Miscellanies. 199 
bod 
are the plants irrigated. Each shrub may yield about a tael of dry 
_ tea annually (about the 12th of a pound.) A mow of ground may 
contain 300 or 400 plants. The land tax is 300 cash, (720 to a 
dollar,) per mow. The cultivation and gathering of the leaves be- 
ing performed by families without the assistance of hired laborers, no 
rate of wages can be specified ; but as the curing of the leaf is an art 
that requires some skill, persons are employed for that particular 
purpose, who are paid at the rate of one dollar per pecul of fresh 
leaves, equal to five dollars per pecul of dry tea. The fire-place 
used is only temporary, and all the utensils, as well as fuel, are fur- 
nished by the curer of the tea. ‘They stated that the leaves are 
heated and rolled seven or eight times. The green leaf yields one 
fifth of its weight of dry tea. ‘The best tea fetches on the spot 23 
_ dollars per pecul, (133: lbs.) and the principal part of the produce 
is consumed within the province, or exported in baskets to Formosa. 
That the prevailing winds are northwesterly. The easterly winds - 
are the only winds injurious to the plants. Hoar frost is common 
during the winter months, and snow falls occasionally, but does not 
lie long, nor to a greater depth than three or four inches. The plant 
is never injured by excessive cold, and thrives from 10 to 20 years. 
It is sometimes destroyed by a worm that eats up the pith, and con- 
verts both stem and branches into tubes, and by a gray lichen which 
principally attacks very old plants. The period of growth is limited 
to six or seven years, when the plant has attained its greatest size. 
The spots where the tea is planted are scattered over great part of 
the country, but there are no hills appropriated entirely to its cul- 
ture. No ground, in fact, is formed into a tea plantation, that is fit 
for any other species of cultivation, except perhaps that of the dwarf 
pine already alluded to, or the Camellia oleifera. Mr. Gutzlaff 
understood them to say that the plant blossoms twice a year, in the 
eighth moon or September, and again in winter, but that the latter 
flowering is abortive. In this I apprehend there was some misun- 
derstanding, as full sized seeds, though not ripe, were proffered to 
me in considerable quantities early in September, and none were 
found on the plants which we saw. I suspect that the people meant 
to say that the seeds take eight months to ripen, which accords with 
other accounts. We wished much to have spent the following day 
(the 13th) in prosecuting our inquiries and observations at Toa-be 
and its neighborhood, but this was rendered impracticable by the 
state of our finances. We had plenty of gold, but no one could be 
ye: 
