I. SUGAR CANE, BEET ROOT, AND SORGHUM, WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR CONSUMPTION AND CULTURE. BY THOS P. KETTELL 17 II. A UNIFORM NATIONAL CURRENCY. By JOHN J. KNOX..... III. THE CURRENCY. BY A. W. STETSON..... 28 35 IV. THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH AND THE WESTERN COAST OF IRELAND..... ....... 39 ..... V. ENLARGEMENT OF THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL. BY J. D. WEBSTER... 46 53 VI. THE MARINER'S COMPASS-IRON SHIPS... VII. DISTILLATION OF PETROLEUM.. COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW. Public Anxiety-Estimated Debt-Secretary's Plan-Funds Raised in the Past Year-Prices in Gold-Mode of Reasoning-Paper Money and StocksAnnual Report-Amount of Currency-Scale of Depreciation-Advance in Prices-Loans without Interest-Bank Scheme-Uniform Taxation-Purchasing Specie-Change the Eagle-Secretary and Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means-Corporation Plans-Prices of Stocks-Imports -Table of the Port-Export Table-Specie Movement-Stocks Paid in Coin-Future Loans-Effect of Bills on Exports-Rates of ExchangeHarvests Abroad-Specie to India..... 56 65 STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE. The Naval Force of the United States, etc.,-Report of the Secretary of the An Alphabetical List of the Iron-clad Navy of the United States.. STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. FEBRUARY, 1863. TEA-ITS CONSUMPTION AND CULTURE. AMONG the marvels of modern commerce is certainly to be reckoned the extension of the use of tea among the nations of Europe and America. To the ancient nations of Europe it was wholly unknown, and its introduction in comparatively late years, is due to the enterprise of the Dutch, who early in the seventeenth century imported it in small quantities. Towards the middle of the century it made its appearance in London, and in September, 1661, two hundred years ago, SAMUEL PEPYS, Secretary to the Admiralty, in his very entertaining diary has this entry: "I sent for a cup of tea, (a China drink,) of which I had never drank before." This article was served at the best coffee houses, and was charged eight cents per gallon excise duty. Three years later, when the East India Company was working its way to government favor, they presented His Majesty with two pounds two ounces of tea as a present, the munificence of which was duly chronicled, and no doubt NELL GWYNNE and the court beauties then concentrated their gossips in the first tea party. Among the topics there discussed, no allusion was made to a second tea party 100 years later, held by His Majesty in Boston Harbor, and which resuÏted in the use of gunpowder tea exclusively for a season. His Majesty, as well as Mr. PEPYS, seem to have approved of the " new drink," since the East India Company three years later, in 1667, were encouraged to order 100 pounds to be sent home by their agent. Unfortunately for tea that company procured a monopoly of the trade, by which it could only be imported into the port of London, and that at a duty of 100 per cent. In 1689 the duty on tea was five cents per pound. In 1700 the consumption had reached 500,000 pounds. In 1775 it reached 13,000,000 pounds, and became the medium of the explosion with the colonies which refused the tax. In 1840 the annual British consumption reached 32,000,000 pounds, and in 1861 the consumption reached 77,949,464 pounds. In other words, the demand increased as much in the last 20 years as in the previous 180 years. The United States stand next to the English as tea consumers, and the demand upon China has, with the combined wants of Europe, risen in a century and-a-half from a nominal quantity to 150,000,000 pounds per annum; yet this increase has been attended with lower prices. The fact points to the marvelous capacity of China to produce tea, and at the same time, suggests the feasibility of domesticating the culture elsewhere to advantage. There is nothing apparently in the culture or manufacture of tea which should be a bar to its succesful cultivation in the United States, within those latitudes where it seems best to thrive. The culture of the tea plant is very simple and profitable, being a very hardy evergreen, growing readily in the open air between the equator and the 45° of latitude, and resembling the myrtle to some extent. It is a polyandrous plant of the natural order columniferæ, and has a white blossom with a yellow style and anthers. The stem is bushy with numerous branches and very leafy, while the leaves are alternate, on short, thick channeled foot stalks and evergreen. The Camellias are of the same natural family as the tea tree, and very closely resemble it. They are the only plants liable to be confounded with it by a careful observer. The climate most congenial to it, seems to be between 25° and 33° of latitude, if we may judge from the success of its cultivation in China, where it is confined to five districts, Tokien and Canton for the black tea, and Kiangnan, Kiang-si, and CheKiang for green. These districts lie between the latitudes named and 115 and 122 degrees of east longitude. The tea plant botanically is a single specie, and the green and black with their numerous varieties, are production of different localities and modes of treatment. As we before stated, it is remarkably hardy, and flourishes on the high slopes of mountains, where frost and snow prevail three months in the year. Its favorite soil is the poorest yellow sandy loam, impregnated with carbonate of iron. The plant is grown in nurseries either from nuts or cuttings, and when transplanted grows about twelve inches each year. For transplanting hill side ground where the sun shines half the day is selected, and the trees are set out 2,000 to the acre. In the third year the leaves are gathered, and if the tree is flourishing, it will yield 1 ounces tea, or at the rate of 187 pounds per acre; at four years the tree will give 24 ounces, or 312 pounds per acre; in the fifth year there may be expected 3 ounces, or 500 pounds per acre; in the sixth year the tree has reached its full bearing, and will give 6 ounces or 750 pounds per acre. The trees are said to live fifty years. The great demand for tea, and the ease with which it may be raised and gathered, has led to many efforts to introduce its culture elsewhere, and with very considerable success. The Dutch Government some 20 years since introduced its culture into Java. They procured Kokien cultivators for that purpose, and much success attended the effort, although the climate there is probably too warm for the full growth of the plant. The Brazilians introduced the culture near Rio Janerio also by the aid of Chinese laborers. The plant itself was found to prosper in the districts of New Friburgh, St. Paul, and Santos better than in China. It would there luxuriate in exposure and in any soil without trouble, and an algueire (about an acre) will give, it is said, 160 arrobas of 32 pounds each, worth 50 cents per pound. The tea when first sold in Rio brought $1 50 per pound, but was not considered so good as that from China. The price continued to fall and is now about 50 cents. The improved means of manufacturing the tea was a chief cause of the lower price. Probably the most successful effort of transplanting the culture was by the English, who introduced it into the Assam country of India with complete success, although great difficulties were for some years encountered through the inroads of the Tartars in that exposed country. In 1841 some Assam tea planters introduced the culture into Darjeeling, and these teas now on exhibition in London meet with marked favor. Some of the original plants set out in that region are now of gigantic size, in some cases 20 feet high and 50 feet in circumference. Although experiments continued to be made on the growth of the tea plant, and seed from Assam and Kumaon was distributed gratuitously by government, it was not till 1856 that the first plantation was started at Kursing, and another near Darjeeling, by Captain SAMLER. The success has been complete, and others have followed in the same path. The manufacture of tea in Darjeeling begins in April and ends in October. During this period twenty pickings of leaves are usually made. The tea of April, May, and October is the finest. The number of tea plants per acre varies from 1,860 to 2,700, according as they are placed at five or four feet apart. The produce of tea per acre looked for from the first year of manufacture to the fourth or fifth, when a plantation is at maturity, cannot be correctly estimated. The produce per plant in the fourth year of age is variously estimated at half to three ounces. Captain MASSAN, in a memorandum of his operations at Tuckvor, states," he got last season from a few indigenous Assam plants, grown at an elevation of 5,000 feet above the sea, one pound of mánufactured tea from each tree. The trees were seven years old." This is an immense return, and not a usual yield. Labor is still abundant, and is likely to continue so from the absence of demand in Eastern Nepaul, the great source of supply. The plantations give steady employment to about 3,000 persons, with extra hands occasionally. Wages of coolies 4s. 8d. to 5s. per mensem. The culture extended from Assam and Darjeeling into other countries of India, and the results up to this time are very clearly shown, in the fact that at the present exhibition in London, there are twenty-eight exhibitors from India besides the government, who exhibit teas of their own growth and manufacture from Kumaon, Gurhwal, and Kangra; in all, there are 142 samples of Indian teas from the provinces of Assam, Cachar, Darjeeling, Dehra, Dhoon, Gurhwal, Kumaon, Kangra, Chota, and Nagpoor. The black varieties are pekoes, souchongs, pouchongs, bohea, and congous. The green teas are hysons, hysonskin, gunpowder, and imperial gunpowder. The result of the examination of these teas is very satisfactory. Many of them exhibit great excellence in manufacture with considerable strength and good flavor; nor is this confined to any, one province. There are no coloring matters used in preparing them, and they are held to be free from adulteration with any other leaf. Two natives of India are exhibitors-DHATTOO RAM YENIADOR, of Assam; and TANIKOOLLA MOONSHI, of Darjeeling. The Committee re |