Show I SOUTH CAROLINA TEA Secretary Wilson is an industrious man whatever else he may be He has undertaken to introduce American butter but-ter into the English market but how successful his efforts will be time alone can tell And now it looks as though he were going to undertake to introduce in-troduce the culture of tea into South Carolina Recently he sent a veteran horticulturist horticul-turist to investigate the tea fanning industry carried on at Summerville S C the purpose being to ascertain the prospects of the profitable growth of the tea plant in this country The secretarys agent has rendered his report re-port This report says that the labor question is the most Important one connected with the tea industry in this > > < < t country It costs says this report about eight times as much to pick tea In South Carolina as in Asia All labor connected with the cultivation of the tea plant is presumably equally high compared with what it is in Asia Ass As-s to have been expected the report suggested that it was impracticable to compete with Oriental labor It Is to I be inferred that the only drawback tq the cultivation of tea in South Carolina Caro-lina is competition with cheap Oriental I labor though the summary of the report re-port published in the papers does not give any definite statement on this j point It winds up by urging the development I velopment of a knowledge as to tea I raising by means of schools So far as encouraging the infant industry I in-dustry of tea culture as yet it can scarcely be said that it has got beyond i I be-yond the embryonic sjage by means I of the tariff this report aceomplUCied nothing For some years past the possibilities of tea culture have bobbed up at intervals but thus far no popular interest in it has been roused no doubt because the people have never believed it would prove a success or I I that this country could by any methods meth-ods raise tea enough to supply even a I small fraction of the demand I |