Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1883 — American Tea. [ARTICLE]

American Tea.

Mr. H. W. L. Lewis, formerly Master of the Mississippi State Grange, finds tea-raising profitable. A gentleman who visited his place writes: “His tea shrubs grow luxuriantly. Two plants throw out side branches enough to cover a space of ten or twelve feet square. They are loaded with green leaves. He can pick the leaves four times in one season ■without serious injury to the plants. The first pickings make the best tea. Mr. Lewis from two plants can make enough tea to supply his family a year. By wilting, rubbing and beating the leaves in thin copper or iron pans, and working the waxy substance out, tea can be made here far better than most of the finest tea we get from China. The very best China teas are said to be kept in China and are not sent to other countries. Many people who never saw ,a tea-plant have ridiculed the former Commissioner of Agriculture for attempting to encourage tea-culture in these States; but we have never yet been able to understand why good tea not be made where the plant grows to such perfection as it does in the Gulf States.”— Chicago Times.