IV. CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION 51-68 V. CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION 69-132 VI. ADULTERATION AND DETECTION 133-157 VII. TESTING, BLENDING AND PREPARING 159-204 VIII. CHEMICAL, MEDICAL AND DIETICAL PROPERTIES 205-235 IX. WORLD’S PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 237-252 X. TEA CULTURE, A PROBABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY 253-265 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: (Branch of Tea Plant.) ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY. -------------- The history of Tea is intimately bound up with that of China, that is, so far as the Western world is concerned, its production and consumption being for centuries confined to that country. But, having within the past two centuries become known and almost indispensable as an article of diet in every civilized country of the globe, it cannot but prove interesting to inquire into the progress, properties and effects of a commodity which could have induced so large a portion of mankind to abandon so many other articles of diet in its favor, as well as the results of its present enormous consumption. Although now to be found in a wild state in the mountain-ranges of Assam, and in a state of cultivation through a wide range from India to Japan, the original country of Tea is not definitely known, but from the fact of its being in use in China from the earliest times it is commonly attributed to that country. Yet though claimed to have been known in China long anterior to the Christian era, and even said to have been mentioned in the _Sao-Pao_, published 2700 B. C., and also in the _Rye_, 600 B. C., the exact date or manner of its first discovery and use in that country is still in doubt. One writer claims that the famous herb was cultivated and classified in China 2000 B. C., almost as completely as it is to-day, and that it was used as a means of promoting amity between Eastern monarchs and potentates at this early period. Chin-Nung, a celebrated scholar and philosopher, who existed long before Confucius, is claimed to have said of it: “Tea is better than wine, for it leadeth not to intoxication, neither does it cause a man to say foolish things and repent thereof in his sober moments. It is better than water, for it doth not carry disease; neither doth it act as a poison, as doth water when the wells contain foul and rotten matter,” and Confucius admonishes his followers to: “Be good and courteous to all, even to the stranger from other lands. If he say unto thee that he thirsteth give unto him _a cup of warm Tea_ without money and without price.”