276 



FACTS FROM VARIOOS OFFICIAL SOURCES. 



Tea Peoduction in Bengal, British India 

 cleucy about 800,000 acres are " lield for purpose 

 tea industry." Of this only about 70,000 acres ai 

 plants in bearing. This portion is subdivided into 

 and "immature-plant land." The average yield 

 land is about 237 pounds per acre ; that of the 

 pounds ; of the whole, 208 pounds per acre. 



The total production is about 15,000,000 pounds. The following are 

 the statistics for the several " divisions :" 



— In the entire presi- 



s connected with the 



•e occupied with tea- 



" njature-plant land" 



of the mature-plant 



immature, about 80 



Divisions. 



Taken for 

 tea-culture. 



Cultivated. 



TJuder ma- 

 ture plants. 



Under imma- 

 ture plants. 



Total yield 

 in 1872. 



Assam ....: 364,990 



Decca 281,174 



CoochBeliar 133,024 



Chittagong I 23,890 



Cbota Xagpore 1,504 



Total 1 804,582 



Acres. 



26, 853 



26, 751 



14, 639 



1,203 



894 



Acres. 



21, 890 



23, 031 



10, 181J 



1,034 



835 



70, 367 



56, 97 U 



Acres. 

 4,963 



3, 720 



4, 457i 

 196' 



59 



Pounds. 



6, 150, 764 



5, 296, 169 



2. 955, 926 



■ 204, 112 



53, 200 



13,395i j 14,660,171 



The above statistics for the Assam division are exclusive of those for 

 the tea-gardens of Luckimpore, (not being reported;) and of theG,150,76i 

 pounds reported, 1,500,000 pounds were produced by the Assam Com- 

 pany, which was the first one organized for producing tea in Bengal, 

 and which had to experiment six or seven years before it began to re- 

 ceive much encouragement in profitable returns. 



A NOVEL THEORY. — The following dispatch was sent by A. N. Duffre, 

 the consul of the United States at Cadiz, Spain, and communicated to 

 this Department by the Secretary of State. It is now published be- 

 cause of the novelty of the idea — that the same influence which oper- 

 tes to govern the ebb and flow of the tides, produces a like correspond- 

 ing effect upon the flow of sap in growing vegetation : 



A Madrid paper of respectable standing, entitled La Epoca, has pitblisbed, ia its 

 issue of the I'ith instant, an article signed by Don Luis Alvarez Alvistur, on the influ- 

 ence of the tides oil vegetation, in -which the -writer announces a new theory, based on 

 the results obtained during fourteen years devoted to experimental research, by an 

 enlightened landed proprietor of Lorca, in the i>rovince of Murcia. 



The theory adopted was the direct influence of the tide on the circulation of the sap, 

 and its experimental application after determining the meridian of the estate and 

 tabulating the corresponding hours of ebb and flow, has been the felling and lopping 

 of forest-trees solely during the hours pertaining to the ebbiug tide. The results are 

 stated to have been conclusive, the decay annually observable formerly in some jior- 

 tion of the timber having ceased completely in the many years that have elapsed dur- 

 ing the application of the ne-w principle. The system was then applied to an olive- 

 grove, the yield of -which had ceased to cover the annual costs of culture, by removing 

 every dried portion of the trees exclusively during ebb tide. The result is stated to 

 have been the complete transformation of the grove, a great development of foliage, 

 and abundant crops. 



Equally admirable results ensued from the similar treatment of orange, lime, and 

 other fruit trees, -which -were thenceforth unaftected by larvaj or other plagues -which 

 smote adjoining orchards ; and finally the vineyard of the Lorca landlord, though sur- 

 rounded by those of other proprietors -which -were devastated by the oidium -which ap- 

 peared in "the district at the period -v\^hen the new system -was first essayed, have never 

 exhibited the faintest trace of the presence of the malady. 



It is likewise asserted that experiments made -with equal sets of silk-worms, respec- 

 tively fed on leaves of trees treated by the ordinary and by the new system, the leaves 



