Tea, its history and mystery

by Joseph M. Walsh

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.