The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-17

shall be a demand in the United States
for teas costing $40 a pound and up
wards, as in the far Orient, where such
prices are not infrequent.'
DR.. Shepard said in this connection
that the finest green teas sold in the
East metimes as high as $50 pound,
when the tea exported to America sold
at the ports for about Is cents per
pound. Foreigners could not use this
tea, whether or not they were willing
to pay the big prices. because it would
not bear transportation.
Continuing. he said: "Other things
being equal, the cost of a tea depends
somewhat on the amount of skilled la
Dor expended upon it, but chiefly on the
'fineness of the leaf-plucking. To pick at
Pinehurst only the Pekoe tips, which
are as yet unfolded leaf at the end of
the young shoot, might cost ten dol
lars per pound of dry tea; to strip the
leaf by wholesale, as is done during
the great early summer crop in China,
would cost but a few cents per pound.
1t is the fineness of the plucking that
chiefly determines the value of the
product.
"The introduction of modern tea
making machinery Invented princi-
pally at Pinehurst) has improved the
cup qualities of Pinehurst black tea
and rendered entirely unnecessary the
disgust so often expressed by Oriental
travellers at the unstinted blending OF
human sweat in the laborious manlpu-
lation of the tea leaf in often super
heated factories. The Pinehurst prod
net passes from one mechanical treat
ment to another with the least posi-
BILE handling, and the pure cover nota-
BILE for it's uniformity and especially
for the pre-eminence among other teas
in fragrance and deiicacy, and yet by
no means lacking in strength.
A notable gain has been made IN
the mechanical manufacture OF green
tea during the past season at Pine
hurst The adaptation of machinery TO
the curing of black tea has long been
known and practiced, especially in the
British colonies, but with the excep-
ton of the steam process as yet only
slightly applied, ii remains to success
fully substitute mechanical operations
for hand or foot labor in the prepara-
ton of green tea. The expense or
labor preclude the practice OF the meth
cd here used in the East. BY means
of the rotary witherer" invented and
successfully applied at Pinehurst, the
tea leaf, fresh from the garden. is
quickly and satisfactorily prepared for
the further steps of mechanical rolling
and firing at a medium of risk ana ex-
pense. and with a resultant product
which has received from tea experts
very high praise. These teas are de-
void of all adulteration whether for
taste or color.
Special trials have been made on
certain areas with both black and
green teas, and the results. although
these gardens in a year or two are
expected to double in productiveness,
are already profitable. There is
steady demand for all the black tea
produced at the rate OF one dollar a
pound. This tea is grown from an ex-
ceptionally fine seed procured from
China. II cannot stand transportation
for long distances and retails in the
province in which IT grows for $3.50
pound. These gardens will produce 300
pounds of tea year, and a
profit of 20 cents a pound would pay
about ten times more than good cotton
land. DR.. Shepard has sold some tea,
so fine as to be almost dust, for Sl2
pound
The general interest which the Pine
hurst experiments have wrought
throughout the country, as exemplihed
by the honors conferred upon them at
the Pan-American Exposition, is man
Testing itself in the actual inquiry of
capitalists In the new industry. and II
Is now admitted that the schemes
which at the outset appeared so CHM
erical has actually attained special
Importance. one of the early results
will be an attempt TO have an Import
duty placed on tea. The United States
stands alone among nations IN this re-
spect Free trade Great Britain i'm.
poses a duty OF cents pound on tea
from her own colonies, and they fur
nish almost an that she consumes. The
other countries OF Europe place duty
OF from 20 10 40 centF on tea~Rusria
having the best tea, placing the high
cot duty Immense quantities. ~ the
cheaper sort 0f tea r. thrown upoh the
United states.
Dr. Shepard fayors duty on tea
while admitting the better sorts may
he made proNtqbly without 49, fhiuks
l0 certs would nCf be- 600 much Where
climate und lHh0r beet fupsfrye she
knows "a no more promising undcrtak-