Treatise on Silk and Tea Culture and Other Asiatic Industries Adapted to the Soil and Climate of California

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Treatise on Silk and Tea Culture and Other Asiatic Industries Adapted to the Soil and Climate of California

Kendo, T. A.

San Francisco: A. Roman & Co., 1870.

A detailed description of the processes of tea cultivation and sericulture by the Japanese immigrant T.A. Kendo. By mid-1869, "[s]everal hundred Japanese were reported settling with the intention of growing tea; they set out 140,000 plants at El Dorado. By 1872 the now experienced tea growers in California concluded that the climate there was unsuited to the plant".¹ Kendo's text is a practical guide to cultivating tea and silkworms in which the author applies knowledge of Japanese practices to the Californian environment. Details of the conditions and wages of tea workers in Japan (including women and children) are also supplied, as is information on other Japanese trees (lacquer, persimmon, chestnut) the author believes could grow in California. An early example of an English text published in America by a Japanese writer.

One western-bound volume, complete. Original boards, mottled, bubbled, gilt title to upper. Bumps to extremities. Light stain to opening edge of boards through textblock. Ex-ownership stamp to title, ex-bookseller's ticket to upper pastedown. ii, 73, iii. p. 18.2 x 11.8 cm. Text in English.

1. Klose, Nelson. “Experiments in Tea Production in the United States.” Agricultural History 24, no. 3 (1950), p. 159.

Treatise on Silk and Tea Culture and Other Asiatic Industries Adapted to the Soil and Climate of California
Price: $360.00 (USD)