To the ingenious Kæmpfer we are principally indebted for any accurate information respecting the culture of the Tea Tree; and, as his account was composed during his residence at Japan, greater credit is certainly due to it. We shall give what he says upon this subject, and then state the accounts we have been able to collect of the Chinese method.
Kæmpfer tells us, that no particular gardens or fields are allotted for this plant, but that it is cultivated round the borders of rice and corn fields, without any regard to the soil. Any number of the seeds, as they are contained in their seed vessels, not usually less than six, or exceeding twelve or fifteen, are promiscuously put into one hole, made four or five inches deep in the ground, at certain distances from each other. The seeds contain a large proportion of oil, which is soon liable to turn rancid; hence scarce a fifth part of them germinate, and this makes it necessary to plant so many together.
The seeds vegetate without any other care; but the more industrious annually remove the weeds, and manure the land. The leaves which succeed are not fit to be plucked before thethird year’s growth, at which period they are plentiful, and in their prime.
In about seven years the shrub rises to a man’s height; but as it then bears few leaves, and grows slowly, it is cut down to the stem, which occasions such an exuberance of fresh shoots and leaves the succeeding summer, as abundantly compensates the owners for their former loss and trouble. Some defer cutting them till they are of ten years growth.
So far as can be gathered from authors and travellers of credit, this shrub is cultivated and prepared in China, in a similar manner to what is practised in Japan; but as the Chinese export considerable quantities of Tea, they plant whole fields with it, to supply foreign markets, as well as for home consumption.
The Tea-tree delights particularly in vallies; or on the declivities of hills, and upon the banks of rivers, where it enjoys a southern exposure to the sun; though it endures considerable variations of heat and cold, as it flourishes in the northern clime of Pekin, as well as about Canton[23], the former ofwhich is in the same latitude with Rome; and from meteorological observations it appears, that the degree of cold about Pekin is as severe in winter, as in some of the northern parts of Europe[24].