America's Crop Heritage


reaching any definite conclusion, and that better cultivation and
preparation might bring success. Seed from the best tea in Asia
were secured through the State Department. Special attention was
given to climate as a limiting factor in the production of good
quality tea. Merchants took an interest in the samples produced,
tea tasters judged the brews, and the press published reports on
the progress made.
 The Department of Agriculture began cooperating with Dr.
Charles U. Shepard, in charge of his own Pinehurst Experimental
Tea Garden, near Summerville, South Carolina. Varieties tried at
Pinehurst came from Japan, China, Formosa, and Assam. Because
the cost of picking a pound of tea at Pinehurst proved to be six
times greater than the cost in the orient, any tea marketed would
be able to compete with foreign tea only on a basis of quality.
But testimonials of tea merchants praised the tea as equal to the
best foreign teas.
 The commercial production of tea was again presented as a
tantalizing possibility in the publications of the Department of
Agriculture in 1899. It was Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson
who then promoted the industry. Dr. Shepard, with machinery
furnished by the Department, processed tea which he sold to a
distributing house in the North at a profit. A company with assets
of $50,000 was being organized in 1900 to produce tea on a more
extensive scale. Much experimenting was done to improve the
quality of the tea, which could be produced and marketed for
fifteen cents per pound, it was claimed-but the enterprise did not
succeed.
 By 1903, when 8,369 pounds of tea were produced at Pinehurst,
the attention of the Department of Agriculture came to be con-
centrated more than ever on reducing costs of processing the
leaves by the invention of labor saving machinery. Study was
given to the cup qualities of tea as affected by chemical changes
during processing. A tea garden was established at Mackay, Texas,
by 1903 in order to test the plant in another climate. In 1905 Dr.
Rodney H. True, in charge of the tea culture investigations, con-
tinued work along lines of the two previous years. Dr. Shepard
had about a hundred acres planted to tea at Pinehurst in 1907,
although in previous years he had been harvesting annually
about 12,000 pounds of dry tea.
 Another garden opened at Pierce, Texas, indicated that the