52 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[April, I 



Independent of tlie uses of swallows to the 

 human family as insect scavengers — the value 

 of which may be remotely incalculaljle — they 

 have immediate commercial value in someeast- 

 eni countries, the magnitude of which seems 

 almost incredible. Nodoulit many of our read- 

 ers may have lieard of, or read of, the famous 

 "Birds-nest soup, "so popular among the higher 

 classes of the Chinese. These nests are con- 

 structed by a small " clitl'-swallow" — Hirundo 

 esrutoita — usually called, in commerce, "edi- 

 ble-birds-nests." There seem to be various 

 opinions, or theories, in regard to the comjio- 

 sition of these nests, but they are generally 

 conceded to be largely composed — if not en- 

 tirely — of a vegetable mucilage collected and 

 secreted by these birds. Some have it that a 

 delicate, translucent seaweed, is incorporated 

 with the gum. Be that as it may, the nests 

 are attached to over-hanging rocks, or in cav- 

 erns along tlie seacoast of China and the east- 

 ern islands ; and the whole trade is in the 

 hands of the Chinese government, and that 

 country is almost the sole consumer. There are 

 various qualities of them, the best quality being 

 worth its weight in silver. Before the birds have 

 lined their nests, or laid ^their eggs, constitutes 

 the finest and best quality. After they have 

 laid their eggs therein they are reckoned 

 second quality, and after they have hatched 

 their broods in them tliey become third (piality, 

 but each of these ciualities are subdivided into 

 intermediate qxialities. After these nests are 

 collected and dried in the shade they are 

 packed in boxes of about l.'iO jiounds each, 

 called a picid. The common price in the Can- 

 ton market is, for the first quality, S:i,5(t0 a 

 picul, something over .fiili.OO a pound. The 

 second quality is worth S2,8()0 a picul, and the 

 third .'SI, 00(1 for the same. Dealers assort them 

 into intermediate qualities and arrange the 

 scale of prices accordingly. Java, Macassar, 

 Snluk, Batavia, Ceylon, and other eastern 

 islands, all export, these edible swallows nests 

 to China. The annual quantity shipiied from 

 these idaces is 24-2,400 i>ounds and at the above 

 prices, this very jieculiar property is worth 

 $1,203,.519, and all this demand rests upon the 

 capiicious wants of a single people. The 

 business is very hazardous, but it pays pretty 

 well the limited number engaged in it. We 

 have never seen the liest (juality, but the in- 

 ferior (pialities we have often handled while 

 they were in possession of Judge Libhart, of 

 Marietta. They were not a tempting morsel 

 to us, looking like a rough cup of dirty white 

 glue. Of course tlie poor people among the 

 Chinese cannot afford to consume them, 

 therefore they are exclusively the monopoly of 

 tlie nol)ilily and the ricti. 



FLORAL SPECULATION. 



Tlie following, which we have seen floating 

 annnid in the newsjiajier press of the country 

 "long, long ago," is now going the "rounds" 

 again, for the dozenth time, for aught we 

 know to the contrary, and still lias an interest 

 that will never diminish ; exhibitingas it does 

 the trivial foundation upon which a sjxTula- 

 tion may rest, its vast extent, and the ticti- 

 tious value that may be attached to things 

 that are almost totally destitute of anything 

 but a merely ordinary value at all. 



It is ditlicult to perceive on what merit the 

 "Tulip Mania" could have been liased, for at 

 best, their season is short, and tliey are desti- 

 tute of fruit, flavor or odor, and on" the ground 

 of utility, far inferior to tlie bulbs of onions. 

 Had they been jioppies they might have 

 yielded opium, and have been classed with 

 things connnercial ; but being merely Tulips 

 they had nothing to recommend them, saving 

 their beauty, and even on this score they are 

 far inferior to many other flowering iilants 

 that enter into the lists of the Floriculturists 

 of the present day. The antiquity of the 

 event, however, and its novelty, entitle it to a 

 permanent record. 



The Tulip Mania. 



Of all ttnnr::s in the world in whic-li to make a cor- 

 ner, to excite a speculation, to be imflt'il liy brokers, 

 it would seem as if flowers would be the last. But 



that a W'liole nation sliould srrow mad over bulbs, 

 that the imlustry of a jjcople shouhl be turned aside 

 from tlie pursuit of airriculture to that of liorticul- 

 ture, and that the mania sliould spread from the 

 phlegmatic Dutchman to the phlegmatic English- 

 man, seems almost incredible. Yetlu the beginning 

 of the seventeenth century the desire for tulips had 

 BO .sjiread over Eurojie that no wealthy man consid- 

 ered his srardcn perfect without his rare collection of 

 tulips. From the aristocracy the rage spread to the 

 middle and the agricultural classes, and merchants 

 and shop keepers began to vie with each other in the 

 rarity of tlieir flowers, and in the prices jiaid for 

 them. A trader at Haarlem was actually known to 

 pay half his fortune for a single root, not from any 

 expectation of profit in its propagation, but to keep 

 it in his conservatory for the admiration of his ac- 

 quaintances. 



The first tulip seen in Europe was beheld at Augs- 

 burg, in Germany, in 1.5.5fl, and was imported from 

 Constantinople, where it had long been a favorite. 

 Ten or eleven years after this the plant was in great 

 demand in Holland and Germany. Wealthy burtrh- 

 ers of Amsterdam sent direct to Constantinople for 

 their precious bull's, and paid extravagant prices for 

 them. The first roots planted in England were 

 brought from Vienna in the year piOO, and were con- 

 sidered a great rarity. For thirty years tulips con- 

 tinued to grow in reputation. One would suppose 

 there must have been some virtue in this flower that 

 made it so valuable in the eyes of so prudent a peo- 

 ple as the Dutch. Yet it lias neither the beauty nor 

 the perfume of the violet nor the fragrance of the 

 rose. It hardly possesses the beauty of the humble 

 sweet pea. Its only recommendation is its aristo- 

 cratic stateliness ; and this should hardly have com- 

 mended it to the only democratic republic on the 

 globe. But it is by no means the first time that fash- 

 ion has turned ugliness into beauty and rarity into 

 wealth. 



In 16:14 the race for tulips among the Dutch was so 

 great that the ordinary industry of the country was 

 neglected, and the whole peojile turned to the pro- 

 duction of tulips. As this mania increased, prices 

 increased with it, until in 1(m.5 merchants were 

 known to have spent ^4(1,000 in the purchase of forty 

 tulips. At this time each species was sold by weight. 

 A tulip of the kind known as the Admiral Lietkin, 

 and weighing 400 grains, would sell for .SISOO ; the 

 Admiral Von der Eycke, weighing 4.50 grains, was 

 worth J1.500 ; a Viceroy of 4C0 grains would bring 

 $1200. Most precious of all, a Semper Augustus, 

 weighing only 200 grains, was thought to be cheap 

 at $2200. This last species was much sought after, 

 and even an inferior plant would readily sell for §800. 

 When this species was first known, in Kjofi, there 

 were only two roots of it in Holland, and those not of 

 the best — one belonging to a dealer in Amsterdam, 

 and the other was owned in Haarlem. So anxious 

 were the purchasers for this new variety that one 

 person offered twelve acres of valuable building land 

 for the Haarlem tulip. That of Amsterdam was sold 

 for $1840, a new carriage, two gray horses, and a com- 

 plete suit of harness. As a specimen of the valueof 

 these bulbs we give the actual copy of a bill of sale 

 for certain articles given in exchange for one single 

 root of the Viceroy siiecies : 



Two lasts of wheat $179 



Two lasts of rye '.i'iS 



Four fat oxen 192 



Eiubt fat ewme 9ti 



Twelve f At sheep 48 



Two bogsheails wliie 28 



Four tous beer 13 



Two tons butter TT 



oue t bousautts pouu'is clit ese 4S 



Cue bed. conjjtlete 40 



One suit clothes 32 



Oue silver cup 24 



JIOOO 

 Since that day tulips have declined in value, but 

 wine, butter, and cheese have decidedly advanced. — 

 Wrn. li. Ifoopcr^ llarjH'T^s Marjazine, 



YP^Kyi MORTGAGES. 



Almost every one who has had occasion to buy a 

 farm, and to leave lie a portion of the purchase money 

 on mortgage, must have felt the injustice of being 

 taxed for what he does not really own. A man buys 

 a I'arm for say §10,000, and ^r),(Ki(i remains ; he pays 

 taxes to the full value of the §10,1100, liesides ]iaying 

 $300 in this State or f-lOO in the West for the use of 

 the §.5,000 remaining unpaid on the land. But the 

 Government not only makes him jiay a tax on the 

 whole ten thousand dt)llars, suiiposing the farm to be 

 assessed at the full value, but it comes the second 

 time and takes the holder of the §.5,000 he has " out 

 at interest." Now "the man who has money at inter- 

 est is determined to make six per cent, at least on his 

 money. He must do it to mak* it w'orth his wliile to 

 have money out at all. And so he looks about to see 

 how he can so fix things as to make it fall on the 

 holder of the land. So he either takes it into con- 

 sideration in fixing the price of the land if lie is .sell- 

 ing ; or if he is a mere lender on land he extracts a 

 heavy " bonus," or buys a mortgage at a discount in 

 order to make him whole ; and in this way the one 

 who is so unfortunate as to owe anything on laud, 



pays taxes twice on his indebted portion to one only 

 when it is clear of all incumbrances. This is a curi- 

 ous anomaly in law. Usually it is thought to be the 

 genius of good laws to favor the honest, industrious, 

 struggling debtor ; hut in this particular case of a 

 tax on mortgages this law is made to operate in just j| 

 the other way. * 



It seems remarkable that any tax should have ever 

 been imposed on mortgages under the head of prop- 

 erty. If there be any tax on income, the money de- 

 rived from mortgiiges might have there a legitimate 

 jjlace. But as property it is clearly absurd, as a 

 mortgage is simply the evidence of debt. It is no 

 more property than is a duly-attested receipt for 

 money paid. It is indeed nothing but a promise to 

 give property in case certain stipulations are not car- 

 ried out in manner and form as aforfigaid. It is in no 

 sense property, yet as property it is taxed, although 

 the property which it covers is already taxed in the 

 hands of the one to whom it has been deeded. 



It came up before the Supreme Court of California 

 recently, by the objection of some mortgage-holders 

 to pay this sort of " property" tax, and the court 

 decided in favor of the holders. And now what do 

 other States say, in which this anomaly exists? 



The above, from the editorial column of the 

 GermaiHown Tf'leijraph, applies equally to 

 town houses, and other species of real estate, 

 both in town and country ; and, having had 

 some experience in tliis and other systems of 

 taxation, we have for twenty-five or more 

 years failed to see tlie right of it in any case, 

 for tliis is the jiiYictjce if not the law in Penn- 

 sylvania ; a practice which we have often and 

 alwiiys condemned, and which has just as 

 earnestly been defl'iided, even by some of 

 those who were its victims. Mankind are 

 generally— almost proverbially — lax in tax- 

 paying, or in making just returns of what is 

 legally taxiible ; and many people either feel 

 themselves justifiable, or excusable, for de- 

 frauding the government, solely on the ground 

 that the t;ix is not eipiitably, or is excessively, 

 levied. This, of course, is not riijJd, although 

 the law may be wrong; Init in any event, hun- 

 dreds, thousands, yes, tens of thousands of 

 dollars are annually lost to the government 

 and the honest jiortion of the people, through 

 the unjust duplication of taxes; to the gov- 

 ernment, liecause knaves omit to make a fair 

 return, on the ground that somebody else is 

 jiaying the tax, and to the honest people, be- 

 cau.se they are paying double ttixes. 



A comparatively poiir man owns two proper- 

 ties worth one tliou.sand dollars each, and sells 

 one to his poorer neighbor, taking his obliga- 

 tion for the payment of thcsaine ; and if tliey 

 arc both honest men, they pay tlie taxes on 

 two tliousand dollars worth of real estate, 

 at the usual rates of taxation, and the one 

 who holds the obligation of the other is taxed 

 luldilionally for one thousand dolkirs which he 

 is deemed to have "out on interest." If any 

 law-maker can .see justice in this he is gifted 

 with a higher degree of moral penetration 

 than we are — that's all. 



During the reliellion the United States reve- 

 nue laws were administered in the same way, 

 although we had it over the antograiih of a 

 distinguished member of the Committee of 

 " Ways and Means," that such was never the 

 intention of the law. For instance — a marble 

 ma.son was taxed six per cent, on a finished 

 slab of marble ; a looking-glass manufacturer 

 was taxed the same amount on a finished mir- 

 ror; a hardware merchant was taxed the 

 same on locks, knol)s, screws, casters and 

 nails; a dealer in "cabinet findings" was 

 taxed on veneers, turned work, paints, oils, 

 and varnishes. AH these taxes being added 

 to the first cost of all this material was as- 

 ■sessed ujion the cabinet-maker who used them, 

 and then he was taxed on the value his labor 

 added to the combining of this material into a 

 piece of cabinet work, and also on the cost of 

 materials with tlie previous tiixes included ; 

 and yet obtuse revenue commissioners af- 

 fected not to see tliat there was a dujilication, 

 if not a triplication, or quadruplication of 

 taxes, members of Congress or even-handed 

 justice to the contniry notwithstanding. 



Human beings — unregenerated human be- 

 ings at least — are morally weak ; but when 

 tliey come consciously under inequitable taxa- 

 tion, and see the mal-application and fraudu- 

 lent appropriation of taxes after they are as- 



