CHAPTER II.GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.
Besides the character of the different varieties of tea and other information connected with the plant and its product, we have to notice the different parts of the world in which it is now or may be grown in the future, as many practical questions of considerable importance are dependent on the subject.
For upwards of two centuries and a half the world’s supply of tea was furnished exclusively by China, and it was not until well into the middle of the nineteenth century that China and Japan were the only two tea-producing countries in the world, their product reaching the western markets through the narrowest channels and under the most oppressive restrictions. Its cultivation however, has in that time been extended to other countries, most notably into Java, India and Ceylon.
Tea is more or less cultivated for local consumption in all the provinces of China, except the extreme northern. But to what exact degree of latitude it is difficult to be precise, as we are without definite information from those regions, and the vast empire of China not being sufficiently explored by botanists to warrant the assertion that the plant is not to be found in other parts of the country, at least in a wild state. So far, however, it has not been discovered there, except in a state of cultivation, or as having evidently escaped from cultivation on roadsides or other out-of-the-way places.
We know that it is cultivated in Tonquin and Yunnan, but only to a limited extent, the product of theseprovinces being also of a very inferior quality. It is grown in Cochin-China and the mountain ranges of Ava, but only for local consumption, and that, while it is indigenous to the mountains, separating China from Burmah, it is not cultivated there for either export or profit, and although claimed by some authorities to be grown all over the Chinese empire, its cultivation for commercial purposes is confined to the region lying between the 24th and 35th degrees of north latitude, the climate between these parallels varying to a considerable extent, being much warmer in the southern than in the northern provinces. The districts in which it is chiefly cultivated, however, and from which it is principally exported, are embraced in the southwestern provinces of Che-kiang, Fo-kien, Kiang-see, Kiang-nan, Gan-hwuy Kwang-tung, some little being also produced for export in the western province of Sze-chuan.
It is cultivated for commercial purposes all over the Japanese islands, fromKiusiu, in the south, to Niphon, in the extreme north, but the zone found most favorable to its most profitable production in these islands is that lying between the 30th and 35th degrees, more especially in the coast provinces of the interior sea. It is also grown to some extent in Corea, from which country—although claimed by some to be the original country of tea—none is ever exported.
In the year 1826 some tea seeds were sent from Japan to Java and planted as an experiment in the residency ofBuitenzorg, where they were found to succeed so well that tea-culture was immediately commenced on an extensive scale in the adjoining residencies of Cheribon, Preanger and Krawang, the number of tea trees in the former district amounting to over 50,000 in 1833. The several other districts of the island to which it had beenextended, now containing upwards of 20,000,000 trees from which over 20,000,000 pounds of prepared tea are annually delivered to commerce, tea-culture forming one of the chief industries of the island at the present day.
A species of the tea plant has been found growing in a truly wild state in the mountain ranges of Hindostan, particularly on those bordering on the Chinese province of Yunnan, from which fact it is claimed by some writers as probable that these mountains are the original home of tea. Recent explorations also show that the tea plant is to be found growing wild in the forests of Assam, Sylhet and the Himalaya hills, as well as over the great range of mountains extending thence through China to the Yang-tse river. At an early period the British East India Company, as the principal trade intermediary between China and Europe, became deeply interested in the question of tea cultivation in their eastern possessions, but without much success until in 1840, when the Assam Tea Company was formed, from which year the successful cultivation of tea in India has been carried on, the tea districts of that country including at the present time, in the order of their priority, Assam, Dehradun, Kumaon, Darjeeling, Cachar, Kangra, Hazarila, Chittagong, Burmah,Neilgherry and Travancore.
Various efforts were made to introduce tea-culture into Ceylon, under both Dutch and British rule, no permanent success being attained until about 1876, when the disastrous effects of the coffee-leaf disease induced the planters to give more serious attention to tea. Since that period tea cultivation has developed there with marvelous rapidity, having every prospect at the present time of taking first rank among Ceylon productions.
Dr. Abel highly recommends the Cape of Good Hope as furnishing a fitting soil and climate for the beneficialproduction of tea, stating that “there is nothing improbable in a plant that is so widely diffused from north to south being grown there.” Tea of average quality being now shipped from Natal to the London market.
Besides Java, India and Ceylon, where tea culture has been introduced and profitably demonstrated, numerous attempts have and are being made to colonize the plant in other countries than these of the East, but beyond the countries above enumerated, the industry has so far never taken root, for while the cultivated varieties of the tea-plant are comparatively hardy, possessing an adaptability to climate excelled alone among plants only by that of wheat, the limits of actual tea cultivation extend from the 39th degree of north latitude in Japan, through the tropics to Java, Ceylon, India and China, and while it will live in the open air in many of the countries into which it has been introduced and withstand some amount of frost when it receives sufficient summer heat to harden its root, but comparatively few of those regions are suited for practical tea-growing.
As far back as 1872, some tea plants were sent from China to the Kew gardens in England, for the purpose of testing the possibility of its growth in that country. The attempt, however, ended in failure, the seeds never germinating, later efforts under more careful training meeting with the same fate. Considerable success attended its introduction into the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, in 1844, the tea produced being pronounced as “excellent in flavor, but lacking in that strength and aroma so characteristic of the Chinese variety.”
Its cultivation has been recently attempted in the Philippines by the Spanish, in Sumatra and Borneo by the Dutch, and by the French in Cochin-China, nearly all of which experiments so far proving failures,the only success reported being from the latter country, where the soil is good and moisture equable. Tea plantations have also been lately opened up in Malay, Singapore, and other of the Straits settlements by the English; some teas of fair quality, but insufficient quantity, having already produced in many of them. Its cultivation forms one of the industries of the Fiji islands at the present time; the soil and climate of the latter being found eminently adapted to its successful propagation, land and labor, the chief difficulties in other countries, being particularly available there. Extraordinary efforts are now also being made to introduce the plant into the warmer parts of Australia.
Some ten years ago specimens of the Chinese tea-plant were introduced into the Azores, where they soon became acclimated, expert Chinese tea-makers being sent there specially a few years later to teach the natives how to manipulate the leaves. The industry has made such rapid progress there that regular shipments of “Madeira tea” are now being made to the London market, where it is affirmed that in strength and flavor it closely approaches that of China tea. But while it has been found to flourish luxuriantly on the hilly parts of St. Helena, the quantity and quality are insufficient to justify its cultivation for either profit or export on that island.
The Economic Society of St. Petersburg warmly advocates its cultivation in the Caucasus, while French and German naturalists declare that there is no region more suitable for the profitable cultivation of tea than the shores of the Black Sea, the climate being warm, moist and equable, and tea of more than average quality have already been produced between Batoum and Kiel, samples of which were exhibited at the exhibition recently held in Tiflis, the report on which was soencouraging that the society ventures the opinion “that in time Russia may compete with China and India in supplying the Western nations with tea.” Efforts are also being made to introduce it into southern Italy, but while the soil and climate of those countries may be found admirably adapted for the purpose, there is no skilled labor to prepare it properly.
The cultivation of tea was attempted in the warmer parts of Brazil in 1850, some tea of very fair quality being produced in the vicinity of Rio Janeiro, and while the plant was found to flourish exceedingly well in the adjoiningprovince of Sao Paolo, the tea when prepared for use was found to be entirely too bitter and astringent for practical purposes. The lack of skilled labor and high cost of manufacture preventing its cultivation for profit, it was inferred that with everything else in its favor, tea as produced in Brazil would never be able to compete with that of China even for home consumption.
Some few years since plantations were opened for the cultivation of tea in Mexico, Guatemala, and in some of the West India islands, but to the present no reports favorable or otherwise, have been received regarding its progress in these countries. Still, in the face of all drawbacks, with the example of the many failures and final success achieved in India and Ceylon, much may yet be accomplished in Brazil and other South American countries by intelligent cultivation, modern machinery and perseverance in solving the problem of growing at least their own tea.
With regard to the efforts to introduce the tea-plant into the United States, the earliest notice which comes under observation is that contained in theSouthern Agriculturist, published in 1828, and in which it is stated that “the tea-tree grows perfectly in the open air nearCharleston, where it has been raised for the past fifteen years, in the nursery of M. Noisette. But as imported from China it would cost too much to prepare for commercial use.” Another historical effort was that made in 1848, by Dr. James Smith, at Greenville, S. C., but although commenced with great enthusiasm the plantation never was increased to any appreciable extent. Neither was it brought to a condition, as far as can be ascertained, to warrant the formation of any reliable opinion as to the practicability of tea-culture in this country as an industry. Nevertheless, the circumstances of its failure are quoted as a proof that tea cannot be produced for commercial purposes or even for home consumption in this country. While the truth is that as a test for the purposes named, the attempt was of no value whatever, and never was so considered by those conversant with its cultivation or management.
But while the plant barely survives the winter north of Washington, it has been found to thrive successfully a little south of that district. It bears fruit abundantly on the Pacific coast, where the soil and climate are especially favorable to the growth of broad-leaved evergreens, both native and exotic, and will flourish much further north there than in the Eastern states.
Still the progress of these efforts to grow tea in other countries than China, Japan and India, must necessarily prove interesting as being calculated to make the world more independent of these countries for its supplies. Yet it is an established fact that the finest varieties of tea are best cultivated in the warmer latitudes and onsites most exposed to air and sunshine.