Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-05-10
TEA CULTURE IN THE SOUTH.
United States May Supply the Homo Market
with Finest Tea Known.
[Bufraloo (N. w Evening News.l


as to attract the attention of the
country. The leader in this work is
Major r.. ID. Trimble, native of
New York State, who has been con-
dncting experiments in tea growing
and has succeeded " degree 80 re-
larkable as to indicate wonderful
development of tea growing in the
.>Southern part of the United States.
For generations it has been sup
posed that tea could be grown only
in China and japan, but of late years
India has developed large tea
growing industry, and within SO
years Ceylon is very much engaged
in it, and now it is transferred also
TO the United States. In fact such
chills as are in the winter air of
South Carolina but improve and
help the plants, so that in luxuriant
growth American tea gardens are in
advance of the average Asiatic gar
de-, and natives of Japan who have
visited Pinehurst have expressed
thcir wonder at the splendid growth
and production of the plants in: that
vicinity.
1t is the handling of the tea crop
chat makes the different varieties
and makes them more or less valua-
ble. The supposition that therei are
different kinds of plants themselves
from which the varying qualities 'are
gathered is a mistake. 1t is inIthe
early and the later gatherings and in
the maturing of them that the high
quality, or inferior quality of. the tea
is developed.
The imports of tea in this country
cost about fifteen million dollars a
year. The expansion of the tea
growing business of the South is so
rapid as to lead to the belief that the
American market may be supplied
with domestic tea before many years
have passed-time being required
chiefly for the growth of the tea
plant 10 bring it to bearing conditions
as well as to educate those who work
IN tea gardens to do so to the best
advantage.
The treatment of the tea from the
picking through the sorting and up
to the firing, az it is called, is fa-
miliar. This process ia shown at
Pinehurst and is of very great inter
est.
A wide stretch of country is
covered by this beautiful growth,
and after the American fashion the
fields are adorned with flower bushes
and foliage plants so that it is more
like an exquisite private park than
like an ordinary farm.
1t is recognized that Pinehurst tea
is OF the very finest quality grown.
A, the Exposition at St. Louis the
Oolong from Pinehurst took first
prize in competition with the finest
brands of tea from the old world.
The Department of Agriculture
OF the United States is taking the
greatest interest in the development
of tea growth and manufacture, and
the aid it has given has been a very
important factor in that work. This
is only one of the scores of instances
in which Secretary Wilson, the head
OF that department., has shown him
self to be conducting it on the
broadest lines of intelligence and
enterprise and far sightedness. The
trumphs achieved under the leader
ship of Secretary Wilson in the last
six or eight years have made new
record of success in the department
and placed Mr.. Wilson at the head
OF Secretaries of Agriculture.
Pinehurst tea farming is far past
Che experimental stage. 1t is more
rhan a mere culture and is becoming
an established occupation. 1t is also
not an exceptional thing possible
only in the vicinity of Summerville.
1t has taken root ere because f
the enterprise of citizens resident of
South Carolina, who first studied