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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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