The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1907-06-19
WOMAN TEA GROWER.
MRS ELLSWORTH NOW HAS TEN
ACRES IN BEARING.
Turned to 1t Because She Failed to
Make Cotton Pay-Thinks There Is
Great Future For Industry.

$50 far as I have ever heard I am
the only woman tea grower IN the
conntry." Mrs. Clara Ellsworth, Of
South Carolina, told a Sun reporter,
who saw her during her last visit to
New York. '.If you want the exact
tr.th. / must admit that turned my
farm into a tea garden because 1 had
failed to make cotton planting pay
about ten years ago on one Of my
trips to Charleston went OUT to Pine
hurst, DR.. Shepard's tea garden at
summerville, and what saw there
rut me to thinking. I had three chill
dren to rear and educate on what
could make from three-hundred
acre farm. I had tried cotton for
three years and I was about deciding
thatif my children We're to be educated
\ must get into town and try keeping
a boarding house. You know how
southern women are-all we know
how to do is to keep house and raise
children.
7 learned all could on that first
visit to the Pinehurst tea garden and
when I went home I gave the mater
serious consideration. Before reach
ing my dnal decision I. called in my
eldest child, a boy twelve years old,
and laid the matter before him, not
with any thought of shifting the re-
sponssbilisy to his shoulders, but be-
cause he was a sensible boy and
wanted to IND out how he felt about
giving up the farm and going to town
to live.
He was very pronounced in his ee-
sire to remain in the country. He
wanted to peg along in the country
school until he was old enough to go
to college.
LAS MY judgment agreed with his
wishes I decided to try growing tea as
2 surplus crop instead of cotton. For
the first three years 1 did not reduce
nv acreage of cotton. Hiring one
more hand than I had before, de-
voted al the time and labor that 1
could to preparing my tea garden
"I selected loany, fertile soil, just
such land as had noticed gave the best
results on the Shepard tea garden,
and after having it carefully prepared
I set out my young plants. From
these plants in the second year I
gathered and sold little more than
fifty pounds Of tea to the acre.
"I was out of pocket, of course, for
the amount brought in did not cover
the two years expense. Realizing
that the heaviest expense was prepar-
ing the ground and setting out the
p.ants I persevered until now have
ten acres, which last year averaged
about two hundred and sixty pounds
OF tea TO the acre.
Selling this at 81 a pound my pro-
f. IS a little less than Is cents on the
pound. Not a large profit, perhaps
bpt greater than I have ever been
able 10 make on a cotton crop.
.sWnen you take into consideration
tha fact that every year my tea plants
become more valuable and require
,ess work than during the first three
years. I fancy. you will agree with me
that it is e safer venture for a woman
farmer than cotton. Then, too the
Weather does not seem to affect the
tea plant as much as it does cotton
and the prices paid for tea can IN
q measure at least be counted on
while the price of cotton, as every one
knows. is as variable as the wind.
ITO grow tea to advantage the tenn
rerature should never fall oeio"
% degrees and there should be a good
,ainfall. was cautioned against
risnting tea in swampy bottoms
where the rain was not quickly drain
e6 off. So in selecting my tea fieids'
while kept to the bottom lands as
much as possible, because it is more
fertile than the upland, was careful
to make drainage perfect
That. think, is the chief reason
Nv nv nlants have done so we'll
they are in fertile bottoms, where
though the moisture is plentiful the
drainage is perfect.
"once year the sea plant must DC