The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-09
ONLY WOMAN TEA GROWER
MRS. ELLSWORTH NOW HAS TEN
ACRES IN BEARING.
She Turned to IL because m Had Failed
10 Mako Her Cotton Farm Pay-NOw
she Thinks There IL . Great Future
for the Industry In South Carolina.

$50 far a. / have ever heard / am the only
woman tea grower In the country Mrs.
Clara Ellsworth OF South Carolina told a
Son reporter who saw her during her last
visit TO New York. If you want the exact
truth I must admit that I turned my farm
into a tea garden because 1 had failed to
make cotton planting pay.
About ten years ago IN one of my trips
10 Charleston / went out to PinehuTSt, DR..
shepard's tea garden at Summerville, and
what | saw there put me TO thinking. i
had three children 10 rear n educate
On what | could make from a three hundred
acre farm. | had tried cotton for three
years and | was about deciding hat II my
children we're to be educated | must get
into town and try keeping a boarding
house. You know how Southern women
Ire-all we know how to do is to keep house
and raise children.
Il learned ali | could on that first visit
% the Pinehurst tea garden and e |
vent home | gave the matter serious CON
rideration. Before reaching my final de-
cision I called in my eldest child, a boy II
Years old, and laid the matter before him.
not with any thought of shifting the re-
sronsibility to his shoulders, but because
ne NdE q pEllolpIc " oAlN 4 eAiNS w AhAN'
ont how he felt about giving up the farm
and going TO town TO live.
He was very pronounced in his desire
70 remain in the country. He wanted
"a peg along in the country school until
he was old enough TO go TO college,
AS my Judgment agreed with his wishes
decided to try growing tea as a surplus
rop instead OF cotton. For the first three
years did not reduce my acreage OF cotton.
Hiring one more hand than l had before
devoted all the time and labor that I could
TO preparing my tea garden. s
Il selected loamy fertile soil. just such
and as l had noticed rave the best results
IN the Shepard tea garden, and after having
It carefully prepared l set out my young
plants. From these plants in the second
year | gathered and sold a little more than
fifty pounds Of green tea to the acre.
Il was out Of pocket, of course, for the
amount brought In did not cover the two
wears expense. Realizing that the heaviest
expense was preparing the ground and
now have ten acres, which last year aver
aged about two hundred and sixty pounds
~ tea 10 the acre.
Selling this at 81 a pound my profit
10 little less than IS cents on the pound.
Not a large profit, perhaps, but greater
.lldu l a SNtA DSpi ~ q Oh q
cotton crop.
when you take into consideration the
fact that every year my tea plants become
more valuable and require less work than
during the first three years l fancy you will
agree with ne that II il a safer venture for
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 a measure at least
he counted on, while the price Of cotton,
As every one now 10 as variable as the
Wind.
ITO grow tea TO advantage the tempera-
,ure should never fall below twenty degrees
and there should be a good rainfall. I was
'autioned against planting tea in swampy
bottoms where the rain was not quickly
-arained off. So in selecting my tea fields.
while I kept to the bottom lards az much
"a possible, because It lie more fertile than
he upland, l was careful to make the drain
ing perfect.
ny plants have done so well. They are in
fertile bottoms, where though the moisture
10 plentiful the drainage is perfect.
'0nce a year the tea plant must lie
pruned severely. Were it not for this prun-
ing it would become a tree. What effect
this growth would nave on the taste Of the
Ieat Of course / have no means OF judging,
but know it would make it very much more
difficult to pick.
AT present l handle my crop entirely
Win negroes. from lnS preparation Vi Jne
soil to the packing Tor shipment, every
stroke Of work is don by negroes. Some
day. however, l hope to be able 10 put in
machinery such as DR.. Shepard uses on his
Pinehurst tea farm. l don't believe the
,lse Of machinery changes the taste Of the
lea a particle n IL certainly facilitates
handling
The pruning OF the plants is a task calling
for care, but I have so far been able TO get
all the careful negro men necessary. In
picking the leaves ! much prefer negro
children. They make the best cotton
has been much greater than mine in tea
raising. finds that they do as well with tea.
I have never had occasion TO try any other
class Of pickers.
That is another point in which | hope to
I've able - follow the example of the owner
of Pinehurst. He has picking schools in
which the little darkies are taught just
what tea leaves to pluck and how TO pluck
HON
When these pickers are not working in
he tea fields there are schools for them TO
attend. SO far as ! am able to Judge tea
picking is the ideal out OF door labor for
children. Aside from walking up n
down the rows OF plants there is nothing
liresome about IL.
After the picking comes the grading.
mixing, driving and polishing. Polishing
tea is a discovery of DR.. Shepard. ] believe,
He discovered that by stirring the dried
lea ybu could give 1t the gray appearance
noticeable in the best Oriental varieties,
This stirring we call polishing. In the ORR
ental goods it Is produced by mixing with
he dry tea powdered tale.
Strange as II may seem, tea is not a pleas
ant plant to work with. Not until 1t is
thoroughly dried, just as you buy 1t from your
grocer, does 1t have that pleasant pungent
odor that we call the tea smell. While in
preparation the odor to many is exceedingly
unpleasant.
THE plant itself is not particularly beau
titul, certainly nothing to compare TO the
cotton plant. The leaves. as you can see
BY unrolling a leaf Of the dried tea, are
small and OF no particular beauty.
'0n the bush the leaf is OF q velvety APP
pearance and when the bush ID kept closely
pruncd the plants have the dense foliage we
associate with a good hedge. They are not
planted IA hedges. however. as each plant
must he set far enough from the others to be
Forkei and picked on all sides. In pruning
lie young twigs that are. clipped OF are
dropped on the ground and ploughed under
Tor fertilizer.
Or. Shepard's tea garden is worked
9Th the cooperation Of the United States
DEPARTMENT OF Agriculture, 80 OF course
d lerson going into the business feels quite
ale in following what have been proved
'ohe the best methods on that farm, There
: now another large tea garden In South