Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-10-17
HOMEGROWN Tea.

Home Grown Tea.
"Can we grow our own tea ?" This
old, often asked and often answered
question was recently revived by that
very respectable home for tea-drinkine
old ladies'. the Agricultural Depart.
ment of Washington. say of Wash
ington advlsedly, because it is depart
ment of the Government that is of very
little use to anybody outside of Wash
ington. II never has enjoyed the SYM
patty or respect of the mass of Ameri-
can farmers for the reason that it never
has had an agriculturist at its head who
could command universal respect. 1t
has made itself known and gained its
principal notoriety and popularity by a
free distribution of garden seeds such
as could generally he found at the near
est country store. A more perfect
waste of public money than has been
through the Agricultural Depart
ment, it is difficult to imagine. Its
published volumes, costing probably
four or five dollars each, are to be found
upon many secondhand book stalls at
ten to twenty-five cents each, and are so
unstable at that price that thousands
of them have been sent to the paper
mills and ground over into common
wrapping-paper. Scores of them, sent
free to the constituents of members of
Congress, Lave remained for years as
lumber in postotfic the owners not
considering them worth carrying home.
OF late years, some little reliance has
been placed by commercial men upon
the statistical reports of this depart
ment" of Government, but the general
opinion among farmers is that it never
has conveyed enough information to
them in all the years of its existence to
balance one years salary of the Com
missioner of Agriculture.
But if he does not convey much in
formation to the people, they must &C
knowledge that the Commissioner is
good at seeking it of them. Recently
he wanted to know whether we can
grow our own tea. l will answer this
question from personal knowledge,
since l have it, that the real genuine
Chinese tea shrub was grown more than
twenty-five years ago in South Caro-
lima, Florida and Louisiana. If the
Commissioner will search some of those
old volumes of paper stock, the reports
of his own Department (if they have
not all been reduced to pulp he will
find some of the history of American
tea-growing; notably that of DR.. Smith
at Greenville, South Carolina. That
place is several hundred miles from the
sea, in latitude 80 deg, and at an alti-
tude of about fifteen hundred feet. The
soil Is generally decayed granite. and
the surface is uneven. There the tea
plants hourished uninjured by frost,
for they are at least half hardy. On
the alluvium of the banks of the Mis-
sissipi they grew more rankly, but the
leaves We're coarse, and l Judge less
valuable than upon poorer sell. At
Tallahassee, Florida, twenty miles from
the Gulf, altitude 100 feet, soil sandy
loan, saw as handsome tea plants as
any in China, but cannot say that the
flavor of the detection was quite equal
cured in "the Flowery Kingdom"
and l have never heard of anyone who
called for second cup of American
tea. Whether it is owing to the climate,
soil, situation or manipulation, cannot
say; but SO far as the experiment has
been tried, it indicates that We cannot
grow our own tea. Not because the
plant won't grow here upon broad ex-
tent of country, but for other resons to
this deponent unknown.
But the one paramount reason which
will prevent the present Commissioner
of Agriculture from seeing tea.culture
flourish in this country is the unreason-
ing demands of laborers, who would
" strike" themselves and everybody
else to perdition, sooner than work for
the average wages of tea growers and
manufacturers in China.-SoLoN ROB-
INsoN, in the ~ Y. Tribune.