Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1886 — Experimental Tea a Failure. [ARTICLE]

Experimental Tea a Failure.

For many years an experimental farm has been in operation in South Carolina at Government gxpense, devoted to the attempt to inWSftuce tea culture into this country. Ijt has never met with more than indifferent success. The tea plants would grow well enough, but curing the tea required much labor and skill, and neither conld be cheaply obtained near the tea fafm. The severe cold this winter has prematurely stripped the plants of their leaves, and the plantation is now in a more discouraging condition than ever. Commissioner Colman, of the Department of Agriculture, thinks the farm had better be abandoned. If more thought had been given the subject the experiment would never have been tried. We cannot compete with China in tea growing, for the reason that wages in that country are only five to ten cents per day. If the Chinese will consent to leave oui; staple products unmolested with their competition, we can well afford to leave them the monopoly of tea growing. Much of the price we pay for tea goes to middlemen, as the trade in tea has always been enormously profitable. — Exchange.