Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-05-24
SOUTHERN GROWN TEA
BY No Means an Impossible Prod
uct of America.
Staple Crop Of Far East Gives Promise
Of Playing Important Role In In
dustrles of Southern States
Annual Consumption.

American tea Is by no means an
impossible product of the future"
says Secretary Wilson OF the depart
ment of agriculture, he being OF the
opinion that the obstacles in the way
of this achieyeAent may finally be
overcome by persistent effort.
Tea is a staple crop of Indfa. Ceylon.
China and Japan, where cheap labor Is
abundant, and at present extends the
promise of playing an important role
in the industries OF the southern
states.
The work In tea culture carried on
at Summerville, s. c., has continued to
give favorable results, and although
last season was somewhat discouragS
ing from the standpoint of rainfall the
year was very satisfactory. A machine
to prune the plants either in the fiat or
convex type of cut has done successful
work, saving expensive hand labor.
and tea-picking apparatus is now re-
ceiving attention, and some small
samples of machine-picked tea have
been obtained When these two operr
atoms are successfully done by ma
chimes, the labor problem in the Amer
lean tea raising industry will have
been solved.
OF the worlds annual consumption,
exclusive of the very large local use
in China (the extent of which cannot
be determined) amounting to about
70O,OOO,OO0 pounds, 150,000.000 is pro-
duced in China, and the recent trou-
BILE there is bound to interfere to
great extent with this industry and
will in all probability bring about a
readjustment Of the tea trade OF the
world.
The people of the United States, al
though considered a coffee-drinking
nation, consume annually upward OF
100,000,000 pounds of tea, for which
$16,000,000 or more are paid. The
imports of tea for every fifth year
from 1853 to 1908 inclusive. show
general increase in the quantity OF tea
imported, and 1t is possible by estab-
fishing tea industry at home to great
ly increase the consumption, as has
been done in Great Britain since tea,
became staple of her colonies In the
East Indies.
The secretary asserts that ''the abil-
ity Of the tea plant to adapt itself to
wide range of conditions is exceeded
only by wheat, and that the climate
of the southern states is in general
fairly suited to its cultivation; for
although the rainfall Is much less than
In most of the tea-producing countries,
the Average annual. temperature -
lower. hence there is less evaporation
and therefore less rainfall is needed.
For its successful growth, the tea
drained, friable and easily psnetrable
loan, containing large amount OF
well decomposed organic matter, such
as is found in much of the southern
territory.
In establishing tea plantation
there is nothing more important than
the selection of the seed, especially
when imported. AS about one only in
every three shipments arrive In good
terminating condition, the cost OF i'm
portation assumes high figure. When
gardens become general in this coun-
try the expense of importation will
become unnecessary, and even now tea
seed gathered from Pinehurst, South
Carolina, costs less than five dollars
per 100 pounds. while imported seed
cost $50 per 10 pounds. The difference
of cost of labor which would appear to
condemn the attempt to establish tea
| industry here, does not exist to the ex-
tent generally believed"