The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-30
Rice Was First Foreign Plant
 to Win LaureIs
TEA IS ALSO SUCCESSFUL
olives, Lemosn, cltrons, PIneapples and Other Frults Are All Being
 Successfully Grown In
 the United states.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKlN.

Wlln lne iauuHDle amDltlon 10 ldls5 within her own borders every luxury, as well as every staple food her people might need, the United States has been busily adapting foreign plants to the soils and climate of her own dominions. The result in many instances has been highly satisfactory and optimistic experimenters look forward to the day when this coun- try will be exporting the same eommodi- ties that she now imports at a cost of many millions of dollars each year.
 Rice was the thsts adopted plant to prove It's commercial value though 1t was some time in the proving. South Carolina had satisfactory crops of 1t in the latter part of the seventeenth century, her low lands being admirably adapted to its cu1- ture. Since 1t is the staple food of half the world, 1t is a grain of no inconsid- erable importance, and It's cultivation needful thing in country using as much of 1t as ours. For nearly 200 years the output of rice In the United States was confined to South Carolina, North Caro- Ina and Georgia, with a small amount raised in Louisiana by the 'Cajans. Up to 1867 the yield for the first three states had averaged over 1O5,00o,OO0 pounds of cleaned rice each year for fifteen years.
 Then Louisiana began to raise 1t on a noticeable scale. The very old hand methods of planting, gathering and threshing obtained generally when in 1884 there came some Immigrants from the wheat countries of the northwest to revo- lutionize things They looked over the level Louisiana lands and saw that prop CT irrigation of the buckshot soil would not make 1t impossible for heavy teams. After installing system Of reservoirs, canals and wells, they brought down the wheat machinery they had used in their northern fields and with slight modifica- vesting of rice.
 A field of from 200 to 300 acres can be seeded to rice by one farmer, a helper and good teams, while the use of harvest CTS has demonstrated that one of those can do work for forty men. This intro duction of rice farming on large scale in Louisiana was followed by a Texas venture. In 1900 A. P. Borden of Pierce put in 16O acres of rice on a prarIe in Matagorda county ana, despite green hands, uns' management and ter rlfic storm ifs crop for sS5 an acre when 1t hs Jim only s15. He used the seed of the famous Kiushiu rice which withstands storms and which can be threhed and polished with less breaking than other varieties
 In 1904 there were 23O,500 acrer In that region in rice. the tract extending from the Mississippi to the Brazos Each year finds 5000 acres added to the rice lands, and experiments have showed that there Is available soil all along the east coast of the United States from New York to Florida, in Arkansas and even in some of the lake countries of the northwest Last years yield was in the neighborhood of 400,O 900 pounds, valued at $3,0O0 0Oo, which is only about half the amount the United States uses.
 While the United States is known to all the world as the great coffee drinking nation, the consumption of tea here is also a large item. In the year ending June 30, 1905, the imported tea amounted to 112, ,54 pounds, at a value of $18,- 119,310. The same year the tea farms of the United States yielded only six tons. While the amount was small. the flavor and strength of the American product most favorably with the foreign brew. 1t has proved its adaptability to the climatic conditions of certain sections, and when 1t can be raised at a moderate cost and marketed at the same price as the products of Japan, China, Ceylon and India 1t suggests itself as a profitable en- terprise for those willing to undertake its culture.
 The first tea plant in America was set out in Middleton Barony, near the Ash ley river fifteen miles from Charleston, s. C., by none other than the famous French botanist, Michaux. This has grown Into a small tree since It's planting in 1SO4. In 1892 the department of agricul- ture undertook experiments in South Car olina though it gave up the work at many stations before definite conclusions were reached. As early as 184S Dr. Junius Smith had a successful planting of tea, but the first marketable tea was from the plantation of Dr. Charles U. Shepard of Summerville, s. C., who sold some, in Baltimore in 1892.
 Experts pronounced the Summerville product equal to any of the English breakfast teas. The Shepard farm Is known as the Pinehurst estate. and has a large grove of Assam Hybrid bushes. Negroes are employed in the picking of the leaves, and have proved more effi- cinet than Orientals. A rather unique so- lution of the question of labor has been made there. In order to insure skilled pickers, a good school was built, good teachers employed and all the little ne- groes for miles around were invited to attend free of charge. Besides the les sons they were taught how to pick tea and then given regular employment out side of school hours. making enough to buy clothes and food.
 A private corporation known as the American Tea Growing company has a successful farm in Colleton county, South Carolina. while at South Fraser, and the Rose Tea Garden stations, various teas are proving their worth. Among the varieties that have proved their hardi- hood in the South Carolina climate are Dragons Pool. Assam Hybrid, Darjeel- Ceylon At the experiment station near Wharton, Texas, and in California. tea has been found to grow well. In China the ten yield is rarely over 200 pounds to the acre. The Pinehurst plantation frequently produces as high as 250 pounds from small trees. The best Chinese tea comes from old trees, some of which are 200 years old
 The good old padres of Father Juni- pero Serra's mission band brought the olive with them into California. and In the San Fernando valley, where there Is now the largest olive ranch in the world, there stin remains the great stone basin and stone press in which the fa- thers made oil for their own use. Eu- ropeau olive trees bear little until fifteen years old, and are not fully productive until they arc thirty In California two