Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-20
HOMEGROWN TEA
The Fragrant Plant Native
of the North.
HISTORY OF CULTURE
EXPERIMENTS IN SOUTH CARO-
LIMA AND OTHER STATES.
High-Grade Leaf May Be Cultivated
in the United States With Profit
Curing the Herb.

Edward Bedloe in the Charleston News and Courier.
That fine tea could be grown in the
United States has been known for more
than q century. That 1t could be grown
probably and upon SO large a scale as to
be made the basis of a national industry
has al last been demonstrated after years
of the hardest labor. The problem has
been difficult one, and had to be solved
along lines wherein the American horticul-
turist had no experience. Besides the prac
teal work of the field, there were involved
a study of tea culture in She far east and
compilation of facts from Japan, China,
Formosa, India and Ceylon. A hundred
trained observers have done this work and
the many obscure points and problems
which once confronted the experimenter
have been completely elucdated.
In the beginning it was believed that tea
was a tropical plant and would not thrive
in the temperate zone. This view, al
though held by many well-informed per-
sons today, was soon modified, and the
herb claSsed subtropical in character
OF late years this opinion has been revou-
tionized, and it is now held that the plant
originally belonged to northern country in
the neighborhood of the Hoang-Ho, and
that 1t has acquired the power of thriving
in warm ATTITUDES by careful selection and
cultivation.
North China It's Home.
The first references to tea are found in the
early literature Of old China which includ-
ed the territory of what are now the prov
inces, in whole or part, of Chilli, Ho Ham,
Shen-Si, Shan-Si and Shan Tung This
country corresponds in climate to the
northern states of the Union, having heavy
SHOWS in the winter, thaws rains and
freshets in the spring and high heat at in
tervals during the summer. Here the tea
plant appears to have been first domesti-
Gated and its leaves used to make the
cheering beverage now enjoyed by the civil
lied world. From this district seeds, roots
and young bushes were taken to Japan in
the early part of the Christian era How
far they prospered at first is as yet I'm
known. At any rate, In the seventeenth
century japanese tea culture was q sue
cess, al d, although the leaf is not so high
ly esteemed as the finer grades imported
from China, 1t is very popular among the
masses of the island kingdom. At the
present time Japan has fine tea industry
the leaf TO the United States and other
countries. The fact is of value because in
climate Japan may be compared in the
south to Virginia and In the north to the
southern portion of Ontario.
The Chinese themselves carried the leaf
southwark as the Chinese empire conquered
the eastern halfeof Asia, and by the twelfth
century grew itLsuceessfully in each of the
eighteen prOVf1EtS4tE Uprising the empire
of China. In s6he beginning of the nine
teenth century, thanks to intelligent and pa
tient cultivation, the tea plant had range
from Siberia and northern Japan in the
north to the islana of Formosa and HI
Nan in the soath..s The story, and it is a
great romance, of how the British govern
ment and the British planters extended this
range to the sou Inward and made tea Gull
ture a profitable Industry In India. Assam
and CeyloD Is welltknoWn. 1t Is not so gen
orally known that 1.-THE French have raised
the leaf in InddSChsna, the Dutch in Java.
Sumatra and Borneo, and the English in
the Malay peninsula. The result of this
work has beenshAt the leaf is now grown
in Asia from the equator to As degrees north
latitude. The corresponding stretch of ter
ritory in the western hemisphere would be
from the Amazon river in Brazil to Port
land. Ore, or Bangor Me. So far as iso-
thermal lines are concerned, it is now
known that the plant will grow in any state
of the American Union.
Secrets of Tea Curing.
When 1t was attempted to learn the Sc
crets of tea curing in China and Japan,
with a view TO utilizing them In the United
States, the first investigators were amazed
and disappointed at the numerous opera
-tions which were employed by the orieutals
in their work. What at first seemed SIM
plicity itself turned out to be exceedingly.
complicated. There were rules as 10 the
planting of the seed, the preparation Of the
soil, the culture of the young plants the
reinforcement of rain by irrigation. the use
of fertilizers and the picking of the leaf.
there were no less than twelve distinct