GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.
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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 these provinces 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,
from Kiusiu, 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 of Buitenzorg, 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 been extended, 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 beneficial production 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 so encouraging 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 adjoining province 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 the _Southern Agriculturist_, published in 1828, and in
which it is stated that “the tea-tree grows perfectly in the open air
near Charleston, 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 on sites most exposed to
air and sunshine.
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