The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-01-12 00:00:00

TEA CULTIVATION IN AMERICA

The Washington correspondent of the New York
Tribune gives a summary of a pamphlet treating of
the culture of the tea plant in America, which has
been prepared at the Agricultural Department, under
the supervision of General le Due, the Commissioner.
Quoting from Treasury statistics, which show. that the
value of the annual importations of tea into this coun-
try from China and Japan amounts to about
20,000,000 dole, in coin, the Commissioner expresses
the belief that the payment of this large sum to foreign
countries can be avoided. He thinks that the United
States can at least compete with those countries for
its local consumption, even if it cannot rival them in
supplying foreign markets. The pamphlet gives a
detailed history of the cultivation of the tea-plant in
the East, and then continues :
"The latitudes in which tea is successfully culti-
vated in China, Assam, and Japan correspond with
those of the States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
West Virginia, North Carolina South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas,
Missouri, and a portion of the Pacific Coast, and the
conditions of temperature of the soil are also about the
same. Successful experiments in tea culture, already
made in several of the States mentioned, amply
justify the opinion that it can be made an industry in
this country of immediate advantage and profit. A
little calculation will show the profits which may be
derived from an acre of land containing 2,000
tea plants three years old. The third year the
yield should be 187 lb., the fourth year 312 lb.,
the fifth year 500 lb., and the sixth year 750 lb.
per acre. When the leaves are abundant one
person can gather 16 lb. per day, but the average
result of a day's work may not exceed 10 lb. to 12 lb.
The leaves are gathered at three different periods,
ranging from March to September, and on an acre
yielding 500 lb. the first picking would be about
120 lb., and could be gathered by four persons in two.
days. The same number could pick the two crops in
three days."

Many extracts from letters written by farmers in
the localities named above are given with the report,
and the Commissioncr thinks they justify the opinion
that the practicalidlity of the cultivation of the tea-
plant successfully in the United States istno longer a
matter of doubt. On the subject of preParing the
tea-leaves for use, the report says :

"As a business, and in competition with the cheap
labour of the Chinese, it would be an experiment in
this country, especially as regards the coarser article.
As the finer teas rarely leave China, and the finest
never, there would be no competition in these grades
if the manipulation of the leaves is carefully and suc-
cessfully attended to, while the possibility that
modern methods and appliances might be substi-
tuted for the tedious hand work of the Chinese seems
to promise sufficiently well to make the experiment a
wise one."

The conclusions reached are that, whether or not
the cultivation and curing of tea can ever become an
industry in America, it is plain that there are thou-
sands of families who may profitably cultivate tea
gardens, and enjoy the fruit of them as they do that
of the orchard or the berry patch, at the same time
that they have the agreeable sensation of drinking a
beverage never before known in their country, pre-
pared from a grade of tea worth in China and Japan
from 5 dole. to 14 dols. per pound. The culture of the
tea-plant is not a new idea in the United States, nor
does the Commissioner claim it to be an original one
with him. Dr. Junius Smith made very careful and
extended experiments with it at Greenville, S.C.,
about thirty years ago, and reported his success in the
Patent Office reports from 1848 to 1859. The same ex-
periment is now being repeated in California by a
colony of Japanese.