Select Plants fo r Industrial Culture and
C am e llia T h e a , Link.* (Thea Chinensis, Linné.)
The Tea-shrub of South-Eastern Asia, said to be indigenous also to
some localities of Japan, for instance Snrugo, traced as spontaneous
as far as Manchuria [Fontanier], also in Yunan, Khasya-Hills,
according to Kurz. This evergreen and ornamental bush has proved
hardy in the lowlands at Melbourne, where in exposed positions it
endures quite unharmed light night-frosts as well as the free access
of scorching summer-winds. But it is in humid valleys, with rich
alluvial soil and access to springs for irrigation, th a t the most productive
tea-fields can be formed. The greater the rainfall in any
region, otherwise adapted, the richer the yield of the Tea-plant. The
plant comes into plentiful bearing of its product as early as the Vine
and earlier than the Olive. Its culture is not difficult, and it is
singularly exempt from fungus-diseases, if planted in proper localities.
Pruning is effected in the cool season, in order to obtain a large
quantity of small tender leaves from young branches. Both the
Chinese and Assam tea are produced by varieties of a single species,
the tea-shrub being indigenous in the forest-country of Assam also.
The cross between the China and the Assam Tea-plant is particularly
prolific and much cultivated in India. Declivities are best adapted
and usually chosen for tea-culture, particularly for Congou, Pekoe
and Souchong, while Bohea is often grown in fiat countries. In
Jap an tlie tea-cultivation extends to 43° north latitude, where the
thermometer occasionally sinks to 16° F. [Simmonds], and where in
winter-time the ground is frozen several inches deep for weeks
[General W. G. Le Dno]. The Chinese variety has withstood the
winter of Washington in slieltered positions without protection [W.
Sannders]. The Assam-variety succumbs to frosts. For fuller
details Fortune’s work, “ The Tea-Districts of China,” might be
consulted. The very troublesome Tea-bug of some parts of Asia is
Helopeltis theivora. Fumigation and the application of bird-lime are
among the remedies to cope with this insect. The third volume of
the Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India
is mainly occupied by Lieut.-Colonel Edw. Money’s and Mr. Watson’s
elaborate essays on the cultivation and manufacture of tea in India.
For more advice on the culture and preparation of tea consult also
the writer’s printed lecture, delivered in 1875 at the Farmers’ Club
of Ballarat, further the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture,
Washington, 1877, pp. 349-367, with illustrations ; also Bernays’
Cnltural Industries for Queensland, pp. 181-190. Other works dwell
also on tea-culture. The tea of commerce consists of the young
leaves, merely heated curled, sweated and dried. The process of
preparing the leaves can be facilitated by steam-machinèry. Already
in 1866 three machines for dressing tea were patented in England—
one by Messrs. Campbell and Burgess, one by Mr. Thomson, and one
by Mr. Tayse. To give an idea of the quantity of tea which is
consumed it may be stated th a t from Ju n e to September, 1871, were
shipped 11,000,000 lbs. of tea from China alone to Australia, and
th a t the produce of tea in India from January to Ju n e of 1872 was
18.500.000 lbs. The imports into Britain during 1886 were
230,669,292 lbs., valued a t £11,317,418. The import into Victoria
alone came in 1887 to 14,120,051 lbs., valued a t £694,898; while
Assam-tea was obtained in India to nearly ninety million lbs. during
that year, Ceylon uncounted [ J . B. White]. In 1840 India sent its
first small sample of tea to the European market, in 1864 already
7.800.000 lbs., but in 1877 it exported to England forty million
pounds, th a t is, as much as the whole English importation thirty
years ago [Burrell]. In 1892 the quantity had risen to above
111,000,000 [Gow, Wilson and Stanton]. Ceylon alone exported
already in the commercial year 1882-3 one and a half million lbs. of
tea. According to the Journal of the Society of Arts this had risen
to 66,000,000 lbs. in 1892. Of the tea consumed in England in 1889,
50 per cent, came from India, 34 per cent, from China, and 16 per
cent, from Ceylon. Dr. Scherzer estimated the Chinese home-consumption
a t 400,000,000 lbs., others much higher. In 1873 China
exported 242,000,000 lbs., Japan 12,000,000 lbs. Simmonds calculates
the area under tea-cultivation in China a t 2,500,000 acres. In
1884 Great Britain imported 215,000,000 lbs. of tea, valued a t ten
and a half million pounds sterling ; of this quantity 66,000,000 lbs.
came from India, after such a comparatively short time of culture.
Three hundred lbs. of prepared tea is the average yield per acre in
India, according to Dr. G. Watt. Seeds of the tea-bush are now
locally to be gathered in many parts of Australia from plants distributed
by the writer since 1859 ; and for years to come the cultivation
of the tea-bush, merely to secure local supplies of fresh seeds, ready
to germinate, will in all likelihood prove highly lucrative. Tea contains
an alkaloid, coffein, a peculiar essential oil and Boheic acid,
along with other substances. Calcareous manures are particularly
recommended for tea-plantations. A vast quantity of the germinable
seeds of the Chinese tea-shrub was distributed not only locally, but
also as far as Queensland, already in 1858 by the writer of this work.
In the colony of Victoria the Chinese tea can be produced to advantage,
but not Assam tea. I t is remarkable, th a t the naturally nearly
inodorous tea-leaves should be almost the only kind turned in this
direction to account.
C am p a n u la E a p u n o u lu s , Linné.
The “ Eampion.” Middle and Southern Europe, Western Asia,
North-Africa. A biennial herb, the root and leaves of which supply
a kind of salad during the winter-months in cold climes.
C a n a v a lia g l a d i a t a , De Candolle.
The Sword-Bean. Within the tropics of Asia, Africa, and
America. Tliis perennial climber grows to an enormous height, and
bears an abundant crop of large edible beans, which can be used
green [Sir Walter Elliott]. I t varies with red and white seeds, and
ill the size of the latter, which are said to be wholesome. Mr. W.
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