The Genesis of Tea

Southland Times, Issue 14333, 29 April 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Genesis of Tea

The cultivation of tea is a very simple affair, though the Chinese, for hundreds oi years, have attempted to shroud it in mystery. lam quite sure there are very few who know exactly how the plant is raised, .or what it looks like on the plantations. To begin with the appearance of a tea plantation : It greatly resembles a shrubbery of evergreens,the gardens on a hillside looking like a series of terraces. Tea, in China, is raised always from seed, which is collected in the autumn (after the last crop has been gathered) and plaeed.jn sand to keep the seeds fresh during the winter months. In the following spring the seed is sown in nurseries. In sowing the tea seed, from six to eight seeds are put into pots about an inch below the surface. The pots are usually about four feet apart, and are covered wfth rice husks, or parched earth. It is a very remarkable thing that out of eight seeds planted but two or three will grow. The cause for this has never been ascertained. When the nurslings have attained a height of from four to six inches, they are transpired to the beds of the gardens in which they are to grow, where they are placed four or five feet apart. In China tea plants are never manured, teas produced without fertilisation being considered the best in flavor. The tea plantations are laid out in early spring, the young plants being well watered b}’ the copious rain of the season. Tea plants require very little attention indeed. 1 It is not until they have attained a height of ' about eighteen inches that the weeds are pulled—by hand—not raked. The Chinese have a way of pinching the leading shoots of the plant. This is said to have the effect of making the shoots more numerous and bushy. In very dry seasons the plants are saturated with rice-water and the roots covered. In cold weather thes’ are protected by a wrapping of straw. When the rains come the plants rise up in clusters and require little care until they are three years old. In some districts of China the branches are pruned; this reduces the height of the plant, but has the effect of expanding it in a lateral direction.