Leadership of the Patent Ofice


pliers. They believed that if this important staple could be pro-
duced at home, it would improve the balance of trade and national
self-sufficiency. A new crop industry would employ more labor,
increase the national wealth, and add diversity to southern agri-
culture.
 First Plantings-The first known tea grower in America was
Andre Michaux, the French botanist. Michaux set out tea plants
around 1800 on the banks of the Ashley River, about fifteen miles
from Charleston. Niles' Register reported in 1823 that genuine
Hyson tea had been successfully cultivated in North Carolina from
a viable seed found among tea leaves. This is surprising, since at
a later date it proved impractical to import viable tea seeds be-
cause they frequently turned rancid during the long ocean voyage.
In November of the same year, a large bed of tea shrubs was
reported growing in Louisiana, and Niles' Register recorded that a
specimen of Southern tea was found to be palatable and refresh-
ing.
 Even at this time there was some doubt about the success of
tea growing in America due to the large amount of cheap labor
needed for its cultivation. Tea said to compare favorably with the
best China varieties was reported in Louisiana in 1825. The
successful cultivation of the tea plant for more than fifteen years
in South Carolina was announced in 1828. Such reports were not
widely available, however, as evidenced by the fact that the editor
of the Genesee Farmer hoped in 1837 that some enterprising ship-
masters would introduce tea from China.
 Government Interest-America's desire to grow tea grew out of
the successful cultivation of the plant by the British East India
Company in the middle of the nineteenth century. Dr. Junius
Smith was the first to experiment seriously with tea growing for
agricultural and commercial purposes. He selected a farm in the
foothills of western South Carolina as the preferred climate for
the tea plant, and in 1848 imported plants of seven-years' growth
from London and India. The Patent Office took an immediate
interest in Smith's work and recorded the introduction in antici-
pation of the future interest this "enterprising projector" would
arouse. Smith also promoted his own publicity through the farm
papers. The Department of the Interior asked the Navy to secure
some tea seeds from the East Indies in 1851, but the effort did
not succeed.