16 KEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
semi-tropical products, especially fruits, such as the orange, lemon, pine- 
apple, banana, guava, cherimoyer, &c., and such articles of common use 
as coffee and tea, and such textile plants as agave, bhemeria, and 
others, which, although in some cases may be looked upon as doubtful 
experiments, are yet undetermined, and their values can only be learned 
from intelligently directed efforts. 
The orange and lemon culture is of much promising importance, and 
in order to develop and increase the valuable collections now in posses- 
sion of the department, a small house has been arranged and expressly 
devoted to their culture and propagation. 
A distribution, as far as means would allow, has been made of the 
Japan persimmon, a fruit of great reputed value in its native country, 
and of prospective value here, particularly on account of its use in a 
dried state. 
The olive has also received special attention. A valuable selection of 
the best known commercial varieties has been secured, and will be prop- 
pagated as rapidly as means will allow. Much interest is felt in the 
culture of this product in the various States where the olive succeeds, 
and as the plant is not sensibly injured by less than a zero cold, it can 
be made a subject of experiment over a large portion of this country. 
The culture of the Chinese tea plant is exceedingly promising. The 
agitation of this industry has had the effect of arousing the attention of 
a large number of planters, and evidence daily accumulates as to what 
has already been done with the plant as a domestic production, and 
mainly for local domestic uses. It is not to be expected that home pro- 
duction will, for many years to come, make itself felt in the foreign com- 
merce of this article; but it may be expected connoisseurs will soon dis- 
cover the merits of the domestic article, and will not be satisfied with 
the inferior foreign product. 
This fact is apt to be overlooked in the discussion of this question, 
but the superiority of the home product will force itself upon the atten- 
tion of consumers, for the experience of those who have used the tea of 
Georgia confirms the world-wide and popular assertion that “ good tea 
as a beverage can only be had in tea-growing countries.” 
The operations consistently belonging to the Horticultural Division of 
this departmentaremultipliedandimportant. In some degree these opera- 
tions are misconstrued. It does not propose, aS seems very generally 
presumed, to propagate flowers and fruits indiscriminately for distribu- 
tion. It is not intended to propagate plants for the beauty of their flow- 
ers, except so far as may be required for direct use in the ornamentation 
of the department grounds. Plants valued merely tor the beauty of 
their flowers are not included in the distributions proper of the depart- 
ment, these being confined to plants of economic value and utility. 
During the year there has been distributed from the grounds 49,700 
tea plants, 12,200 strawberry, 7,181 plants of oranges, figs, Japan per- 
simmons, olives, &c., 2,954 grapes, and 95,000 scions of Russian apple 
trees. 
