 
by the Department of a little treatise upou tea 
culture and manufacture. But no tea has been 
made of a commercial character until Mr. 
Jackson commenced to manufacture tea iu the 
proper form, and send it to the Department as 
an evidence of what could be done, even with 
the old and neglected plants he had purchased. 
