of many colors; their gait perfect, undulating, and undisturbed
by the baskets poised gracefully on their heads; singing some
quaint refrain in the usual minor key, or making the air gay with
their chatter and laughter; which, if far distant, strikes the
ear pleasantly as a faint and indistinct hum."

The tea plant undoubtedly reaches its highest perfection as a
member of the vegetable kingdom, in India and Ceylon, in a
climate of extreme heat and extreme rainfall and moisture, and in
a very rich soil; and the remark is often heard from Indian
planters that "tea and malarious fevers flourish together."
Experience has shown however that the tea plant possesses a
wonderful power of accomodation to adverse conditions. In China
and in the United states, it has been taught to put up with a
comparatively sterile soil, dry mountain air, at heights in China
reaching 6,000 feet above sea level, and occasional temperatures
as low as 12 to 10 degrees Fahr., in the midst of recurrent ice
and snow.

The story of tea in Japan alone calls for more space than this
entire book could furnish, and there is an ample field for a
treatise upon the cultivation, preparation, and social importance
of tea in that strikingly interesting land. Nearly one half of
the tea consumed in the United states comes from Japan, our
imports of Japan tea being about 44,000 pounds during last year.
Although tea has been grown in that country for more than siz
centuries only about forty years.

Tea in Japan is largely grown upon hill-slopes and in small
plantations or gardens, the latter term being peculiarly