The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-03

! PINEHCRST.
som in lavish profusion and the most
gorgeous specimens of chrysanthemums
are seen. In fact, nearly every sweet scent
ed flower that grows, native or exotic, has
found home at Pinehurst.
DR.. Shepard has also proved beyond
question the possibilities of successful tea
culture at Pinehurst, that which is grown
there being equal to the tea of Ceylon, and
its demand at 81 pound being greater
than the present supply.
Nothing Is more agreeable than an in
vitation TO a o'clock tea at which DR.
Shepars's special product is dispensed
Apart from its fragrant aroma and deli
cious flavor, Zest is given TO the appetite
by a knowledge of its pedigree DR.. Shop
ard being = most painstaking and con-
scientious gentleman and scientist, keep
ing his farm in vigorous and healthy
condition. Withal it is an experiment
that has attracted much official attention.
DR.. Gotham, who has for % years been o
coffee and tea planter in the island of Cey-
Ion, recently said that he regarded the cul-
ture and manufacture of tea at Pinehurst
as a great success.
The girls and boys employed on the
farm pluck with care, the men roll eff
GENTLY and the American evaporatOrs fire
successfully, giving low temperature for
the fine orange Pekoe and a high tempera-
turc for lowery Pekoe and Pekoe Sou
chang. PekOe means white down" IN
Chinese and consists of the first downy
sprouts or leaf buds of three year old
plants"
BY the way, he advises all teagrowers
to use only the best Assam hybrid tea seed,
since it ''fiushes' and pays better in cul-
tivation than the low tut China bush,
which runs to seed at an early age.
According to his estimate, the cost of
cultivation of 10 acres of land in as good
condition as those of DR.. Shepard is as fol-
lows: Labor, $500; manure, 500; pluck
ing leaf, $3.50; factory work. $500; chests
and packing. $3.50; total 50, 300
From these 10 acres, at the very lowest
estimate, 5, 600 pounds of marketable tea
should be gathered, salable at 81 per
pound. Giving the farmer a clear profit
Of $500 or $40 per acre.
These, he says, are bottom figures,
and a good farmer could make much
more. He thinks tea growing will pay
well in the state and that the time is not
far distant when it will be a profitable
substitute for cotton. inasmuch as il grows
as well here with 60 inches Of rainfall as
it does in Ccylon with 80 inches, Ceylon
being only degrees north of the equator
Georgia has also recently sent some fine
tea To market, for which so cents per
pound has been realized. Professor Massey
of the state agricultural college says that
the finest tea he ever tasted was grown in
the south. and he has no doubt il viii be
future profitable crop in the Carolinas.
Mr.. jackson, another expert teagruwer
from Assam, says that with negro labor
he can raise tea at the south more cheaply
than with cody labor i'm India because the
former il more reliable than the latter
The cultivation Of tea has never been
successful north Of 80 degrees. but south Of
this, in the pine belts, from Raleigh 70 the
gulf, the plant can be grown with success
and profit 10 the farmers.
The tea plant resembles the camellia ia
ponica. II i an ornamental evergreen, the
flower being Of the sweetest fragrance and
OF delicate beauty. Tea gardens were at
tempted at the south before the war, but
they never amounted TO anything more
than an experiment. rice and cotton claim
ing supremacy in all the lower ATTITUDES
Throughout the south coffee as a bcver-
age j. preferred % tea, while IN the north
tea Is the universal tipple- Among Euro
pean nations tea is pre-eminently Brit
ish, Dutch and Russian drink, coffee and
coca being more used among the other
European nations.
In fact, the love Of warm drinks pre-
walls almost universally. In frozen Lab
rador and snowy Russia" writes an oh
serving traveller "the climate might a.
count for this prediction, but the crav-
ing i really deeper seated The practice
prevails equally i'm tropical and n arctic
regions. IN Central America the Indian
Of native blood and the creole q mixed
European race indulge alike IN their an
cient chocolate. In southern America the
tea 81 Paraguay j. an almost universal
beverage. The .'ve North American
tribes formerly la-td their appalachian
tea, their Oswego tea, their Labrador tea
and many others. bus from FLORIDA %
Georgia II the United States and al over
the West India islands the nefUralized
European races SID their favorite coffee
On the contrary, in the northern states %
the Mon and in the British provinces the
ia u China l. in constant and daily ~. ~
spain and italy delight in chocolate,
J rance and Germany AID Sweden AID
Turkey in coffee. Russia, Holland and Ing
land IN tea. while poor Ireland makes St.
warm drink = Tire hEsks Of the COCA f
when they can gct u. TIE refuse o. the
chocolate mills q Italy and Spzin
GEOEGg 3. ELUEE