In a letter, dated Grenville, S.C., June 17th, 1850, with which I have been favored, he adds:—­

“I never heard of the failure of the tea-crop.  All vegetation may be retarded, or lessened, or augmented, in its production, in a slight degree, by excessive rains, or drought, or cold, or heat, or atmospheric action; but the tea-plant is sure to produce its leaf.  From all I have observed, a decided drought is the most detrimental to the health of the tea plant.  The almost continued rains which marked the advance of the past spring, seemed perfectly agreeable to the tea-plant, and facilitated the germination of the tea-nuts.  Where any vitality remained in the nut, it was sure to germinate.  Curiosity, on this point should be restrained, and no picking and pawing up of the nuts permitted.  I have seedlings with tap roots four inches in length, where no appearance of germination is visible upon the surface of the ground.  The chances are ten to one that the seedling would be destroyed by the tamperings of idle curiosity.  Let nature have her own most perfect work, and see that the enemy, the drought, is vanquished by an abundant supply of water.

From experience, I notice that nothing is more congenial to the germination of the tea-nut than a good stiff blue, clayed soil.  The marly colour of the soil is undoubtedly the result of a rich loam, combined with the clay of a lighter hue.  The adhesive nature of the clay retains moisture in an eminent degree, and the fertilising qualities of the loam are well known to every bottom land farmer.

Plants put out three weeks ago, after a long voyage from China, are now taking root, and look fresh and vigorous, notwithstanding the recent heat and dryness of the atmosphere.  But I have taken unwearied pains in the cultivation.  Every plant is sheltered from the scorching influence of the sun, now from 70 deg. to 86 deg. of temperature.  Although the soil is naturally moist and clayey, and half bottom land, from the work of gentle acclivities, rising on either hand, yet I have given the plants a liberal watering in the evening.  By last summer’s drought of fifty-seven days, I was taught the absolute necessity of deep digging and deep planting.  None of my plants, of this season’s planting, are more than two or three inches above the surface of the ground.

If any of the plants have leaves, as most of them have, below that height, they are planted with the leaves retained; none are removed.  Some of the older plants have no leaves remaining, and looked like dry sticks.  Many of these are now beginning to break, and put forth fresh leaves.”

In 1851, Mr. Frank Bonynge set on foot a subscription list of fifty dollars each, to procure tea and various Indian plants for culture in America.  That tea can be grown successfully in Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, is almost certain, because the experiment has been pretty fairly tried, as above shown, by Dr. Smith.  The thermometer at Shanghai indicates the cold as more severe by thirteen degrees than at Charleston, South Carolina.  The cold winter of 1834-5, which destroyed the oranges in Mr. Middleton’s plantation, in Charleston, left his tea plants uninjured.