329 



and to provide himself with proper clothing and 

 comfortable lodging, the evil effects of the drug 

 are not so speedily seen as in the case of his poorer 

 brother, who, to obtain the means of indulging the 

 vicious habit, is obliged to stint himself in whole- 

 some food and to go badly provided as to lodging 

 and clothes; but even in the more comfortable class, 

 the evil day is only put off. At length, under the 

 use of opium, the system gives way ; the bowels be- 

 come torpid ; the liver and kidneys congested ; the 

 circulation of the blood sluggish, and the brain 

 unfitted for the healthy performance of its func- 

 tions; torpor of mind and body becomes establish- 

 ed and goes on increasing, till dropsy or some other 

 disease comes to close the scene." 



"The offspring of such a race is a degenerate 

 one, weak and sickly. " 



Yet the cultivation, of no crop requires a larger 

 amount of labor than Tea. On an average one 

 man per acre is required to work a tea plantation 

 efficiently. In clearing and planting, it may be 

 ranked with other agricultural operations, but in 

 hoeing or dressing, and plucking and manufacturing 

 the leaf, ifc is peculiar. The trees flush from twenty 

 to thirty or more times a year, and at these times, 

 all hands must be in readiness to a day, for the leaf 

 if not plucked, hardens on the bushes and becomes 

 unfit for tea in a couple of days, and when plucked 

 and withered, must be at once rolled and fired. In 





