410 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



July 17, 1829. 



exertions in searching out and propagating all the | 

 native fruits of real worth. I recollected a native 

 grape which with us is considered well worthy 

 extensive cultivation, of which 1 promised to give 

 them some definite information. Since my return 

 I have seen the owner of the original vine in our 

 county (Mr B. U- Buck, of Weathersfield) who 

 gave me the following notice of it. 



The original vine was found on a small 

 creek in the interior of Pennsylvania; was dis- 

 covered and cultivated by the Germans who in- 

 habited that i>art of the country, and who valueil 

 it very highly. Mr Buck has been in possession 

 of his vine about ten years, lie jjrocured it from 

 Albany, of the person who brought it from Penn- 

 sylvania. The fruit is ))urple, close set, cluster 

 not very large, form nearer round than oval, pulp 

 about the same as the Isabella, never sheds its 

 fruit, and is in eating from eight to ten weeks, a 

 constant and great bearer ; it has been judged to 

 have had upon it at a single time fifteen bushels. 

 It has never been trimmed, and is now in very 

 fine order, heavily laden with fruit. He calls il 

 the " Columbian," we the " Buck Grape." I hope 

 it will be acknowledged worthy of one name by 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, after test- 

 ing the sample which I shall endeavor to forward 

 them when in season. If they have not now the 

 same kind, I will forward to their Hall a quantity 

 of roots or slips, should it be their wish. 

 With sentiments of respect, 



I remain, yours. 



E. W. BULL. 



Hartford, Con., July G, 1829. 



FOR THE NEW KNGLAND FAKMEK. 



FINE STOCK. 



Mr Fessenden — Observing in your 49th nimi- 

 ber of the N. E. Farmer, nn account of a remaik- 

 able cow and calf belonging to Mr Sticknet, of 

 Rowley, I take the liberty of forwarding you 

 the following statement of facts (which are also 

 susceptible of proof) relative to a cow and calf be- 

 longing to my brother-in-law, Mr Edwakd H.4R- 



KIS. 



The cow is believed to be of common breed, 

 red color, of large size, well proportioned, horns 

 rather long and standing more upward than com- 

 mon ; her udder extending forward, and more up 

 between the legs than usual, but not dropping 

 low. During the last simimer her milk was at 

 different times careftdly and accurately measured, 

 and found to be fully thirty-two quarts per day. — 

 She had no food but good pasture, and received 

 no extraordinary care or attention, with tlie ex- 

 ception of milking her in the middle of the day, 

 which is always necessary. She, this season, had 

 a bull calf (sired by a three-fourths Short Horned 

 Durham) which at four weeks old weighed two 

 hundred pounds ; it was then sold to a farmer in 

 the neighborhood, who had seen it weighed, at a 

 certain sum per lb. to be taken from the cow and 

 weighed in one week, at which time it was found 

 10 have increased thirty weight, or four and a 

 quarter pounds per day. 



Respectfullv yours, 



J." I. SPENCER. 

 Mooreslown, (JV.J.) July 6, 1829. 



Two tea spoonfuls of mustard from the miwtard 

 pot, mixed with warm water, and swallowed, in- 

 stantly operates as an emetic, and is recommend- 

 ed in case of accidental or other internal poisoning. 



From the Centinel. 



PISTAREENS. 



Messrs Editors — 1 notice in your paper of 

 this day, a publication signed Scrutator, with your 

 subsequent remarks. Give me leave to add as 

 elucidatory of the subject, that in the last volume 

 of Governor Hutchinson's History of Massachu- 

 setts, (published recently) he tells us, that the pis- 

 tareens are a base coin, 16 per cent, under value ; 

 that they were imported into Boston by certain 

 merchants from Spain, to make a part of the reim- 

 bursement money paid by Great Britain for the ex- 

 penses of the Louisburg expedition in 1745. We 

 now see why they have continued to form a part 

 of our circulating coin. The silversmiths decline 

 melting them for their nice work, because they 

 are bad silver, while they find a profit in melting 

 all the English and United States coins, at the se- 

 rious loss to both governments, of the expense of 

 the coinage. Can you inform your readers what 

 has become of our five cent silver coins .' The 

 evil will cease, as soon as our government shall 

 restrain in our territories, the circulation of all 

 Spanish silver coins, of less value than quarters of 

 dollars, at a higher value than our own coins. It 

 is an important fact that the unrestrained circula- 

 tion in the United States, of the Spanish eighths 

 and sixteenths of dollar.*!, has obstructed, retarded, 

 and prevented the full operation of the United 

 States laws regulating the currency. 



July 8, 1829. CANTAB. 



From the New York Farmer. 



On the Culture and Manufacture of Tea, comnnini- 

 cated by an American gentleman, for the jV. 1". 



Farmer and Horticultural Repository. 



You ask of me some notices of the state of hor- 

 ticulture in Brazil. It would be as easy to fur- 

 nish you with a sketch of the notions upon ]iolit- 

 ical economy entertained by the Patagonians, or 

 an elaborate essay upon the state of the fine arts 

 among the Hottentots. A people who know noth- 

 ing of butter except as it comes to them salted 

 from Ireland, and who derive all their ])Otatoes 

 from the same country, cannot be supposed to 

 have made any very brilliant discoveries in farm- 

 ing or horticulture. It is accordingly of the 

 simplest kind. They get as much from the earth 

 as can lie obtained with the least possible trouble, 

 and smile incredulously if you tell them of the 

 importance of paying more attention to the intro- 

 duction and culture of foreign vegetables. Of 

 late years the numerous French, English, and 

 .American residents have shown them the ]iossi- 

 bility of raising these vegetables, and one may 

 now see in the markets occasionally, cabbages, tur- 

 nips, and even sallad ! There is, however, a 

 Royal Botanic Garden, formerly under the direc- 

 tion of a skillful Gern\an, but now going rapidly 

 to decay under the slothful management of a Port- 

 uguese Cai-melite Friar. As this garden has ob- 

 tained some celebrity in books of travels, I will 

 furnish you with a few remarks which I made 

 when 1 visited it in 1826-7. And as the most in- 

 teresting feature of this garden was the extensive 

 tea plantations, I herewith furnish you with such 

 notes as relate more immediately to that sub- 

 ject. 



Tea plants occupy a space from 8 to 10 acrci 

 in the garden. They are planted at the distanc 

 of four feet from each other. They are hand 



some shrubs, about two feet in height. When I 

 saw tbem they looked rather bare, as they had 

 been recently strijiped in part of their leaves. — 

 This is repeated several times during the year, 

 and hence arises the different sorts we have in 

 the market. No particular care seems to be taken 



{ of the plants and they bloom in the months of 

 July, August, and September. You are aware 



t that the old king of Portugal, Don John, when 

 driven to Brazil, took great pains to introduce the 



I cultivation of the tea plant. He not only obtain- 



1 ed the plants, but also two or three hundred 

 Chinese who were perfectly acquainted with their 

 management. They are now scattered about the 

 country. I have several times been accosted by 

 the.se people with a request to purchase some tea, 

 samples of which they carried with them. It 

 made one almost fancy himself in the celestial 

 empire. 



The most curious circurn.stance in relation to 

 tea is the ease with which it is prepared for mar- 

 ket. I witnessed the whole operation and can 

 therefore speak confidently on the subject. 



The gathered leaves are exposed to the air for 

 a few hours, until they begin to uilt, as it is Jjop- 

 ularly called. They are then thrown into circu- 

 lar pans set in brick work, under which is a mod- 

 erate fire. These pans are of iron, four feet in 

 diameter and about a foot deep ; the leaves are 

 stirred briskly about in these pans for ten minutes 

 or longer, according to the judgment of the op- 

 erator, when they are thrown out to another per- 

 son who is ready to receive them. This person 

 holds before him a flat wicker, or willow frame, 

 about two feet wide and four feet in length, slight- 

 ly inclined toward the floor. He strews the leaves 

 upon this frame and lays over it another frame of 

 the same dimensions ajid materials. This is 

 moved rapidly to and fro for several minutes, and 

 by this simple operation the leaves are curled up 

 and fall at the lower end of the frame into bas- 

 kets conveniently placed for their reception. This 

 part of the process surprised me exceedingly, for 

 all travellers assert that every leaf is rolled up 

 separately by hand, and 1 have even heard it 

 maintained that it is only the small and delicate 

 hand of a Chinese that can be advantageously em- 

 ployed for this purpose. Those leaves from which 

 the moisture has not been sufliciently expelled, re- 

 main adhering to the frame, are of course not af- 

 fected by the process, and are returned again to 

 the heated pans. When a sufiicient quantity of 

 the curled leaves has been obtained, they are 

 placed for a short period over a strong fire to 

 drive off any remaining moisture, and are then 

 put up into papers or chests for immediate use. 



I inquired how much tea could be obtained an- 

 nually from a single shrub, but no one appeared 

 to have ever thought upon the subject ; they were 

 unable at least to make even a tolerable guess 

 about it. Judging from the size of the plant and 

 the luimber of times it is stripped, I should conjee 

 ture that each plant would produce about three 

 pounds annually ; and this I think is still within 

 bounds. 



It is propagated by slips, and was of the spe- 

 cies T, viridis, or green tea. 



I do not know if any attempts have been made 

 to introduce the cultivation of the tea plant into 

 the United States, but if it could be once intro- 

 duced, I have not the least doubt but that it would 

 be a nuich more profitable crop than cotton or 

 sugar. Six men could cure and prepare for mar- 



