436 
facturers, or is retailed upon the premises. Generally, producers prefer to sell on the 
spot, and this custom makes a ready sale for the best qualities, for in 1871 flax sold on 
the premises was worth from $26 to $27, while that sold at the different markets only 
reached a price of from $20 to $22 a hundred-weight. The principal flax markets of 
Silesia are those of Bresiau and Konstadt. 
* TEA CULTIVATION AND MANIPULATION. — ° 
The Department of Agriculture has always been interested in the 
development of this cultivation, and has not abandoned the hope that 
the tea-plant may ultimately be included with the domestic and economi- 
cal products of this country. The high price of labor, and the mystery 
in which the matter was shrouded, until the British government under- 
took the cultivation in their Indian possessions, made almost any attempt 
at manipulation on the part of private parties a forlorn hope. 
The adaptation of various sections of this country to the growth of 
the plant has been abundantly demonstrated, and plants from seed 
grown in the Southern States have, from time to time, been raised by 
the Department for distribution. So far back as 1848 the late Dr. 
Junius Smith abundantly proved that the mountains of South Carolina 
would produce and mature tea, although it was there subjected to severe 
freezing, and heavy falls of snow. Even in the grounds of the Depart- 
ment at Washington the plant has passed through the late severe winter 
without having been absolutely killed. It will be the object of this 
article to give such details and particulars relating to climate, 
soil, culture, and manipulation, as will tend to induce those who have 
already received plants, and have them growing, to experiment still 
further, and, it may be hoped, also encourage others to plant. 
In the present state of the labor market we cannot expect to proceed 
on the plan of the British in the East Indies and establish large planta- 
tions. It would not pay to do so; but the intelligence of the farmers 
of this country, and the improved agricultural machinery in use, will 
render completely easy here what proved an insuperable difficulty in 
India, viz, the growing of tea for family use. The apathy of the Hindoo 
races, their dislike of anything new, and the fact that tea is not their 
popular beverage, militated against the production of tea for their own 
wants in anything like a general system. Isolated points occur where 
they acquire a taste for tea, and then they grow and manufacture it 
very well, but they cannot accustom themselves to cultivate it with any 
care. : 
The following suggestions are from a communication received from 
Mr. James McPherson, as the result of his own observations in India: 
CLIMATE SUITED TO THE TEA-PLANT.—There are two very well marked varieties of 
the tea-plant, if indeed they are not sufficiently distinct to be ranked asspecies. These 
are, Thea Assamica, and Thea Chinensis, (syn. viride.) The first of these is the one with 
which western people became last acquainted, and it occupies a somewhat different 
position, naturally, to that in which the Chinese plant is usually found, if indeed the 
Chinese plant has even been seen in other than a state of cultivation. The varied con- 
ditions in which the two kinds, with their innumerable varieties, are found, may suffi- 
ciently account for the difference in their appearance. Thea Assamica, the India species, 
is usually found growing wild (and able to reproduce itself from seed) along the mar- 
gins of the Assam forests, frequently manifesting a partiality for the banks of streams. 
The climate of Assam is tropical, and, in parts, very moist, and frost is almost unknown 
in its tea-gardens, while the average temperature is about 70°, and the rain-fall about 
80 inches. The tea, like the wheat-plant or the vine, has, however, a remarkable adap- 
tation to a very great range of climate, and I have known tea grown with perfect suc- 
cess where the mean annual temperature was only 58° Fahbr. and the rain-fall from 
