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

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In the British portion of the Punjaub, it has been resolved to expend
L10,000 a year on the cultivation of the tea plant on the banks of the
Beas, as well as at Anarkullee, and Kotghur in the Simla jurisdiction.
Beyond the Beas there is a series of valleys on to Noonpoor, viz., the
Palklun, Kangra, Rillo, &c., from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the level
of the sea, separated from each other by small ranges of hills. The
valleys are from three to four miles in breadth, and from sixty to
seventy in length: they are sheltered on the north by high mountains.
They are described as admirably suited for the cultivation of the
plant, now about to be attempted under the able management of Dr.
Jamieson. Should it prove successful, the benefits it will confer on
the country will be enormous. Tea is a favorite beverage everywhere
with the natives: at present their supplies come in scanty measure and
bad condition, at extravagant charges, across the frontier.

The cultivation of the tea plant in the highlands of the Punjaub, is
likely to be successful, even beyond the hopes of its promoters.
Thousands of plants sown in 1849 have attained a height of four or
five feet, and there seems no reason why tea should not ultimately
become an important article of trade in the Punjaub, as well as in
Kumaon. The Indian teas are already becoming popular in the English
market, and the cultivators have the advantage of a demand which is
almost unlimited, and of prices which seldom fluctuate to any great
extent.

The experiment of growing tea in the Madras Presidency has been often
successfully tried, on a small scale. A number of plants supplied by
government, through Dr. Wallich, were planted in the Shevaroy hills,
about twelve or fourteen years since, and have thriven well; but
though no doubt is entertained of the ease with which they could be
propagated over a wide extent of country, no attempt has been made to
give the cultivation a practical turn, or to make a cup of tea from
the southern Indian tree. In Coorg, too, the experiment has been
tested with like results, so that sufficient warranty exists to
justify trials on the largest scale.

Tea plants grow in luxuriance in the open air, at the Botanical
Gardens, at Kew. Mr. Bonynge has seen this plant growing wild in N.
lat. 27 deg. 30 min. on hills from three to 500 feet in height, where
too, there was an abundance of frost, snow and hail.

Those persons in England who possess tea plants, and who cultivate
them for pleasure, should always bear in mind that, even in the tea
districts of China, this shrub will not succeed if it be planted in
low, wet land; and this is, doubtless, one of the reasons why so few
persons succeed in growing it in this country. It ought always to be
planted on a warm sloping bank, in order to give it a fair chance of
success. If some of the warm spots of this kind in the south of
England or Ireland were selected, who knows but that our cottagers
might be able to grow their own tea? at all events, they might have
the fragrant herb to look upon.

The Dutch made the first movement to break the charm of Chinese
monopoly, by introducing and cultivating the tea plant in their rich
and fruitful colony of Java. That island lies between the sixth and
eighth degrees of south latitude.

In 1828, the first experiment in the cultivation of tea was made in
the garden of the Chateau of Burtenzorg, at Java, where 800 plants of
an astonishing vigor, served as an encouragement to undertake this
culture, and considerable plantations were made in many parts of the
island. The first trials did not answer to the expectations, as far as
regards the quality of the article, the astringent taste and feeble
aroma of which caused the conjecture that the preparation of the leaf,
and its final manipulation, are not exactly according to the process
used in China. At present tea is cultivated in thirteen Residencies:
but the principal establishment, where the final manipulation is made,
is in the neighbourhood of Batavia. The tea which Java now furnishes
yearly to the markets of the mother country, may be stated at from
200,000 to 300,000 pounds. It is intimated that the government intends
to abandon this culture to the industry of private individuals, under
the guarantee of equitable contracts.

The mountain range, which runs through the centre of the island, is
the most productive, because the tea gardens, extending from near the
base, high up the mountains, reach an atmosphere tempered by
elevation. The plant escapes the scorching heats of the torrid zone,
and finds a climate, by height rather than by latitude, adapted to its
nature. But the plant is not confined to lofty ridges. In the plains,
the hedges and fences, if one may so call them, are all planted with
the tea shrub, which flourish in greater or less perfection throughout
the island. But, as has already been intimated, the equatorial
latitudes are not the most auspicious for the vigorous growth of a
plant that requires a temperature equally removed from the extremes of
heat and cold, and the quality of the tea is as much affected by the
climate as the growth of the plant. A considerable quantity of tea is
annually shipped from Java to Europe; but the extension of the
cultivation is no doubt checked by the exceeding fertility of the
soil, and its adaptation to the growth of the rich products of
tropical regions.

Mr. Jacobson, inspector of tea culture in Java, has published at
Batavia a work in three volumes, upon the mode of cultivating this
plant, upon the choice of grounds, and the best processes for the
preparation and manipulation of the leaves. This book, the fruit of
many years of experience and care given to the subject, has been well
received by the cultivators who devote themselves to this branch of
industry. If, by means of careful experiments and experience, the
government succeed in conferring on the island of Java this important
branch of commerce, she may hope to obtain brilliant results; at all
events, it will open to the country a new source of prosperity and
riches.

An interesting account of the tea plants, and the manufacture of tea,
will be found in Fortune's "Wanderings in China," in Ball's "Account
of the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea," Boyle's "Illustrations of
Himalayan Botany," and his "Productive Resources of India."

From Fortune's "Travels" I take the following extract:--

"There are few subjects connected with the vegetable kingdom which
have attracted such a large share of public notice as the tea-plant
of China. Its cultivation on the Chinese hills, the particular
species of variety which produces the black and green teas of
commerce, and the method of preparing the leaves, have always been
objects of peculiar interest. The jealousy of the Chinese government
in former times, prevented foreigners from visiting any of the
districts where tea is cultivated; and the information derived from
the Chinese merchants, even scanty as it was, was not to be depended
upon. And hence we find our English authors contradicting each
other; some asserting that the black and green teas are produced by
the same variety, and that the difference in colour is the result of
a different mode of preparation; while others say that the black
teas are produced from the plant called by botanists _Thea Bohea_,
and the green from _Thea viridis_, both of which we have had for
many years in our gardens in England. During my travels in China
since the last war, I have had frequent opportunities of inspecting
some extensive tea districts in the black and green tea countries of
Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang: the result of these observations is
now laid before the reader. It will prove that even those who have
had the best means of judging have been deceived, and that the
greater part of the black and green teas which are brought yearly
from China to Europe and America are obtained from the same species
or variety, namely, from the _Thea viridis_. Dried specimens of this
plant were prepared in the districts I have named, by myself, and
are now in the herbarium of the Horticultural Society of London, so
that there can be no longer any doubt upon the subject. In various
parts of the Canton provinces where I have had an opportunity of
seeing tea cultivated, the species proved to be the _Thea Bohea_, or
what is commonly called the black tea plant. In the green tea
districts of the north--I allude more particularly to the province
of Chekiang--I never met with a single plant of this species, which
is so common in the fields and gardens near Canton. All the plants
in the green tea country near Ningpo, on the islands of the Chusan
Archipelago, and in every part of the province which I have had an
opportunity of visiting, proved, without an exception, to be _Thea
viridis_. Two hundred miles further to the north-west, in the
province of Kiangnan, and only a short distance from the tea hills
in that quarter, I also found in gardens the same species of tea.
Thus far my actual observations exactly verified the opinions I had
formed on the subject before I left England, viz: that the black
teas were prepared from the _Thea Bohea_, and the green from _Thea
viridis_. When I left the north, on my way to the city of
Foo-chow-foo, on the river Min, in the province Fokien, I had no
doubt that I should find the tea hills there covered with the other
species, _Thea Bohea_, from which we generally suppose the black
teas are made; and this was the more likely to be the case as this
species actually derives its specific name from the Bohea hills in
this province. Great was my surprise to find all the plants on the
tea hills near Foo-chow exactly the same as those in the green tea
districts of the north. Here were, then, green tea plantations on
the black tea hills, and not a single plant of the _Thea Bohea_ to
be seen. Moreover, at the time of my visit, the natives were busily
employed in the manufacture of black teas. Although the specific
differences of the tea plant were well known to me, I was so much
surprised, and I may add amused, at this discovery, that I procured
a set of specimens for the herbarium, and also dug up a living
plant, which I took northward to Chekiang. On comparing it with
those which grow on the green tea hills, no difference whatever was
observed. It appears, therefore, that the black and green teas of
the northern districts of China (those districts in which the
greater part of the teas for the foreign market are made) are both
produced from the same variety, and that that variety is the _Thea
viridis_, or what is commonly called green tea plant. On the other
hand those black and green teas which are manufactured in
considerable quantities in the vicinity of Canton, are obtained
from the _Thea Bohea_, or black tea.

In the green tea districts of Chekiang, near Ningpo, the first crop
of leaves is generally gathered about the middle of April. This
consists of the young leaf buds just as they begin to unfold, and
forms a fine and delicate kind of young hyson, which is held in high
estimation by the natives, and is generally sent about in small
quantities as presents to their friends. It is a scarce and
expensive article, and the picking off the leaves in such a young
state does considerable injury to the tea plantation. The summer
rains, however, which fall copiously about this season, moisten the
earth and air; and if the plants are young and vigorous, they soon
push out fresh leaves. In a fortnight or three weeks from the time
of the first picking, the shrubs are again covered with fresh
leaves, and are ready for the second gathering, which is the most
important of the season. The third and last gathering, which takes
place as soon as new leaves are formed, produces a very inferior
kind of tea, which is rarely sent out of the district. The mode of
gathering and preparing the leaves of the tea plant is very simple.
We have been so long accustomed to magnify and mystify everything
relating to the Chinese, that in all their arts and manufactures we
expect to find some peculiar practice, when the fact is, that many
operations in China are more simple in their character than in most
parts of the world. To rightly understand the process of rolling and
drying the leaves, which I am about to describe, it must be borne in
mind that the grand object is to expel the moisture, and at the same
time to retain as much as possible of the aromatic and other
desirable secretions of the species. The system adopted to attain
this end is as simple as it is efficacious. In the harvest seasons,
the natives are seen in little family groups on the side of every
hill, when the weather is dry, engaged in gathering tea leaves. They
do not seem so particular as I imagined they would have been in this
operation, but strip the leaves off rapidly and promiscuously, and
throw them all into round baskets, made for the purpose out of split
bamboo or ratan. In the beginning of May, when the principal
gathering takes place, the young seed-vessels are about as large as
peas. These are also stripped off and mixed with the leaves; it is
these seed-vessels which we often see in our tea, and which has some
slight resemblance to capers. When a sufficient quantity of leaves
are gathered, they are carried home to the cottage or barn, where
the operation of drying is performed."

This is minutely described, and the author continues:--

"I have stated that the plants grown in the districts of Chekiang
produce green teas, but it must not be supposed that they are the
green teas which are exported to England. The leaf has a much more
natural color, and has little or none of what we call the 'beautiful
bloom' upon it, which is so much admired in Europe and America.
There is now no doubt that all these 'blooming' green teas, which
are manufactured at Canton, are dyed with Prussian blue and gypsum,
to suit the taste of the foreign 'barbarians;' indeed the process
may be seen any day, during the season, by those who give themselves
the trouble to seek after it. It is very likely that the same
ingredients are also used in dyeing the northern green teas for the
foreign market; of this, however, I am not quite certain. There is a
vegetable dye obtained from _Isatis indigotica_ much used in the
northern districts, and called _Teinsing_; and it is not unlikely
that it may be the substance which is employed. The Chinese never
use these dyed teas themselves, and I certainly think their taste in
this respect is more correct than ours. It is not to be supposed
that the dye used can produce any very bad effects on the consumer,
for, had this been the case, it would have been discovered before
now; but if entirely harmless or inert, its being so must be
ascribed to the very small quantity which is employed in the
manufacture."

In short, the black and green teas which are generally exported to
England and the United States from the northern provinces of China,
are made from the same species; and the difference of color, flavor,
&c., is solely the result of the different modes of preparation.

I shall make an extract, also, from Williams's "Middle Kingdom:"--

"The native names given to the various sorts of tea are derived for
the most part from their appearance or place of growth; the names of
many of the best kinds are not commonly known abroad. _Bohea_ is the
name of the Wu-i hills, (or Bu-i, as the people on the spot call
them,) where the tea is grown, and not a term for a particular sort
among the Chinese, though it is applied to a very poor kind of black
tea at Canton. _Sunglo_ is likewise a general term for the green
teas produced on the hills in Kiangsu. The names of the principal
varieties of black tea are as follows: _Pecco_, 'white hairs,' so
called from the whitish down on the leaves, is one of the choicest
kinds, and has a peculiar taste; _Orange Pecco_, called _shang
hiang_, or 'most fragrant,' differs from it slightly; _Hungmuey_,
'red plum blossoms,' has a slightly reddish tinge; the terms
_prince's eyebrows_, _carnation hair_, _lotus kernel_, _sparrow's
tongue_, _fir-leaf pattern_, _dragon's pellet_, and _dragon's
whiskers_, are all translations of the native names of different
kinds of Souchong or Pecco. _Souchong_, or _siau chung_, means
_little plant_ or sort, as _Pouchong_, or _folded sort_, refers to
the mode of packing it; _Campoi_ is corrupted from _kan pei_ i.e.
carefully fired; _Chulan_ is the tea scented with the chulan flower,
and applied to some kinds of scented green tea. The names of green
teas are less numerous: _Gunpowder_, or _ma chu_, i.e. hemp pearl,
derives its name from the form into which the leaves are rolled; _ta
chu_ or 'great pearl,' and _chu lan_, or 'pearl flower,' denote two
kinds of _Imperial_; _Hyson_, or _yu tsien_, i.e. before the rains,
originally denoted the tenderest leaves of the plant, and is now
applied to _Young Hyson_; as is also another name, _mei pein_, or
'plum petals;' while _hi chun_, 'flourishing spring,' describes
_Hyson_; _Twankay_ is the name of a stream in Chehkiang, where this
sort is produced; and _Hyson skin_, or _pi cha_, i.e. skin tea, is
the poorest kind, the siftings of the other varieties; _Oolung_,
'black dragon,' is a kind of black tea with green flavor. Ankoi teas
are produced in the district of Nganki, not far from Tsiuenchau fu,
possessing a peculiar taste, supposed to be owing to the ferruginous
nature of the soil. De Guignes speaks of the Pu-'rh tea, from the
place in Kiangsu where it grows, and says it is cured from wild
plants found there; the infusion is unpleasant, and is used for
medical purposes. The Mongols and others in the west of China
prepare tea by pressing it, when fresh, into cakes like bricks, and
thoroughly drying it in that shape to carry in their wanderings.

"Considering the enormous labor of preparing tea, it is surprising
that even the poorest kind can be afforded to the foreign purchaser
at Canton, more than a thousand miles from the place of its growth,
for 9d. and less a pound; and in their ability to furnish it at this
rate, the Chinese have a security of retaining the trade in their
hands, notwithstanding the efforts to grow the plant elsewhere.
Comparatively little adulteration is practised, if the amount used
at home and abroad be considered, though the temptation is great, as
the infusion of other plants is drunk instead of the true tea. The
poorer natives substitute the leaves of a species of Rhamnus or
Fallopia, which they dry; Camellia leaves are perhaps mixed up with
it, but probably to no great extent. The refuse of packing-houses is
sold to the poor at a low rate, under the name of tea endings and
tea bones; and if a few of the rarest sorts do not go abroad,
neither do the poorest. It is a necessary of life to all classes of
Chinese, and that its use is not injurious is abundantly evident
from its general acceptance and extending adoption; and the
prejudice against it among some out of China may be attributed
chiefly to the use of strong green tea, which is no doubt
prejudicial. If those who have given it up on this account will
adopt a weaker infusion of black tea, general experience is proof
that it will do them no great harm, and they may be sure that they
will not be deceived by a colored article; Neither the Chinese nor
Japanese use milk or sugar in their tea, and the peculiar taste and
aroma of the infusion is much better perceived without those
additions; nor can it be drunk so strong without tasting an
unpleasant bitterness, which the milk partly hides. The Japanese
sometimes reduce the leaves to a powder, and pour boiling water
through them in a cullender, in the same way that coffee is often
made."

The following valuable details as to the cultivation and manufacture
of tea in British India, are from interesting reports by Dr. Jameson,
Superintendent of the Company's Botanical Gardens in the North West
Provinces, published in 1847 in the Journal of the Agricultural and
Horticultural Society of Calcutta;--and from Mr. Robert Fortune's
report to the Hon. East India Company:--

_The quantity manufactured_.--The quantity of tea manufactured from
five plantations, of 89 acres in all, amounted in 1845 to 610 lb. 2
oz., and in 1846, on 115 acres, to l,023 lb. ll oz. The small
nursery of Lutchmisser, consisting of three acres of land, gave a
return in 1845 of 216 lb., or 2 maunds and 56 pounds; in 1846 the
return was 272 lbs., or 3 maunds and 32 pounds.

The small plantation of Kuppeena, established in 1841-2, and then
consisting of three acres (but increased in 1844 to four), yielded
in 1845, 1 maund and 56 pounds, and in 1846, 2 maunds and 56 pounds.
Thus we have received from a plantation of only five years'
formation, and of four acres (one of these recently added), upwards
of 21/2 maunds of tea, and from another, Lutchmisser, of three acres,
which was established in 1835-6, 3 maunds and 30 pounds, equal to
272 pounds. I have, in a former report, asserted that the minimum
return of tea for an acre of land may be estimated at 1 pucka maund,
or 80 lb. The only plantations that I can as yet bring forward in
favour of my assertion, are the two above-mentioned: Kuppeena has
not yielded the proportion mentioned, but it was only established in
1841-42, and the tea-plants do not come into full bearing until the
eighth year; on the other hand, Lutchmisser has given more than the
average return. I think, therefore, that the returns already yielded
are highly favorable, and that though the data are small, they are
very satisfactory.

_Soil best adapted for the tea-plant_.--The soil in which the
tea-plant is now thriving in the Himalayas and in the valley of
Deyrah Dhoon, varies exceedingly. At Bhurtpoor and Russiah it is of
a light silico-aluminous nature, and abounding with small pieces of
clay slate, which is the subjacent rock, and trap (green-stone),
which occurs in large dykes, cutting through and altering the strata
of clay slate; mixed with the stony soil, there is a small quantity
of vegetable matter. The clay slate is metamorphic, being almost
entirely composed of mica. In some places it is mixed with quartz,
forming mica slate. From the decomposition of these rocks, mixed
with a small quantity of vegetable matter, the soil is formed. At
Kuppeena and Lutchmisser, the soil is also very stony, formed from
the decomposition of clay slate, which, in many places, as at
Russiah and Bhurtpoor, passes into mica slate, or alternates with
it, and a little vegetable matter. The same remark applies to the
plantations of Guddowli, Kouth, and Rumaserai. At Huwalbaugh part of
the soil consists of a stiff clay, of a reddish-yellow colour, owing
to peroxide of iron. Here, too, the tea-plants, provided that the
ground around them is occasionally opened up, thrive well. In Mr.
Lushington's garden at Lobha, in Kumaon, and in Assistant
Commissioner Captain H. Ramsay's garden at Pooree, in Gurwahl,
plants are thriving well in a rich, black, vegetable mould. The soil
in the Deyrah Dhoon varies exceedingly from clayey and stiff soil to
sand and gravelly soil, or light and free. The soil at Kaolagir is a
compound of the two, neither clayey, nor free, nor light soil, but
composed partly of clay and sand, mixed with vegetable mould, and in
some places mixed with much gravel, consisting of limestone, marl,
sandstone, clay slate, and quartz rock, or of such rocks as enter
into the composition of the surrounding ranges of mountains, viz.,
the Sewalick range to the south, and the Himalayas, properly so
called, to the north, From the above statement, we find that the
tea-plant thrives well both in stiff and free soils, and in many
modifications of these. But the soil which seems best adapted to its
growth may be styled free soil, as at Russiah, or a mixture of both,
as at Kaolagir, in the Deyrah Dhoon.

In limestone districts, where the tea has been tried, if the
super-imposed soil has been thin and untransported, and this proved
from the decomposition of the subjacent rock, the plant has
generally failed; and this has been particularly the case where the
limestone, by plutonic action, has become metamorphic. These
districts, therefore, in forming plantations, are to be avoided.