per acre per annum, costing at that time in India, ready for
shipment, say, ten cents a pound; to which must be added,
freight, selling charges, etc., of at least four cents a pound.

Half century ago, Mr. Fortune estimated that in China the small
grower realized for a common Congo tea, about four cents a pound,
but that boxing, transportation to the coast, export duty, etc.,
brought the cost in Canton to about ten cents a pound. Fine teas
then paid the grower, say, eight cents a pound, but the English
merchants in Shanghai paid thirty cents for the same teas.

Dr. Charles U. Shepard of the Pinehurst tea plantation at
Summerville, S.C., recently stated that Chinese bushes are said
to produce 2 ounces of dried tea per bush; those of Japan, 1
ounce per bush or less; those of India and Ceylon averaging 3 to
4 ounces, and on high ground, 2 to 3 ounces; while Dr. Shepard
has gathered from his own plantation, from acclimatized Assam
crosses, 3 ounces per bush, and from Chinese plants, 4 to 5
ounces. His Japan plants yielded but 1/2 ounce of tea.

Picking tea on the level lands of India and Ceylon is very light
work, and women and children are almost exclusively employed. Mr.
David Crole, writing in the serious and practical vein of a
scientific expert, is moved to a poetic sense of the scene when
he speaks of the return of Indian tea pickers from their work at
evening:--

"A long line of women with their gay clothes of various hues,
lit up by the expiring gleams of the setting sum, winding their
way along the garden paths, like some monster snake, with scales