TOO MUCH FOR TEA
SIR,—As the high cost of tea is once again in the news, I wonder if the position could be helped any, by the same type of enthusiasm which many people showed during the war when tobacco was so short—simply by grow- ing their own.
A few years ago I Was told by a scientist who had been on a tour of Russian universities, that one of the many interesting things which he had seen in the USSR was tea bushes growing out of doors in Moscow. If I remember cor- rectly, he said this had been achieved by research into the crossing of young tea plants with hardier shrubs. Finally, by crossing with a gooseberry bush a plant was produced which had characteristics of the tea plant and the hardiness of the gooseberry bush.
I wonder if this has ever been attempted in this country.—Yours
T. BOWEN-REES Craigmillar, Woodside Lane, Ryton, Co. Durham
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