The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-12-06
CONDUCTED By s. Il, sT40KHoUsE,
TEA GROWING IN THE SOUTH.

Inc llOTe uiiS pOoPiS Va '"N
diversity their industries, i'll the same
proportion will their lands become
more valuable, and the country pros
nervous. There is scarcely any pro
duct but can be grown to some extent
in the South. Although cotton, corn,
sugar, rice, and tobacco are our staple
productions, wheat can be grown, and
aven our own coffee and tea. Coffee
is now being raised with some success
in Florida. We metan old gentleman
n few DAYS since, who lives not far
from Hammond Ga, who says that he
has not bought particle of tea since
he moved from Michigan, ten years
ago. 1t has been tested that the tea
plant will grow in most of the South
ern States. If this is the case, why
should not this industry be developed,
and instead of importing $4,000, 900
worth of teas from foreign countries,
raise portion of what is consumed at
home.
We have seen the plant grow here,
and it looked vigorous and thrifty.
Tea was not introduced into Europe
until theseventeeth century, and the
use of it had grown to such vast pro-
portions, that as early as 1910, it re-
ouired vessels of $4,000 tons burthen
to import it from China and Japan.
The plant is indigenous to both
China and Japan, and has been grown
there from time immemorial. Itgrows
over the whole province of China, even
at Pekin, where the latitude is about
the same as thato of Philadelphia. The
plants are generally raised from the
seed, but so hard to terminate, that
generally four or five seeds are placed
in the same hole. The leaves are gem
orally gathered from the plants about
the third year. At the end of seven
years the plants atlantic height of
six feet, and are then trimmed down,
in order that new leaves may put out.
The finest teas, no doubt, come from a
district in Japan-where the leaves
are gathered and cured with the great
est care. The finest tea is procured at
the end of winter, when the leaves are
very tender, and is called imperial tea
because is purchased by the wealthy.
Then there are the second and third
gatherings, the quality of which ranks
according to the time Of year the leaves
are gathered.
The greatest difficulty attached to
the growth of the plant is the diff
Guilty in properly curing the leaves,
which calls for the greatest skill and
dexterity. We give the following
mode of curing, which is practised in
China:
The tea leaves being gathered, are cured
in houses which contain from five to twenty
small furnaces, about three feet high, each
having at the top large, Hat iron pan.
There is also, long. low table, covered
with mats, on which the leaves are laid and
rolled by workmen who sit around it. The
iron pan being heated to certain degree
by little fire made in the furnace under
meath, few pounds of the fresh gathered
leaves are put on the pan; the fresh and
iuicv leaves crack when they touch the pan
and it is the business of the operator to
shift them as quickly as possible with his
bare hands, till they become too hot to be
easily endured At this instant, he takes
off the leaves with kind of Shovel re-
sembl1ng a fan, and pours them on the
mats--other operators taking small quantl-
ties of them, roll them in the palms OF their
hands in one direction, while third set are
tanning them, that they may cool more
speedily and retain their curl longer. This
process is repeated two or three times, or
oftener, before the tea put into the stoves
in order that all the moisture may be thor
oughly dissipated and their curl more comN
pIefely preserved. On evury repetition, the
pan is less heated, and the operation per
formed more cautiously and closely. The
tea is then separated into different KINDS,
and deposited in the store for domestic use
or expectation. The different sorts OF black
and green arise not merely from soil, stu
alton or the age of the leaf, but after win
moving the tea, the leaves are taken up in
succession as they fall; those nearest the
machine, being the heaviest, are the gum
powder tea; the ightest-the worst-ls
chiefly used by the lower classes. That
which is brought down to Canton then I'M
dergoes a second roasting, winnowing, pack
ing, etc., and many hundred women are
for these purposes.
There is now considerable interest
taken in the cultivation of the tea
plant in the United States, and we
hope the day will come when most OF
.he tea consumed in the United States
will be raised at home.
The following is taken from late
New Orleans Times, on this industry
Mr.. William Saunders, of the depart |
nent of agriculture, recently delivered an |
address before the New York Horticultural /
in which he discussed, with con-
siderable minuteness, the possibility Of
mixing tea culture an American industry.
In 1874, the value of the tea imported
INTO the United States for domestic con-
sumption was S21, 212, 1884. 1t will thus be
seen at a glance that if the tea plant can be
laturalized and successfully cultivated in
his country, great impetus will be given
o American agriculture, and a vast amount
from the sum which we must
annually send abroad to pay for this great
luxury Of our civilization. The consump-
ION Of tea has enormously increased since
he Accident, as well as the Orient, has be-
come addicted to its use. For ages the cul-
ivation of tea was almost exclusively con-
ined to five Chinese provinces. In 1928,
however, the tea plant was discovered to be
Indigenous to Assam, a province in the
presidency of Bengal, and occupying the
northeastern extremity of British India
In English company put a large amount
# capital into the enterprise, and after
many vicissitudes, succeeded in establish>
ne tea calture in Assam on sound and
,rofitable basis, SO that, at last accounts,
he plantations comprised II, 900 acres We
luote the following letter from Mr.. Arthur
:. Ford, of Charleston, s. c., to show how
asily the plant may be grown in a compare
lively northern latitude:
"About four or five years ago [ obtained
rom friend some seeds of the tea-plant,
nd planted them in my garden, twenty
ne miles from Charleston, inland. The
Wants came up readily, were duly trans
,lanted: and are now fine shrubs three feet
nigh and seven in number. The foliage is
uxuriant, and the plants bear the coolest :
Weather here without any effects; the mer- ,
aNnv.