Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-01
TEA CULTURE.
ITS SUCCESS IN CALIFORNIA
FULLY DEMONSTRATED.
An Industry that may Become Prom.
inent on the Pacific Coast-How
Tea-Drinkers are Cheated.

Written for the New Years REcogD-UNIoN ]
The Indiana Farmer has an article on the
subject of Impracticable Industries in
the United States" among which is in
cluded that of tea culture The reasons
assigned by the writer for taking this
ground was the alleged great labor required
to pick and manipulate the tea, and the fact
that such labor is costly in this country.
This statement might have been
true some years ago, but it is
not true now. Person who have
had years of observation among the
tea-growing districts of Asia affirm that
the cultivation of the tea plant is not more
costly at the present time than that of COM
mon fruit trees. The plants can generally
be set in double rows, so as to admit OF the
use of cultiyetor, or shovel-plow, and
they require very little pruning. The lea
we get here IN America is not, as asserted
by the writer referred to- picked leaf by
leaf but is pulled off the plant by the
handful. The higher-priced teas-such as
are used by persons of high rank or great
wealth in Asia and Europe-are picked
leaf by leaf That brought to America
is gathered with little care and
without much labor. The process Of . fir
ing or drying the tea leaf, as practiced by
the Japanese in preparing natura-leaf teas,
is not oae that involves much labor, as is
generally believed. The work OF coloring
or manipulating tea TO suit our deprayed
tastes (Which in Japan is done exclusively
by foreigRers) does, however entail con-
siderable time and labor. Up to about
three years ago this was all done by hand,
: and gave employment 10 thousands of per
sons in each tea-growing country. Now,
however shrewd Yankee has invented
machinery capable of doing the work OF
these thousands, and does it cheaply, too.
Such machinery is now in use IN Ja-
pan, and is entirely superseding hand
labor. There is another and more thor
ough and effective way in which TO reduce
the cost Of tea manufacture and that is TO
drink oplv the natural or basket
fired leaf. 1t is vastly more fragrant than
that cured by any other process, and is
witha, more healthful. There would TINS
be only the cost of cultivating the plant.
picking the leaf, and drying il in baskets
suspended over furnaces. This cannot.
surely, be much more expensive-lf any at
ail-than the manner OF curing hops Tor the
market. II is no uncommon thing to find
alarms of thousands of acres in extent
yielding as high as from 5000 to 500
worth of tea per acre.
CALIFORNIA AS A TEA COUNTRY.
These facts have an important bearing on
the future industries OF California. Al
though not generally known, the fact new
ertheess exists, that the foothill section OF
California is as well adapted TO the growth
of the tea plant as are the most favored
localities in Japan or China. This Is not q
matter of idle assertion, nor mere guess
work i is fact that has been fully dem
onstrated by experiments, and Is admitted
by all that have been able to compare the
soil and climate of the Pacific slope with
those of the countries named. As evidence
that this subject excited the attention OF
citizens of California many years ago, refer
ence is here made to the following report
submitted to Governor Haight in 1867 by
the President and Secretary of the State
Agricultural Society. Referring to the fact
that the sameness of production has beer,
the curse of California agriculture, and
also that /" the quantity OF tea consumed in
the United States per annum is from Al,
600 900 to 50,000.000 pounds, ct a cost OF
some $50, 5000 these gentlemen say:
Persons who have been in the tea
producing countries of China, of Upper
Assam. and in the English possessions on
the southern slope of the Himalaya mount
aims, and have seen the western slope OF
our Sierra Nevadas, are uniformly i'm
pressed with the similarity of the general
appearance of the climate and natural
products of the soii. We have been struck
with the uniformly expressed opinion OF
such persons that our Sierra Nevada foot
hills, at an elevation usually experiencing
in the winter season, fall of snow of from
two TO five feet, possesses all the requisites
of good tea country. We have also con
versed with natives from the tea districts
of China. and we find their conclusions tc
be the same. One intelligent Chinaman
went so far as to say that If the State will
give bounty on tea he would prove that
California is as good a tea country as
China. Considering the annual cost OF
our teas, the circumstances above named,
and the fact that we have such vast
region of this description of country, value
less at present for any other known pur-
pose and that we have among us large
population many of whom are acquainted
with the business in all its details, we sug-
gest whether it would not be well to hold
out such encouragement as will induce
the experiment of tea culture in Cali
fornia."
FIRST EXPERIMENT IN CALIFORNIA.
This suggestion evidently awakened in
terest in the subject, for we find that about
that time one J. II. Schnell-a gentleman
of German origin, who had resided some
ten years in the tea-growing districts of
Japan, and was married to japanese lady
came to California with a colony of ma
tives of that country and established a
plantation in the vicinity of Gold Hill,
near Coloma, Ell Dorado county, at an alti-
tude of about 1900 feet. The plantation
was located in shallow basin near the
summit of the general plateau. The sur
face was gently rolling. drained by few
shallow ravines the soil being of a light
brown gravelly nature, made up of the
wash and decomposed elements of a granite
formation, and resting at a few feet below
upon a bedrock of rotten granite. Black
and white oaks of various species grew in
scattered groups on the knobs. The soil
was not as red as that around Placerville
ard throughout the mining region gener-
ally, but was of a character that produced
well the ordinary grasses and farm crops,
and the luxuriant orchards, vinegar and
gardens throughout the vicinity clearly es-
tabGshed the tact of its fertility.
Sehnell purchased for IS 900 a tract of
some 600 acres, containing buildings and
other improvements He planted about
100000 young tea plants which he brought
with him from Japan. These he planted
IN small hills or groups containing five
plants each. the intention being to have
them form one bush as they grew up. His
first season was a very dry one, and several
of the young plants died from lack of
moisture. This induced q number of super
fetal observers to pronounce the expert
ment a failure. but subsequent results
proved them to be mistaken Schnelrs
experience in Japan had taught him that
the tea plant hourishcd better and pro-
duced betterf favored article when depend
ing upon the natural rains than when stin-
ulated by artificial irrigation But not
having had sufficient experience with our
dry seasons-and especially with the dryest
of the dry-he neglected the proper pre-
cautions until it was too late to save the
affected plants. he also did not sufficiently
discriminate between the feeble pow
ers of endurance of an infant plant
and those of one of mature growth,
ana he seems not to have made
suificien. allowance for the pris-ations
which TIE plants lad suffered by tie long
voyage and detention at the Custom house.
He at last resorted TO irrigation, ard had
the satisfaction of finding, as the result,
many of his dried-up plants sending up
new shoots from the.xoots. By this timely
action he managed 70 save some 300s00
OF his COS plants. But even had all his
imported plants persisted. his success with