REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER Ot AORICULTTJRE, 41 

 THE GOVERNMENT TEA FARM, 



A great deal has been said and written in recent years relative to 

 the cultivation of the tea plant and the manufacture of its leaf into 

 tea upon a practical and commercial basis. The Government has 

 appropriated for the last eight years an aggregate of $28,000 to en- 

 courage the industry. With the desire to thoroughly test the ques- 

 tion a so-called "tea farm" was leased some years ago by a predeces- 

 sor, and a plantation of tea seed and young plants inaugurated. 

 Active efforts in this direction were soon abandoned, and since that 

 the farm has been used simply as a distributing center for those who 

 wished the plants for trial. But it should be borne in mind that this 

 farm was not established for the distribution of plants. The original 

 design was to test there the culture of the plant and the manufacture 

 of tea as a commercial and profitable enterprise. The Department 

 had long previous to its establishment given its opinion that tea 

 culture, so far as the plant was concerned, presented no cultural or 

 climatic difficulty, and had encouraged the cultivation of the crop as 

 a domestic industry. It had distributed plants for years with that 

 view, and with that view only, believing that tea culture as a profita- 

 ble and commercial industry could not be encouraged, because there 

 could not be found any foundation to encourage capital to develop 

 the enterprise. After these years, and at a considerable expense, the 

 Department is confirmed in its original belief. Congress has pro- 

 vided for the closing out of the interests of the Government at its 

 tea farm, and I can see no reason to doubt its wisdom. The farm 

 will be abandoned and revert to its owner, according to the terms of 

 the lease, with the beginning of the new fiscal year. 



STORM AND FLOOD SIGNALS. 



Petitions have been received at the Department for many years, 

 and are still coming in, with relation to the establishment by the 

 Government of a system of signaling by cannon, from central sta- 

 tions, to announce the approach of storm, flood, or frost. It seems 

 to be the general belief among planters and farmers that such cen- 

 tral stations could be established at the post-office or other place 

 under Federal control, and that cannon and other field pieces belong- 

 ing to the Government, now happily in disuse^ could thus be utilized 

 in the avocations of peace. The expense would be trifling when 

 compared with the benefits to be derived in many sections. 



I would recommend that a few stations be established, under the 

 direction of the Chief Signal Officer, for the purpose of testing the 

 'plan proposed. 



COTTON INDUSTRY. 



In accordance with a recommendation of my last report, Congress 

 has provided for the printing of a report of an elaborate investiga- 



