The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom / Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

by P. L. Simmonds

"During the past year the tea-plant under my care has passed through severe trials, from the injury received in transplanting, from the heat generated in the packing-cases, from the want of shelter during the severe frosts of February, from the excessive heat in June, and from the drought of 58 days' continuance in July and August. The plants were divested of their leaves and generally of their branches and twigs in February, during my absence in New York. Knowing that the plants were tender, and not fortified by age and mature growth against severe weather, I had directed them to be covered in case a material change of temperature should occur. But these orders were neglected, and they consequently suffered from that cause.

The plant is sufficiently hardy to resist any weather occurring in this part of the country, when seasoned for one year.

The plant has grown thrifty since April, and the quantity of foliage, buds, and blossoms, show that the root has taken strong hold, and is now fully equal to produce its fruit next autumn, which always follows the year after the blossoms. I have a variety of both black and green tea-plants. The buds and blossoms of the latter did not appear until a fortnight after the black tea-plant. But the blossoms were larger when they did appear in September, October, November, and December. From present appearances, I think the blossoms of some of the late plants will continue to unfold until spring. It is not an unusual thing for the blossoms and the fruit to appear at the same time upon the same plant. In this particular it differs from any plant I have seen. As my chief object, at present, is to cultivate and increase the tea-nut, it will be a year or two perhaps before I attempt to convert the leaf into tea. The root supports the leaf and fruit, and the leaf the root, so that neither can be spared without detriment.

This climate appears congenial to the growth of the plant, and the soil is so diversified in this mountainous district, that there is no difficulty in selecting that best adapted to seed-growing plants, or that designed for the leaf only. Upon the plantation purchased this summer, I have light-yellow, dark-brown, and red clay subsoil, of a friable character, with a surface soil sufficiently sandy to answer the demands of the plant. I do not see any reason to doubt, from a year's experience, that the tea-plant in its varieties will flourish in what I heretofore denominated the tea-growing district of the United States, as well as in any part of China.

The slowness of its growth requires patience. But when once established, the tea-nuts will supply the means of extending cultivation, and the duration of the plant for twenty years diminishes the expense of labor. To illustrate the hardihood of the plant, I may observe, that notwithstanding the zero severity of February frost destroyed the leaves and branches of most of the plants, and those now blooming in great beauty and strength are from roots the growth of this summer, I have one green tea-plant the stem and branches of which withstood the frost of February without the slightest protection, and is now a splendid plant, covered with branches and evergreen leaves, affording undeniable evidence not only of its capability of resisting frost, but of its adaptation to just such a degree of temperature.

I have often remarked that the tea-plant requires for its perfection the influence of two separate and distinct climates, the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The thermometer in this vicinity during the heat of summer generally ranges from 74 at 6 o'clock a.m. to 82 at 3 o'clock p.m., only one day during the summer so high as 86.

This is a most agreeable temperature, nights always cool, which the tea-plant enjoys, and the days hot and fanned with the mountain breeze.

The drought I found the most difficult point to contend with, owing to the want of adequate means for irrigation. I lost 20 or 30 plants through this, and learned that no tea plantation should he established without irrigation. After two or three years there will be little necessity for it, because the depth of the roots will generally then protect the plant.

My plantation at Golden Grove is well supplied with water, or I should not have purchased it at any price.

It is the first and most important point to secure a southern or western aspect, a gentle declivity the second, salubrious air and suitable soil the third.