Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-01

Schnell experiment. Sherman Day, who
was then United States Survey or-General of
California, in his annual report TO the Gov
eminent said
(" have no doubt whatever that the tea
plant can be grown successfully throughout
the California foothill section. | mean,
that good article of tea can be raised at
most of our farmers houses for the supply
of the family and the neighborood, and
that it can be done with a sure guarantee
against the poisonous manipulations and
authorizations practiced in China. Whether
tea can be successfully raised and prepared
here for expectation to other parts OF the
United States and foreign countries, in
competition with the cheap-labor product
of China and Japan, is another question,
and one that can be decided only by an ex-
pertinent of several years. 1t is question
of labor, OF tariffs, and of different ways
and costs of transportation. For the
cheaper qualities it may not succeed. Fer
qualities bearing high price, depending on
a personal guarantee of quality and
purity, and under brand well known, it
may succeed. Schnelrs is not the first at
tempt at the cultivation of the tea plant in
the United States. DR.. Junius Smith sue
ceeded in ctiltivating the plants in the up
lands of South Carolina between 1913 and
1852, but from the want of cheap and
skilled labor the experiment was 'discon-
tinued. Mr. Schnell has the great advan-
tage of the assistance of men trained to the
business in their native land, with whose
language and manners he is familiar"
RESULT OF scHNELL's EXPERIMENT.
The reader naturally wonders what be-
came of the California tea plantation, since
the experiment promised so much in the
beginning. 1t is easily explained. Schnell
clearly demonstrated the fact that tea cult
ure was admirably adapted to the soil and
climate in this State, and that whenever
certain obstacles could be overcome the
business might be made profitable. Time
has, it is safe to say, solved the problem,
and there is to-day nothing TO hinder the
successful cultivation of thousands of acres
of tea plants in California, and the posi-
BILE supplying of the home market with
an excellent quality of the pure, unadult-
Grated article. As to the Schnell expert
ment: When that gentleman came to Cal
itornia with his tea plants, he brought
with him, as before stated, colony
of Japanese-a score or more in number
Knowing that he must in order to succeed
compete with the cheap labor countries, he
contracted with these Japanese that they
should work for him for certain number
of years at wages not to exceed SO per
AllOHin- All NStll W Cii lJl a. NCu pic VI
by which time the shrewd Japs had learned
enough of American ways and laws to re-
alize the fact that no such contracts as
those to which they had subscribed in their
native country could be enforced against
them here. And as they saw that laborers
all about them commanded from $50 to $40
per month, they concluded that they were
wasting their time in working for So
Hence, they one by one, revoked their
labor-contracts with Schneil and left him
stranded, as 1t were, in a strange land. He
soon realized that he could not paw the
rates of wages then in vogue and compete
in tea culture with the cheap-labor coun-
tries across the ocean. And So in the face
of the fact so fully demonstrated-that the
tea plant would flourish and produce album
dainty in California-the enterprise had to
be abandoned. A gentleman, now in Sac
ramento, who afterward met Schnell in
Japan, states that the latter assured him
that no country was better adapted to tea
culture than California, especially the foot
hill section; and the japanese who worked
on the FL Dorado tea plantation said the
same.
Now, things have changed. The rates OF
labor-whlle not as low as in Japan or
China-ar0 much lower than they were
sixteen to eighteen wears ago. and especial
N. IL.
and girls can now be had at low wages for
light work, such as picking the leaves from
the tea plant, while the work of manipu-
lating and preparing it for market can now
be done by lately-invented machinery, one
machine doing the work of 800 men.
PRESENT TEA CULTURE IN PLACER.
AS corroborative of the assurances given
by Mr.. Schnell regarding the adaptability
| of soil and climate 70 tho e = l,o
tea plant, it is but necessary to call atten-
ton to the success which has attended the
more recent experiment made by L. A.
Gould, Of Placer county. This gentleman
resides about two miles north of the town
of Auburn, where he has an orchard, vine
yard and garden. He has devoted some of
his time and attention for few years past
to experimenting with olive and tea cult
ure, and is more than pleased with the
results. He has about fifty tea plants
growing finely. They are now several
years old, and for a long time have pro-
vided himself and neighbors with all the
tea they have used. These plants are as
large and vigorous as those grown in the
more favored parts of China and Japan
and were raised from the seed. No fertil-
ization of the soil is resorted to, and the
plants receive. no more attention than is
bestowed on fruit trees or grape vines Mr.
Gould collects the leaves and dries them
in Basket suspended over stove using
no coloring matter nor authorizations
of any kind in the curing pro-
cess. This process is known in tea
countries as that of basket firing" and
produces the genuine natural-leaf article
not the high colored, villainous stuff that
American importers have put up in China
and Japan according to their orders and for
the purpose of gratifying the deprayed
tastes of American tea drinkers. Mr.. Gould
states that he cannot purchase in the mar.
ket any brand of tea that will compare
favorably-in point of flavor and purify
with that grown by himself i'll the rugged
foothills of Placer county.
WILL 1T PAY?
Undoubtedly, with the improved ma
ehinery now in use in Japan land man
ufaetured in San Francisco. by which two
men can cure and pack as much tea as
formerly required the labor of 500, tea
culture can be made to pay in California.
1t is not uncommon for growers in China
and Japan to realize from $500 to $500 per
acre from the tea plant and there seems
TO be no reason why the sixty or seventy
million dollars annually sent abroad
by Americans for their tea could not
be kept at home. What Mr.. Gould
has accomplished on his foothill
farm, surely any careful and industrious
farmer or horticulturist can accomplish.
In a very few years the local markets can
be supplied, and thus demand created for
the home article that will increase until
the whole country will draw its supply
from, ana pay its millions to, the California
growers of tea. AT all events, every person
owning small patch of ground can grow
the tea for his own family One or two
dozen plants will suffice for this. And the
tea plant would be an ornament in any
persons yard, as it is an evergreen and
grows symmetrically.
NORTH CONSIDERING.
The above facts, and the conclusions
drawn therefrom by the writer, are sub
mitted to the small farmers and foothill
fruztgrowers of California for their &c ,aful
consideration. Who is there that cannot
set apart few acres of his farm or vine
yard Enclosure to be devoted 30 tea culture ?
When he cultivates his vines or trees the
same attention can, with scarcely any
extra labor, be given the tea Elants, and a
very few seasons will demonstrate whether
or not the enterprise can be ex-
tended with prefit. The fact having
been established that the tea-plant
will grew and produce luxuriartiy in this
favored climate; and it being further dem
IN Str tod hat tho L,.-1A