TABLE 8.

Showing varieties most in demand in the United States:—

Varieties. Kinds. Quantity, Pounds.
Oolong, (Formosa), 10,000,000
“ (Amoy and Foochow), 8,000,000
Green Teas, (all kinds), 10,000,000
Japans, “ 38,000,000
Pekoes and Congous, (China), 10,000,000
India, Java and Ceylon, 6,000,000
————
Total, 82,000,000

During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, there was imported into the United States, at all ports, 84,627,870 pounds of tea, of which 43,043,651 pounds were received from China and 37,627,560 pounds from Japan, the balance consisting of imports from India, Java and Ceylon, received via England and Holland. The United States official reports show that tea represents 27 per cent. of the total value of imported merchandise into this country. The gross trade in the article, however, even at retail prices, does not exceed $35,000,000, the total annual value of all food products being about $220,000,000, of which tea only represents a value of $13,000,000, equivalent to about 6 per cent. of the whole.

In round numbers the consumption of tea in the principal importing countries has increased from 350,000,000 pounds in 1880 to upwards of 400,000,000 pounds in 1892. To which may be added for the minor consuming countries another 60,000,000 pounds, in which case we get a grand total of 460,000,000 pounds. Tea consumption in India and Ceylon is scarce worth computing, and it is also claimed that the consumption in China has been greatly exaggerated, for although the Chinese drink tea constantly much of the liquor is little different from hot water, so that to credit China and her feudatories with another 500,000,000 pounds would be an extravagant estimate. But, admitting it to be near the mark, we may then take in round numbers 1,000,000,000 pounds of leaf, or say 6,000,000,000 gallons, as the world’s annual consumption of tea. But it is confidently predicted that if peace be preserved and wealth and civilization continues to advance that much greater increase during the closing years of the present century and the whole of the twentieth century—for large portions of mankind are at length discovering that alcohol with its “borrowed fire” is a deceiver and a curse. If the civilization of an age or a community can be tested by the quantity of sulphuric acid which it uses, much more certainly can the moral status of a time and a people be judged by a comparison of the quantities of alcoholic and non-alcoholic stimulants it uses.

All teas have declined one-half in value during the past ten years, owing to the increased production of India and Ceylon, the position of the market at the present time is, however, unique and unusual. Heretofore the rule has been for the supply to exceed the demand, particularly of China tea, it being the custom to claim that the market would never run short of the latter, as the production could be increased to meet any sudden or excessive demand. Now, however, the position is entirely different, the shortage in China tea the past year reaching some 21,000,000 pounds, to which must be added the increase in consumption of 11,500,000 pounds, due in a measure to the reduction of the duty in England, against which deficit is to be placed the increase of production in India of 3,000,000 pounds, and that of Ceylon of 15,000,000 pounds, but still leaving a shortage of 14,000,000 pounds. This position has led to an advance in China common grades, part of which is undoubtedly due to speculation. With decreased imports and increased consumption in the market, however, appears to have all the requisite of strength to sustain it, and it will be years before it reaches its late low point again.

With the great reduction in importation price and keener competition the retail prices have been brought down to a very low figure, and as the dealer has educated the public to the purchase of poor teas at low prices it is not likely that the retail prices of teas will ever reach any higher figure unless war or other cause should lead to a duty being placed on the article. Yet, notwithstanding these unprecedented low prices, the per capita consumption of tea is comparatively very low in this country at the present time, one of the chief causes being traceable to the custom prevalent among dealers of charging exorbitant profits in order to make up for the losses made in other goods. This impolitic practice may be forgiven were it not for the greater mistake they make of sacrificing quality to profit, which in articles of daily use like tea is an important consideration. By rectifying this error, and giving more attention to the careful selection of their teas, there is no valid reason why the consumption of tea in this country could not at the least calculation be doubled, more particularly in the present state of the coffee market, as it is generally calculated that one pound of good tea equals four pounds of coffee in amount and strength of its extract, besides being cheaper and more convenient to prepare. Under these circumstances it may be assumed that there is no probability of any material change in the cost of tea to the dealer and there should be no further reduction in the selling price to the consumer, any further reduction in the retail price involving a diminution of profit which the trade can ill afford to bear at the present time.

CHAPTER X.
TEA-CULTURE, A PROBABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY.

In 1858 the United States Government ordered and received about 10,000 tea-plants from China in Wardian cases in which the seeds were sown just previous to shipment, many of them germinated during the voyage, the plants averaging 18 inches in height on their arrival in this country. Being immediately placed under propagation they were in a very short time increased to over 30,000, which were widely distributed throughout the Southern States, the propagation and distribution of tea-plants forming a prominent feature in the operations of the Agricultural Department up to the commencement of the civil war in 1861, which put a stop to all experiments in the industry. For several years after its close but little attention was given to the propagation of the plant in this country, still at no time was it entirely abandoned by the Department during this period. It being fully understood, that so far as the growth of the plant was concerned it could undoubtedly be successfully cultivated over a large extent of the country. But many of those interested sharing in the belief that the amount and cost of the manual labor required in its manipulation for market was so great as to preclude the probability of competing with low-waged Asiatics, no special efforts were again made to disseminate plants or to multiply them further than to supply such applicants as desired to make experimental tests.

Meanwhile the progress of tea-culture in India was watched with interest. The successful results of modern methods of cultivation and the introduction of various labor-saving machines for preparation which were being made from time to time by the planters of that country, suggesting the probability that the production of tea could eventually be made a profitable industry in many sections of this country, where labor-saving appliances usually follow closely upon the knowledge of their necessity. Basing their hopes on these results, fresh supplies of tea-seed were subsequently imported from Japan, which enabled the Department to again distribute many thousand of plants throughout the country. These renewed efforts being materially enhanced, when about 1867 it was found that an abundance of tea-seeds could be procured in many of the Southern States from the plants which had previously been disseminated from the importation of 1858. Encouraged by the reports of successful culture which were in many cases supplemented by samples of manufactured tea, of undoubted good quality, in a number of instances, more decided and energetic efforts were made toward establishing the industry. More than 100,000 tea-plants were distributed during the past ten years, the Department having under propagation, at the present time, over 20,000 plants which are ready for dissemination in localities where they are most likely to succeed. By this means it is expected to popularize the cultivation of tea as a domestic product in this country, with the hope that public interest will in time be directed to its cultivation as an article of commercial value also.

The cultivation of the tea-plant is as simple as that of the currant or gooseberry, and tea-gardens may be established in a similar manner to those of other economic plants. They are usually divided into five and ten-acre sections, and in laying out must be kept as much as possible together, being easier to supervise and cheaper to work in this manner. The usual custom is to begin at one end and dig through to the other, as different parts of the garden may require different treatment owing to a variation in the soil or other causes. The lines of plants must run as far as practicable in geometrical regularity, particularly in sloping ground, never up and down or directly across the slope. If planted in the former manner, gutters or watercourses will form between the lines and the soil will be washed away, and if in the latter, the same injury will result between the shrubs. The lower side of each plant having its roots laid bare, the sun will act upon them, thereby causing the plants to shrivel up, languish and die. But if the lines are laid diagonally across the hill so that the slopes along the lines shall be moderate ones, this drawback is reduced as far as can be under the circumstances. The closer the lines to each other and the closer the plants in the lines the less will be the wash. While on flat lands it does not signify in which direction the lines run, the gardens so situated always looks best when the lines run at right angles.

That the successful cultivation of the Tea plant is entirely practicable in the United States has been abundantly proven, and that we may by a more extensive and intelligent effort in this direction, save the large amount of money which we now annually pay to foreign countries for this staple is at least worth a trial. So far as its practicability is concerned there can be no question, as we have within the various latitudes of our borders the soil and climate to produce any plant that is or may be grown in any other country. The doubts expressed as to the suitability of our soil and climate to produce as good an article of tea as is now grown in India, Java and Ceylon are untenable, all practical farmers being aware that soils and climates exert certain influences upon all vegetation, these same influences being potent everywhere, and that natural causes are not spasmodic in their operations anywhere. The latitudes in which teas are grown in China, Japan and India correspond exactly with those of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida in the south, and with that of Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama in the southwest.

But while the question of making its production a commercial success is conceded by many authorities, some contend that while we can undoubtedly cultivate tea of fair quality in many sections of the country, we cannot supply the cheap and skilled labor necessary to prepare it for market, advancing the argument that from the time the leaves are picked until they are packed for export they are subjected to a continued series of manipulations, demanding an immense amount of such labor without which it is next to impossible to produce a merchantable article. But while it is admitted that the greater part of the cost of tea in the producing countries is that of labor, it must be taken into account that much of the manipulation and packing of tea in these countries is for the purpose of fitting it for the ocean voyages, and to protect it during transportation the leaves must be repeatedly fired and sorted before shipping, in order to better protect them from damp and moisture in transit. But even with all these extra firings and precautions the original aroma developed by these processes is largely dissipated before the tea reaches its destination in the importing countries. It is a well-established fact that the best teas are only to be had in their highest excellence in the countries of growth, and then only before they have been submitted to the severity of all the home processes which they have to undergo previous to being packed in the lead-lined chests for the long voyages, in the holds of vessels. This superior article is entirely unknown in the consuming countries, and is one of the luxuries in store for us when tea-culture becomes one of our industries. Thus, seeing that much of the care bestowed upon the manufacture of tea is merely for the purpose of meeting these commercial exactions, both in regard to protecting its flavor as well as to its appearance on arrival, it may be that by ignoring mere appearance and style, as equally good a beverage may be produced by an entirely different system of preparation of the leaf for the home market. What has already been accomplished by modern tea-manufacturers in the way of improvements in India and Ceylon for instance, upon the older pessimistic Chinese methods only too aptly suggests that still further innovations are yet possible. We secure the essential virtues of other herbs and leaves without subjecting them to such complicated and intricate processes, which, after all, are mainly for the purpose of preventing the leaves from moulding and decomposition in transit, and there is no valid reason why tea should differ from the leaves of other plants in this respect.

Yet while admitting that the manufacture of tea as at present conducted is, no doubt, a very particular and tedious one, and that much of its supposed value is dependent upon the uniform accuracy with which the various processes are performed, this is more particularly true of China tea where the difficulty is largely attributable to the primitive nature of the methods employed there, as contrasted with the more modern specific and exact system in use in India and other tea-growing countries. It is yet possible for our inventors to produce machinery for still further simplifying many of the intricate processes now in use even in India and Ceylon. The planters of the latter countries soon discovered that they could not profitably follow the various minute and detailed processes practiced by the Chinese and set themselves to study the philosophy of the whole subject of preparing the leaf for market, eventually mastering it. The result has been that many operations which were previously considered essential have now been either reduced or dispensed with altogether in that country. Instead of following the antiquated Chinese methods, which involved some twelve different operations, occupying three days, the best India teas are now prepared in less than five operations, the entire process being completed inside of two days. It may therefore be found that for home use a less elaborate method of preparation may suffice and that the article might enter into domestic commerce. It could be prepared after the simple but effective manner of Paraguayan tea, or put up in bales as with hops, or it may be pressed into layers of dried leaves, as is done with senna tea, and many other herbs at the present time. The firing, which develops the aroma, might be done immediately before use, as is now the case with coffee, or better still, roasted and ground like that article, the modern cylindrical method of roasting coffee being a great improvement on the old style of hand and pan roasting. Machinery being unknown to the Chinese is probable the strongest reason why they still adhere so closely to the antiquated methods now in use there.

But while it is probable that many years will elapse before tea-culture will engage the general attention of farmers and planters in this country, still there is no good reason why it should be so. True, the profits of tea-culture are as yet not clearly established, the management of the plant and the proper application of the various processes must be for many years, as in India and Ceylon, of a purely experimental character, and even when seemingly fair tests have been made failures will still occur, and although these efforts may be traced to causes, which persistent effort would eventually overcome, yet when there is a large outlay and loss, accompanied with some doubts of ultimate success, the efforts in most cases will be abandoned.

It has been suggested that the United States Government could, at a comparative small cost to it, materially assist in determining and demonstrating the feasibility of tea-culture in this country, finally solving the question of profit. These questions could all be answered satisfactorily and definitely in a very few years if our Government were to secure say twenty acres of land in a suitable locality and plant a portion of it yearly with tea plants, until ten or more acres were planted. Then, when the plants had become sufficiently matured, provide a small laboratory fitted with the necessary modern apparatus, placing it in the charge of a competent manager who could make such experiments in the preparation of the leaf as may be suggested by those interested in the enterprise.

In a special report of the Department of Agriculture issued in 1877, we find the following extracts from letters submitted by cultivators of the tea-plant in the United States:—

Mr. Thomas M. Cox, Greenville, S. C., says:—

I obtained, in 1857, from the Patent Office, a box of tea-plants. I gave the most of them away, and retained a few myself. They have grown well without any protection, in the open air, and have attained a height of from 8 to 10 feet. They have frequently matured the seed, and there are a number of the seed on the ground at this time. They are an evergreen in this climate, and are now in flower, with the seed of last year’s growth fully matured upon the bush. I have never succeeded in making tea from the leaves, not knowing the process of manipulating it.

Mr. J. J. Lucas, Society Hill, S. C., states:—

The tea-plant has been grown successfully in this State, Georgia and Louisiana; General Gillespie’s particularly thriving well. On the Middletown place, Ashley river, near Charleston, tea-plants are now growing for ornamental use only, and are 10 feet high. A gentleman in Georgia obtained 441 pounds of tea from one acre of land, which, at 50 cents a pound, would bring $220.50; while our average yield of cotton is only about $15 per acre.

Dr. Turner Wilson, Windsor, N. C., writes:—

I have been raising tea since 1858, but without much cultivation. My yard and garden are sandy soil, and the plants or bushes, without any cultivation, are of slow growth. I plant the seed about the 1st of April, but they come up under the bushes very thick from the fallen seed. Sometimes I throw a little dirt on the seed which I do not pick up. I have several hundred plants under the bushes, from 4 to 12 inches high, and about fifty in my front yard. I send you a package of Green tea-leaves, blossoms, and a few seed in capsules. I have no person that understands curing the leaves, but will send a package of the dried leaves, as I term them. I frequently drink a sample infusion of the leaves dried in the shade, and though not so good as the Chinese preparation, yet I know that I am drinking the pure tea, without any coloring matter.

James H. Rion, Esq., Winsboro, S. C., says:—

I have no experience in the making of tea, but can certify to the adaptability of the soil and climate of my section to the growth of the plant itself. In the fall of 1859, I received from the Patent Office, Washington, a very tiny tea-plant, which I placed in my flower-garden as a curiosity. It has grown well, has always been free from any disease, has had full out-door exposure, and attained its present height (5 feet 8 inches) in the year 1865. It is continually producing healthy seedlings. This shows that the plant finds itself entirely at home where it is growing. There cannot be the least doubt but that the tea-plant will flourish in South Carolina.

Mr. W. M. Ives, Jr., Lake City, Fla., suggests:—

Tea cultivation might be made profitable here, but our people do not pay enough attention to such objects as promise returns in future years. The method of drying the leaves is a very simple process. Many families already possess a number of tea-plants, but they grow them simply for their beauty and novelty. It has been proven that tea can be grown in Georgia as well as in Florida.

Dr. A. W. Thornton, Portland, Ore., declares:—

That the tea-plant is admirably suited to Northern California and Southern Oregon I have no question; more especially as the light on the coast is so abundantly charged with actinic rays, as shown by the richness of the foliage and gorgeous tints of the fruits and autumnal foliage, which supports the view that any plant, the active principle of which is located in the leaves, would prima facie yield a richer product where actinic rays are abundant (which are known to have an important influence upon chlorophyl and leaf development) than in less favored climes. Some years ago, Mr. Samuel Brannan started the cultivation of tea at Calistoga, in Napa county, California, but through some mismanagement at the outset the crop did not succeed. But to this day solitary plants can be seen in that locality, exhibiting vigorous growth, proving the suitability of both soil and climate. Since that time a gentleman has started a plantation of tea at Modesto, in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Stanislaus county, California, in which the plants have done so well that from the last accounts he was so far encouraged as to extend his plantation.

Mr. Arthur P. Ford, Charleston, S. C., says:—

About four or five years ago I obtained from a friend some seeds of the tea-plant, and planted them in my garden, twenty-one miles from Charleston, inland. The plants came up readily, were duly transplanted, and are now fine shrubs three feet high, and seven in number. The foliage is luxuriant; and the plants bear the coldest weather here without any ill effects, the mercury on more than one occasion marking 16°, the plants being encased in ice at other times also.

William Summer, Esq., Newberry, S. C., states:—

There are several healthy, vigorous tea-plants growing in Columbia. I have seen, at the Greenville residence of the late Hon. J. R. Poinsett, the tea-plants growing finely from those introduced by Dr. Junius Smith. We have here also the Olea fragrans, with which we can flavor the tea equal to any prepared for the special use of the Emperor of China. The fragrant olive blooms freely from early spring until midwinter, and the flowers, when gathered fresh and put in the caddy among the tea, impart a delightful aroma to the tea. I have, at different times, imported a few tea-plants from Angers, France, and these have been disseminated from the Pomaria nurseries, and found to succeed. So that I have no doubt of the success of the tea-plant in the middle and upper portions of this State.

Col. S. D. Morgan, Nashville, Tenn., says:—

Of all the plants for the South Atlantic States that of the Chinese or Japanese tea promises most success. Before the war I had a few of the shrubs growing in a small parterre attached to my town dwelling, from which I obtained leaves as rich in aroma and theine as is to be found in tea from any country whatever. The shrub grows luxuriantly in Central Georgia—even 100 miles north of Augusta, to my personal knowledge—as I there used the domestic article for several weeks’ time and found it excellent. There may, however, be a difficulty about its culture, for want of a very cheap class of laborers to pick and prepare the leaves. This, however, is a subject I have not investigated, but I think it is worthy of a thorough investigation.

Mr. Alex. M. Foster, Georgetown, S. C., says:—

The original plant I brought from Columbia. It is a genuine Thea Viridis from seed, I think, produced from the tea-plants brought to this State some years since by Dr. Junius Smith, and cultivated near Greenville. After my plant had attained the height of two or three feet, it began to bear flowers and seed. From these seeds, or nuts, I have now 50 or 60 plants of various sizes; some of them bearing fruit also. I might have had 500 plants as 50, so easily are they propagated and so abundantly do they bear seed. The only care necessary is to preserve the tap-root as carefully as may be in removing the young plants from the nursery bed. My plants are in a rich dry soil, and grow very rapidly, requiring only three or four years to reach the height of 4 feet, they are as thrifty and bear the vicissitudes of our climate as well as the native Cassina. If there could be invented some machine to imitate this hand labor, to effect the same slow process by means less expensive than the man-hand, I think that the cultivation of tea might become not only practical, but profitable to a large portion of our Southern country.

Rev. W. A. Meriwether, Columbia, S. C., says:—

I obtained a Chinese tea-plant from North Carolina nine years ago, and set it out in open ground in a plot of Bermuda grass. It has received no cultivation, and is now a fine shrub, measuring to-day six and a half feet in height by nine feet across the branches at the base. The soil where it grows is light, sandy land, with no clay within two feet of the surface. The plant is not affected by the severest cold to which our climate is subject. It was not the least injured by the intense cold of December, 1870, when my thermometer registered 1° above zero; the coldest weather I have ever known in this latitude. That the climate of the Southern States is well suited to the cultivation of the tea-plant, I think there can be no question. I sincerely hope you may succeed in your efforts to arouse our people to the importance of its cultivation. If only enough tea were made to supply the home demand, what an immense annual saving would result.

Hon. James Calhoun, Trotter’s Shoals, Savannah River, S. C., says:—

Eighteen years ago some half-dozen tea-plants, brought from China, were sent me. I set them in what had been a strawberry bed, in a soil friable, of medium quality, unmanured. Nothing had been done beyond keeping down the weeds with the hoe. The plants have had no protection: but during a portion of the first summer, seedlings have some shelter. As yet there has been no damage from blight or from insects. Frequently leaves are clipped in moderation from all parts of the bush, care being taken not to denude it. They are parched in an iron vessel at the kitchen fire, constantly stirred, and immediately afterward packed in air-tight boxes. I enclose leaves plucked to-day, measuring from 3½ to 5 inches, and, as you will perceive, exhibiting three varieties.

Mrs. R. J. Screven, McIntosh, Liberty Co., Ga., says:—

My experience is that the tea-plant does best in land somewhat low, but not such as water will lie upon or is overflowed. I sow the seed in the fall, as soon as they ripen and drop from the bushes, in drills eighteen inches apart. They come up readily in the spring, and by winter are from three to six inches high. Under the shade of some large tree is usually the place selected for sowing the seed, for if the plants are exposed to the hot sun while young, they invariably die the first summer. When six months old they are ready for transplanting; have generally a good supply of roots, and can be set out at any time from the first of November to the last of March. In putting them out, I have generally prepared holes to receive them, to give a good start, so that fine, healthy bushes will be obtained. In April, 1867, I think it was, Mr. Howard, from Baltimore, who had been engaged on a plantation for several years in the East, visited my father’s plantation in this country, and expressed himself as surprised at the splendid growth of the tea. Being there at the time of gathering the young leaves, he plucked from one bush alone, prepared the tea himself, and took it on to Baltimore, where he had it tested and weighed. He wrote back that it had been pronounced stronger and of superior flavor to the imported, and that by calculation he was satisfied that four hundred and fifty pounds of cured tea could be made here at the South to one acre of ground.

Mr. J. W. Pearce, Fayetteville, N. C., writes:—

My plants are now about five feet high, very thick and bushy near the ground; have no protection from any kind of weather, while the mercury has been as low as 10° below zero. They do not seem to suffer from drought, as evergreens, and bear a beautiful white flower, with little scent until nearly ready to fall. The seed are like the hazel-nut; have a hard shell and bitter kernel, and take a long time to germinate. Hence it is better to plant them on the north side of a fence or house, where they will remain moist. They come up readily when left under the bushes where they have been dropped. The plants then can be set out successfully if care be taken to avoid breaking the long tap root peculiar to them. Half a dozen plants furnish my family, of five or six persons, with more tea than we can use. We prepare it by heating the leaves in an oven until wilted, then squeeze them by hand until a juice is expressed from them, then dry them again in the oven. The tea is then quite fragrant and ready for use, improving with age.

About 50 pounds of a fairly marketable article of American tea has recently been produced by a Mr. Sheppard of Summerfield, S. C., who grew and cured the leaves in an ordinary fruit evaporator. On being tested, the sample was pronounced equal to the average of China Congous and much superior to many of the India, Java and Ceylon growths. With other and more proper methods of curing, the quality and character could undoubtedly be much improved. Much more evidence could be selected as to the quality of tea produced by ordinary domestic processes, but it is sufficiently well ascertained that it is within the capacity of hundreds of thousands of people in this country to grow and prepare all the tea they require, leaving the question of its profitable commercial culture to be settled by practical test later.

Transcriber’s Notes