The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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Mr. Boyer, director of the museum at Port Louis, Mauritius, has
succeeded in rearing 40,000 tea-trees, and expresses an opinion, that
if the island of Bourbon would give itself up to the cultivation, it
might easily supply France with all the tea she requires.

The culture has also been commenced on a small scale, in St. Helena,
and the Cape Colony.

The cultivation of the tea-tree might be tried with probability of
success in Natal, and the Mauritius. The plant grows in every soil,
even the most ungrateful; resists the hurricanes, and requires little
care. The picking of the leaves, like the pods of cotton, is performed
by women, children, and the infirm, without much expense. The
preparation is known to the greater part of the Chinese, of whom there
are so many in Mauritius; besides, it is not difficult. A Mr. Duprat
has, I am informed, planted a certain extent of land in the
neighbourhood of Cernpipe, in that island, but I have not yet learnt
with what success.

The tea-plant has been successfully cultivated, on a large scale, in
the island of Madeira, at an elevation of 3,000 feet above the level
of the sea, by Mr. Hy. Veitch, British ex-Consul. The quality of the
leaf is excellent. The whole theory of preparing it is merely to
destroy the herbaceous taste, the leaves being perfect, when, like
hay, they emit an agreeable odor. But to roll up each leaf, as in
China, is found too expensive, although boys and girls are employed at
about two-pence or three-pence per day. Mr. Veitch has, therefore,
tried the plan of compressing the leaves into small cakes, which can
be done at a trifling expense. It is performed when the leaf is dry;
whereas, the rolling requires moisture, and subsequent roasting on
copper plates is necessary to prevent mustiness. In this process the
acid of the tea acts upon the copper, and causes that astringency
which we remark in all the China teas.

The tea of Cochin China is considered inferior to that of China, being
less strong and pleasant in flavour.

An inferior sort of tea, with a leaf twice or thrice as large as that
of Bohea, grows wild in the hilly parts of Quang-ai, and is sold at
from 12s. 6d. to 40s. the picul of 133lbs.

The Dutch have devoted much attention to tea cultivation in Java, and
the plantations are in fine order. Nearly a million lbs. of tea were
shipped thence in 1848; but the tea is said to be of inferior quality,
and grown and manufactured at considerable expense.

Japan produces both black and green tea. The Japanese prefer the
latter to the Chinese green tea. The black tea is very bad. The
Japanese tea-tree, is an evergreen, growing in the most sterile places
to the height of about six feet. It is described as above, by
Koempfer, as having leaves like the cherry, with a flower like the wild
rose; when fresh, the leaves have no smell, but a very astringent
taste. Tea grows in all the southern provinces of Japan, but the best
green is produced in the principality of Kioto, where it is cultivated
with great care.

A few years ago, Messrs. Worms attempted the cultivation of tea in
Ceylon. The island, however, lies too far within the tropics to offer
a climate like Assam, which is situate without them. The plants may
thrive to appearance, but that is not a demonstration of their
quality. The tea-plant has reached upwards of six feet in height at
Pinang, and in as healthy a state as could be desired, but the leaf
had no flavor, and although thousands of Chinese husbandmen cultivate
spices, and other tropical productions on that island, no one thinks
it worth while to extend the cultivation of the tea-plant in Pinang.
The Chinese there laugh at the idea of converting the leaf into a
beverage.

The cultivation of the tea-plant has been introduced into the United
States, and those planters who have tried the experiment have
succeeded beyond their highest expectations. Dr. Junius Smith had
successfully cultivated the plant on his property called Golden grove,
near Grenville, in South Carolina. His plants were in full blossom,
and as healthy and flourishing as those of China at the same stage of
growth. Everything connected with them looked favorable, and Dr. Smith
felt abundantly encouraged to extend the culture of the several
descriptions of tea upon his property. It is stated that his
expectations were so great, that he contemplated to place fresh tea on
the tea-tables of England and Paris in twenty days, from the
plantation. He had a large supply of plants, and tea seed enough for a
million more. The black descriptions blossomed earlier than the green
plant, but the latter also blossomed luxuriantly.

He introduced at first about 500 plants of from five to seven years'
growth, overland from the north-west provinces of India, and some from
China direct.

In the close of 1849, he writes me:--

"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.

Our country is filled with natural tea plantations, which are only
waiting the hand of the husbandman to be covered with this luxuriant
and productive plant.

I know the public is naturally impatient of delay. Like corn, it is
expected that the tea-nuts will be planted in the spring, and the
crop gathered in the autumn. But they forget that the tea-plant does
not interfere with any other crop, and when once planted it does not
soon require a renewal.

I have sometimes felt this impatience myself, and longed for a cup
of tea of my own growing, but I have never had one. As a husbandman,
I must wait some time longer, and let patience have her perfect
work."

Again, under date May 1, 1850, he states that he has succeeded
admirably in the culture. The plants bear the winter well, and their
physiology and general characteristics remain unchanged by the change
of climate and soil. The leaf puts out at the same period of the year
that it does in China.

On the 27th of May, 1850, Dr. Smith received a further batch of
trees, fresh, green and healthful, as if still growing in the
plantations of China; after a passage of little more than five months.
These plants, together with the seedlings and nuts, were of the green
tea species, and obtained from a quarter situated about 700 miles from
Canton.

In a letter, dated Grenville, S.C., June 17th, 1850, with which I have
been favored, he adds:--

"I never heard of the failure of the tea-crop. All vegetation may be
retarded, or lessened, or augmented, in its production, in a slight
degree, by excessive rains, or drought, or cold, or heat, or
atmospheric action; but the tea-plant is sure to produce its leaf.
From all I have observed, a decided drought is the most detrimental
to the health of the tea plant. The almost continued rains which
marked the advance of the past spring, seemed perfectly agreeable to
the tea-plant, and facilitated the germination of the tea-nuts.
Where any vitality remained in the nut, it was sure to germinate.
Curiosity, on this point should be restrained, and no picking and
pawing up of the nuts permitted. I have seedlings with tap roots
four inches in length, where no appearance of germination is visible
upon the surface of the ground. The chances are ten to one that the
seedling would be destroyed by the tamperings of idle curiosity. Let
nature have her own most perfect work, and see that the enemy, the
drought, is vanquished by an abundant supply of water.

From experience, I notice that nothing is more congenial to the
germination of the tea-nut than a good stiff blue, clayed soil. The
marly colour of the soil is undoubtedly the result of a rich loam,
combined with the clay of a lighter hue. The adhesive nature of the
clay retains moisture in an eminent degree, and the fertilising
qualities of the loam are well known to every bottom land farmer.

Plants put out three weeks ago, after a long voyage from China, are
now taking root, and look fresh and vigorous, notwithstanding the
recent heat and dryness of the atmosphere. But I have taken
unwearied pains in the cultivation. Every plant is sheltered from
the scorching influence of the sun, now from 70 deg. to 86 deg. of
temperature. Although the soil is naturally moist and clayey, and
half bottom land, from the work of gentle acclivities, rising on
either hand, yet I have given the plants a liberal watering in the
evening. By last summer's drought of fifty-seven days, I was taught
the absolute necessity of deep digging and deep planting. None of my
plants, of this season's planting, are more than two or three inches
above the surface of the ground.

If any of the plants have leaves, as most of them have, below that
height, they are planted with the leaves retained; none are removed.
Some of the older plants have no leaves remaining, and looked like
dry sticks. Many of these are now beginning to break, and put forth
fresh leaves."

In 1851, Mr. Frank Bonynge set on foot a subscription list of fifty
dollars each, to procure tea and various Indian plants for culture in
America. That tea can be grown successfully in Carolina, Georgia, and
Florida, is almost certain, because the experiment has been pretty
fairly tried, as above shown, by Dr. Smith. The thermometer at
Shanghai indicates the cold as more severe by thirteen degrees than at
Charleston, South Carolina. The cold winter of 1834-5, which destroyed
the oranges in Mr. Middleton's plantation, in Charleston, left his tea
plants uninjured.

The question of cultivating tea in California has been seriously
discussed, and will no doubt be gone into when the gold digging mania
has a little subsided. There is the necessary labor and experience on
the spot, in some 12,000 or 14,000 Chinese, most of whom doubtless
understand the culture and manufacture. The climate, soil and surface
of California exactly answer the requirements for the growth of this
plant. The time may yet come when the vast ranges of hills that
traverse this State shall present terraces of tea gardens, cultivated
by the laborious Chinese, and adding millions to the value of its
products.

A company for the cultivation of tea, under the title of the Assam
Company, was established in March, 1839; and which, with a called-up
capital of L193,337, has made up to the present time very profitable
progress; having now got its plantations into excellent cultivation,
and all its arrangements in admirable working order, it has sold teas
to the amount of L90,000, and has a steam-boat, a considerable plant
and machinery.

In the report of the Company, at their annual meeting, held at
Calcutta, in Jan., 1850, it was stated, as the result of their
operations, that during the year 1849, the manufacturing season was
unusually cold and ungenial, in consequence of which the development
of leaf for manufacture was much checked. Although some loss was
sustained, there was considerable increase in the crop
notwithstanding, attributable to the continued improvements in the
culture which had been obtained, and improvements over the previous
season in some departments of the manufacturing process. The gross
quantity of unsorted tea manufactured in the southern division was
207,982 lbs., being 2,673 lbs. less than that of the previous season,
but the actual net out-turn was expected to reach 200,000 lbs. As much
as 157,908 lbs. of the crop had been already received and shipped to
England. These teas consisted chiefly of the finer qualities. Whilst
the crops have been thus sensibly advancing in quantity and quality,
and the value of the company's plantations permanently raised by
extended and improved culture, and some increase to the sowings, the
total outlay had been somewhat less than the previous year, the
expenditure being limited to L500 for a crop of 12,000 acres of tea.
With more extended gardens, the produce will be raised at a yet lower
rateable cost than at present.

The number of acres in cultivation in 1849, was about 12,000; these
were not all in bearing, but would shortly be so, and the produce from
this extent might be estimated at 300,000 lbs., and the cost of
producing this would be about L11,000. 1,010 chests of the produce
were sold in London on the 13th of March, 1850, at a gross average of
1s. 111/2d. per lb. The produce of 1847, sold in England, was 141,277
lbs., at a gross average of 1s. 8d. per lb.: that of 1848 was 176,149
lbs. which sold at the average of 1s. 81/2d. per lb. The produce of 1849
was 216,000 lbs., and there was every expectation of the average
prices realised being higher than those of the previous years. The
season was cold and unfavorable, or the crop would have been 10,000
lbs. more.

The exact amounts obtained for the Company's teas in the five years,
ending with 1851, will be seen from the following figures:--

Net produce, lbs. Average price. L
1847 144,164 at per lb. ls. 7-1/16d. 11,513
1848 182,953 " ls. 81/4d. 15,436
1849 216,000 " ls. 91/2d. 19,350
1850 253,427 " ls. 6-1/8d. 18,153
1851 271,427 " ls. 81/2d. 22,152
1852 esmtd. 280,000

This exhibits a progressive increase in the aggregate value of the
Company's produce, and this has been effected, it is stated, without
any sensible increase of the current expenditure. It exhibits also a
rise in the value of the tea (157,942 lbs. having been sold at the
high average price of 1s. 111/4d.), a fact strongly indicative of its
increasing excellence. The details of the crop of the season of 1849
showed a net produce of 237,000 lbs. of tea; so that the Company are
increasing their cultivation to the extent of nearly ten per cent, per
annum, and the increase will doubtless proceed with greater rapidity,
whenever the increase of capital enables the directors to extend their
operations.

In a report submitted to the Directors, by Mr. Burkinyoung, the
managing director in Calcutta last year, he thus speaks of the
Company's field of operations and future prospects:--

"The box-making is especially worthy of notice for its effective
organisation and economical arrangement; the work is performed
chiefly by Assamese boys instructed at the factory: the number of
boxes required for the year's consumption will not be short of four
thousand, the whole of which will be made at the factory,--an
achievement that cannot be too highly estimated in a country so
destitute of mechanical labor.

Notwithstanding the high standard of quality and strength to which
our teas have already attained, I am of opinion that, as experience
advances, and our knowledge and system of plucking and manufacturing
the crops become improved, and better organised, a higher standard
of quality and value may yet be realised; in this opinion the
superintendent concurs with me, and the attainment of this object is
one to which his attention's prominently directed.

In the course of my enquiries and trials of different samples of tea
in Assam, my attention was directed to one description of black tea,
of rough strong flavor, made by a quicker process than that
ordinarily used in the manufacture of black tea: under this mode of
manipulation, a quality of tea is produced sufficiently distinctive
in its flavor and appearance to render it worthy of attention and
trial, and I think, when perfected in the process of manufacture,
calculated to come into popular estimation. Samples of this tea the
superintendent will forward to the board for trial.

In conducting the operations in Assam, the chief difficulty of
importance which has not yet been effectually met is the paucity of
labor; this does not, however, exist to the extent of materially
checking any of the important operations connected with the
production of the tea, but it is felt in the arrear of various
descriptions of work, in providing bricks for building, and in the
preparation of a stock of seasoned timber and boards for building
and box-making; while the out factories would be benefited by a
larger proportion of agricultural labor. Great advance, however, has
been made by the superintendent in the employment of Assamese labor
in contract work: under the arrangement he has established, these
contracts are now, for the most part, fulfilled with much
punctuality, and there is reason to expect that this system of labor
will be further extended. The Kachorie Coolies are a valuable class
of laborers, but they do not appear to be sufficiently numerous, or
to emigrate in sufficient numbers to afford with the native Assamese
a supply of labor altogether equal to our wants, so as to render the
concern independent of Bengal labor.

The tea lands are for the most part advantageously situated, within
convenient reach of water-carriage, either by the 'Dickhoo,'
'Desang,' and 'Dehing' rivers, or by means of small streams leading
to them. The Plantations of the Satsohea and Rookang forests, and on
the banks of the Tingri in the Northern Division, are all valuable
centres of extension in each district. The lands suitable for tea
cultivation are ample in extent, and of the highest fertility; while
the Hill Factories of the Southern and Eastern Divisions, although
secondary in importance, are, as regards extent and quality of soil,
equally eligible as bases of extension.

The prospects of the future, I entertain no doubt, will keep pace
with the satisfactory results that have hitherto been realised,
looking to the sound organisation that now exists in our
establishment at Assam, an organisation that has already taken
healthy root, and must in its growth gain strength and permanence. I
think we may safely calculate, after the current year, upon an
annual increase in our production of 40,000 lbs. of tea, until a
larger system of operations can be matured, of which the basis is
already laid down, in the new lands cleared and sown during the past
cold season, averaging 225 to 250 poorahs; and this extended basis
will be doubtless followed up by annual extensions of similar, if
not larger, area. The concern is now taking a position which will
place it on a scale of working commensurate with the objects
entertained upon the first incorporation of the company, the profits
now likely to be realised being adequate to all the outlay
necessary."

The prices in the last two years in London have been fully maintained
at 1s. 3d. to 4s. 4d., according to sorts. Of Assam tea, the sales in
the London market in 1851 amounted to 2,200 packages, against 1,900
packages in 1850, and all were freely taken (on account of their great
strength) at very full prices. Seventy-six packages of Kumaon tea,
both black and green, grown by the East India Company, in the
Himalayas, as an experiment, were also brought to sale. They were teas
of high quality; but being of the light flavored class, and not duly
esteemed in this market, they realised only about their relative value
as compared with China teas of similar grade. The Souchong and
Pouchong sold at 1s. 11/4d. to 1s. 31/2d.; the Hyson, Imperial, and
Gunpowder realised 1s. 73/4d. to 2s. 61/2d.

Mr. Robert Fortune, who, in the service of the Horticultural Society
of London, gave such satisfaction by his botanical researches in
China, was, on his return to England, in 1848, engaged by the
Directors of the East India Company to proceed again to the Celestial
Empire, and procure and transmit to India such a quantity and variety
of the tea plant, that its cultivation in the north-western provinces
would be a matter of mere manual labor. Having penetrated about 300
miles into the interior, he left Hong Kong in the middle of 1851 for
Calcutta, with a large quantity of choice plants, selected in the
green tea districts, and these have flourished as well as could
possibly be expected; so that, in the course of a few years, there is
every probability that tea will form a considerable article of export
from our Indian Presidencies. Mr. Fortune secured the services of, and
took with him, eight Chinese, from the district of Wei-chow, under an
agreement for three years, at the rate of fifteen dollars a month
each. Six of these are regular tea-manufacturers; the other two are
pewterers, whose sole business is that of preparing lead casings for
tea-chests.