TEA CULTURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2236, 2 June 1881, Page 3

TEA CULTURE.

A contemporary in a well-coosidered paper (says the " Home News ") discusses the prospects of tea and silk culture if introduced into New Zealand, and with so much cogency that it seems likely these industries will soon be undertaken there on a large scale. The climate and all the conditions are apparently very favourable to both. The mulberry tree thrives well, especially about Auckland, and would probably, if largely grown in the colony, prosper even better than in China. In that country the silk harvest lasts about six weeks, during which seven broods of worms, or " educations," as they are technically termed, oome to maturity. Owing to the superiority of the New Zealand climate the silk harvest would be more copious and probably longer. But in no case could it be extended beyond three months. It is on this aooount that those interested in the question suggest that tea culture should be earned on oonourrently with that of the silkworm and his favorite tree. Here, again, the conditions are most favorable. It is alleged that parts of Auckland greatly resemble the distriots of China in whioh these industries prosper most. Although the point is not proved, tea ought to grow well in the former, because the mulberry does, and Oriental scientists have laid it down as a rule that " where the mulberry grows freely, there tea will aleo thrive."