1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



137 



wisely declined an unequal competition, in which 

 they must, be always prevented by the vicinity of 

 the Persians to the markets of India; and the em- 

 peror submitted to the disappointment, till his 

 wishes were gratified by an unexpected event. 

 The gospel had been preached to the Indians: a 

 bishop already governed the Christians of St. 

 Thomas on the pepper-coast of Malabar: a 

 church was planted in Ceylon, and the missiona- 

 ries pursued the footsteps of commerce to the ex- 

 tremiiies of Asia. Two Persian monks had long 

 resided in China, perhaps in the royal city of Nan- 

 kin, the seat of a monarch addicted to foreign su- 

 perstitions, and who actually received an embassy 

 from the isle of Ceylon. Amidst their pious occu- 

 pations, they viewed with a curious eye the com- 

 mon dress of the Chinese, the manufactures of 

 silk, and the myriads of silkworms, whose educa- 

 tion (either on trees or in houses) had once been 

 considered as the labor of queens. They soon 

 discovered that it was impracticable to transport 

 the short lived insect, but that in the eggs a nu- 

 merous progeny might be preserved and multipli- 

 ed in a distant climate. Religion or interest had 

 more power over the Persian monks than the love 

 of their country: after a.long journey, they arrived 

 at Constantinople, imparted their project to the 

 emperor, and were liberally encouraged by the 

 gifts and promises of Justinian. Tothe historians 

 of that prince, a campaign at the foot of mount 

 Caucasus has seemed more deserving of a minute 

 relation than the labors of these missionaries of 

 commerce, who again entered China, deceived a 

 lealous people by concealing the eggs of the silk 

 worm in a hollow cane, and returned in triumph 

 with the spoils of the East. Under their direc- 

 tion, the eggs were hatched at the proper season 

 by the artificial heat of dung; the worms were 

 led with mulberry leaves; they lived and labored 

 in a foreigh climate: a sufficient number of but- 

 terflies was saved to propagate the race, and trees 

 were planted to supply the nourishment of the 

 rising generations. Experience and reflection 

 corrected the errors of a new attempt, and the 

 Sogdoite ambassadors acknowledged, in the suc- 

 ceeding reign, that the Romans were not inferior 

 to the natives of China in the education of the in- 

 sects, and the manufactures of silk, in which both 

 China and Constantinople have been surpassed by 

 the industry of modern Europe. I am not insen- 

 sible of the benefits of elegant luxury; yet I re- 

 flect with some pain, that if the importers of silk 

 had introduced the art of printing, already prac- 

 tised by the Chinese, the comedies of Menander 

 and the entire decades of Livy would have been 

 perpetuated in the editions of the sixth century. 

 A larger view of the globe might at least have 

 promoted the improvement of speculative science; 

 but the Christian geography was forcibly extracted 

 from texts of scripture, and the study of nature 

 was the surest symptom of an unbelieving mind. 

 The orthodox faith confined the habitable world 

 to one temperate zone, and represented the earth 

 as an oblong surface, four hundred days journey 

 in length, two hundred in breadth, encompassed 

 by the ocean, and covered by the solid crystal of 

 the firmament. 



Philadelphia from the Secretary of the Asiatic 

 Horticultural and Agricultural Society at Calcutta, 

 slating that the tea plant has been discovered 

 Growing abundantly in the north-east portion of 

 the British possessions in India, adjoining the pro- 

 vince of Yumar in China, in which the plant 

 is cultivated. The discovery is announced as one 

 of great importance. It may be doubted however 

 whether it will prove so. Good teas like good 

 wines only grow in particular districts. A vast 

 quantity of the tea raised in China is so ordinary 

 as to be unfit for exportation, and the plant pro- 

 duces best between the 26th and 30th degree of 

 latitude. By a reference to the map, it will be 

 seen that the north-east region of British India 

 does not extend beyond the twenty-fourth degree 

 of latitude. In China itself, although the culture 

 has been widely extended to meet the increased 

 demand throughout the world, by far the best leas 

 are confined to the two original provinces. The 

 inhabitants of Tonquin and Cochin China, coun- 

 tries lying almost between China and British In- 

 dia, are consumers of tea, but are obliged to go to 

 China for their best, being able to raise nothing 

 but a very coarse black tea on their own terri- 

 tory. 



From the Baltimore American. 

 REGION OF THE TEA PLANT. 



A letter has been received by a gentleman of 

 Vol. Ill— 18 



Fromjthe New York Farmer. 

 POTASH AS A MANURE. 



I was pleased to see an inquiry suggested in a 

 recent number of the New York Farmer respect- 

 ing the use of potash as a manure as practised on 

 Long Island, but regret to find no answer furnish- 

 ed by those to whom the inquiry was directed. In 

 the absence of better information on the subject, 

 permit me to state what has been my brief expe- 

 rience in the use of this manure. * 



I had a lot of meadow land, containing about 

 three acres, which had been reduced to poverty by 

 severe cropping. On this piece of ground I 

 made the following experiment. Having broken 

 up the sward, and harrowed it repeatedly until 

 quite mellow, I spread leeched ashes over one 

 acre, and potash dissolved in water over the other 

 two acres; sowed millet seed, clover, and timothy, 

 all mixed together, in the proporlion of one part of 

 each of the latter to five of the former, and one 

 bushel of the mixture to an acre; harrowed all in 

 together on or about the first of sixth month. 



The ashes cost fifteen dollars; the potash five 

 dollars the acre; the expense and trouble of dress- 

 ing with potash, about in the same proportion. 

 And now it. was a matter of no small interest to 

 me, a novice at farming, to observe the result of 

 an experiment, which when made, I supposed to 

 be entirely original. The crop of millet was fine, 

 and as nearly alike as could have been expected, if 

 the land had all been covered with the same kind 

 of manure. The clover also, all over the lot, was 

 luxuriant, and gave the strongest evidence, to my 

 mind, that potash is the principal agent in leeched 

 ashes, which causes fertility. I made trial of pot- 

 ash on a lot of four acres, which was considered 

 the poorest on my farm, on which I sowed millet 

 with the potash. I sowed at the same time four 

 other acres without any manure, on ground con- 

 sidered much better than the last above mention- 

 ed. 



- I cut double the quantity of hay from that dress- 

 ed with potash, and of a better quality. Thus 



