The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1878-02-14
Tea Culture in the South

Inc commissioner of Agriculture has
just printed special report on the Chi
nese tea plant-information which if
properly applied to practical operation.
will result In the creation of new in,
dustry, keep at home at least 800. 600 OO0
now annually sent out of the country.
and possibly create revolution in com.
MERGE analogous to the mighty changes
wrought in the civilized world by the
growth of cotton in the United States,
The report shows that the principal tea
districts of China, which supply the
greater portion of teas exported to Eu-
rope and America, lie between the 25th
and the 35th degrees of north latitude.
the latitude of the United States from
the southern extremity of Florida to a
line drawn west from point nearly mid
way between Capes Hatteras and Look
out. This part of our country COM
prlses by far the greater portion of the
"cotton zone - Tho climate, the soil.
even the Typographical features of the
country, bear very strong resemblance
to the corresponding section of China.
In point Of fact, China is the antipodal
counterpart of the United States, the
chief difference being that her great river
flows east and ours south, while her ter
r1tory extends several degrees farther
south than the American The climate
presents the same extreme variation of
temperature, the geological character
istics strongly similar, and the general
topography of both countries remarka-
bly, alike. It would be logical, hence.
to assume that the productions OF the
one country are similar to those of the
other; that the products of the basin of
the Yanktse- K1ang are like those of the
Mississippi, and upon an examination
the inference is found to be correct.
Supposed for ages to be peculiar to Chi
ma, and not susceptible of cultivation
elsewhere, the report shows that, as the
| climate and the soil of our Southern
States are like those OF the Celestial
kingdom, SO does the tea plant of the
| one hemisphere flourish equally we'll
in the other.
After giving an elaborate description
| of the Chinese tea plant, full and pc
culiarly interesting account of its cult
walton, and especially of its manipula-
ton for the markets, and carefully-pre-
pared statistics of the cost and profit of
its growth, the report embodies a num-
Der Of letters from parties in the Caro-
linas and Georgia who have successfully
cultivated it for years. Dr. Turner
Wilson, of North Carolina, says that he
has been raising the tea plant, but with
out much cultivation, since 1858, and
drinks tea made from its leaves James
Ell. Rior, Esq, of Winnsboro, S. c.,
writes that the plant is entirely at home
where it is growing. Mr.. Arthur P.
Ford, of Charleston, S. c., says more
IN full About four or five years ago
| obtained from O friend some seeds of
the tea plant, and planted them in nv
| garden, twentyone miles from Charles
ton, inland. The plants came up read
lily, were duly transplanted, and are now
fine shrubs, three feet high, and seven
in number. The foliage is iuxuriant,
and the plants bear the coolest weather
here without any i'll effects; the mer-
| curry on more than one occasion marking
16 degrees below zero, and the plants
being incased mice at other times also !"
The Rev. W. A Merriwether, of Co
! lumbia, S. c., writes of his tea plants
| that they are mot affected by the severest
cold to which our climate is subject. 1t
was not the least affected by the intense
cod of December, 1870. When my
thermometer registered one degree above
zero, the coolest weather I have ever
known in this latitude, have obtained
tea of the best quality from the cured
leaves" Hon. James Edward Calhoun,
of South Carolina after writing that he
had cultivated the tea plant for eighteen
years, but because of the war and its
consequences had contented himself
merely with securing a supply of tea
for his household, says: "The capsules
of the tea nuts afford the most pleasant
of bitters. They were saved and given
to the matron, an item in her naateria
naedica for my people long before I
heard that a physician in Georgia had
carefully tested the tea hull and found
it to possess all the properties of the
cinchoni. This is the perfeet climate
for the tea plant"