Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-08-05
RAISING TEA IN AMERICA.
The Pioneer Plantation Is at Pinehurst In
South Carolina.

South Carolina.
The only plantation Oh this continent
where tea is grown successfully for the
market is at Pinehurst, s. G. Dr.
| Charles q. Shepard, who is making Tea
culture his life work, thinks 20 acres
enough to lay out in gardens at present
| though eventually he expects to double
this area. And it is a queer looking
| patch, this 20 acres. The doctor has
simply made a clearing in the woods,
and as the visitor energies from the
trees into the open space he sees what
is apparently a stunted peach orchard,
only the leaves are too small and of
very dark green. On closer examina-
ton the leaves resemble those on cur
rant bushes, though they grow on stalks
thick enough for tree branches. Some
plants are as high as the waist and
some nearly as high as the head. Plant
ed at regular intervals and in rows with
branches carefully pruned, they resem-
BILE an orchard of small fruit trees, with
the branches forking like peaches. But
it is not an orchard. 1t is a garden
similar to thousands in China and other
Asiatic countries. Tt is genuine tea
garden.
To those who have seen the cheap
prints and china representations of tea
bushes growing on mountain sides these
straight rows along the fiat ground have
an unfamiliar look, but it is the eli
mate, and not SO much the clay of the
land" that fosters them. Right in this
Carolina forest the temperature happens
to be the best in the country for tea
growing. 1t is just about warm enough,
and just about moist enough, and heat,
combined with moisture, is the spe-
cial requirement to make good tea
leaves. The 20 acres of gardens con-
tain several thousand shrubs - From
these the owner hopes to secure this
year about 1000 pounds of black tea,
which will retail at 81 and 81. 40 per
pound Last year his crop was about
500 pounds from an area of 15 acres.
This is considerably better than raising
cotton at the present prices, SO he thinks.
The garden contains shrubs raised
from tea seed imported from Japan.
China, Ceylon, Formosa and Asam,
Asia; also what are called Assam by
birds, which are considered the most
profitable, and Ceylon hybrids, which
are obtained by mixing the seed of the
pure Assam or Ceylon with some other
grade.
The shrubs grow six feet apart, as
they require a large amount of nourish-
ment and exhaust a large area of ground
Shingles or straw are placed over the
plants when the first shoots appear, Ind
every care is taken to protect them from
frost until they have reached a height
of two or three feet, when they become
fairly hardy and can Withstand usually
the changes of temperature which occur
during the year. The shrubs can be
grown by grating, but are less hardy
than if raised by the seeding process.
When the shrub is about three feet
high, the harvesting of the tea begins,
and this is perhaps the most interesting
stage of all. Armed with a sharp knife,
the fieldhand cuts off in May about half
Of the leaves and smaller branches. If
the growth has been healthy, the shrub
throws out a new foliage of leaves az
once. These are the tea leaves Of COM
merce They will run from one to two
inches i'll length, according to the vari
ETY.. They are picked off as fast as they
reach suitable size, and the operation
is repeated from May until October as
often as the leaves come out. 1t is term
ed flushing" The most profitable spe
cies are naturally those that can bear
the most flushing At Pinehurst seven
is the largest number of fushes during
the season. - America s Only Tea Gar
den" in Boston Herald