Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1890-05-16
In AN INDIA TEA FIELD.
A Brooklynite Who Knows All
About the Fragrant Leaf
China Has No Longer Monopoly of Sup
plying the Cup That Cheers and
Does Not Inebriate - Brand
Straight and "Faced."

'It is surprising how little people
know about tea The consumption of
this article in the United States
amounts to thousands of chests annu-
ally, and yet not one person in thou
sand knows any thing about the growth
and subsequent preparation of the
fragrant leaf before it is put on the
market, and l may add that very few
know how to make tea when they have
the material at hand"
This was what Mr.. James Virtue, of
465 Fifth avenue, said to Brooklyn
Eagle writer the other day. Mr.. Virtue
is Scotchman by birth and for eight
cen years was superintendent of tea
fields or commands, as they are called
in India. Most of this time he spent in
the Doaars and Dagelling provinces,
which are in the northeast portion of
India and about four hundred and fifty
miles from Calcutta. Being asked to
tell something of what he knew of tea
culture Mr., Virtue continued: ''The
general idea is that all teas come from
China or Japan. This is an erroneous
supposition The tea planting industry
in India is by no means new one, and
its steady success has comm apded for it
extended territory, and has been the
means of giving employment to
thousands of natives who would other
wise have been idle or next door to it.
Tea gardens or plantations in India are
known in the trade as commands, with
only one m. In China and Japan these
commands are from one and half to two
acres in extent rarely more than four,
while in India they will include from a
thousand to fifteen hundred acres, and
this would be about the average, al
though there are some much larger.
The Assam Tea Company, for instance,
has 'comand' of 1000 acres On it are
employed seventy Europeans-chiefly
English-as overseers and 25 600 natives
who do the work. The company has its
own stores, supplies all groceries, cloth
ing, liquors, etc, to its employees, has a
theater, and in fact the 'comand is
really city within itself. The manu-
facturer of tea depends to large extent
upon the honesty of the men engaged in
the business. There can be either a
straight or a faced tea, Bya straight
tea | mean leaf straight from the
bush; by faced tea I mean tea that
has been cut and used and again bruised
and faced with iron filings, indigo,
aloes and various other compounds. The
former manufacture is Indian, the lat
ter Chinese. The tree planters of India
are generally honest, and pride them
selves upon giving straight article.
Indian tea, especially Assams, are
grown in very forcing climate marked
by great warmth and humidity. The
soil is loamy and stony. The climate
3 is detrimental to Europeans, being
muggy and full of malaria and few but
natives can reside there for any length
of time. Europeans are always EN-.
ployed as managers or overseers, who
watch the natives at their work, being
incapable themselves of doing any
manual labor on account of the intense
heat The workers are natives of Hin
dostan and most of the piclSers are
women, AS a rule, they are very tract
able. The women work eleven or twelve
hours day, and the men, who are the
cultivators, eight hours only. The tea
manufacturers, who are also men, work
sixteen hours. Tea is grown from
seed which, of course, is obtained from
the tree, and is either planted seed a
stake (Which means that small stalk,
is used to make hole in the soil, tn,
seed dropped in and covered), or iron
what is called transplanting Seeding
which is taken from forcing bed an,
transplanted in the regular soil, Thi
planting is done in the rainy season
which lasts from May to November
This seed wants great deal of atter
ton. The lines or rows must be regu
larly dug and weeded by hand at leas
once a month to prevent the growth {
Jungle which is very prolific in sue
climate. Each plant requires
space to itself about five fec
square, and seed at stake will sho
above ground in from three to fou
months after planting. A transplante
Seeding will appear in half the tim,
The plant grows luSt ike young |
tree. 1t requires much care and clear
ing until the end of the second seasol
when the bush will have attained
height of from three to three and ha
feet / have known a tree to grow
high as twelve feet. lfitwas left aloI
the tea plant would reach height
fifteen or twenty feet and, as l sal
would be like fir tree in shape, but v
prune it about twenty inches from Il
ground. SO as to educate it to spread al
thus yield finer leaf, to give mo
surface and a more delicate product.
we allowed it to grow, it would sap
self and its leaves would be WORTHLESS
The pruning is done in December al
the plucking begun Immediately {
sap rises, which is about from the mi
die of March to the first week in Apr
The branch from the parent stem W