92 



TEA. 



is 110 need to do more thai) thus touch upon the undeveloped re- 

 sources of tea prodi*ction. Trovers on the Tea Duties. 



The consumption of tea in Russia is very great, as the middling 

 classes make a more frequent use of that beverage than the rest. 

 Every year 60,000 chests of tea arrive at Maimiatchin and Kiakhta, 

 of the declared official value of 1,185,000 sterling; and to this 

 may be added 38,650 for inferior tea used by the people of the 

 south, which makes the total declared value of the tea introduced 

 about one and a quarter million sterling. The consumption of 

 liussia may be assumed at over fifteen millions of pounds, although 

 we have no correct data, as in the case of shipping returns, to cal- 

 culate from. In 1848, however, the Eussians took 136,217^ boxes 

 of fine tea of the Chinese, for which they paid 5,349,918 silver 

 roubles one million sterling. The quantity forwarded from 

 Kiakhta into the interior consisted of 



Flowery or Pekoe tea .... 

 Ordinary tea ..... 



Brick tea ... . 



Equal to about fifteen million Ibs. English. 



Foods. 



69,677 



183,752 



116,249 



'Brick tea of Thibet. A sample of this curious product was shown 

 by the East India Company in 1851. It is formed of the refuse 

 tea-leaves and sweepings of the granaries, damped and pressed into 

 a mould, generally with a little bullock's blood. The finer sorts 

 are friable masse?, and are packed in papers ; the coarser sewn up 

 in sheep's skin. In this form it is an article of commerce through- 

 out Central and Northern Asia and the Himalayan provinces ; and 

 is consumed by Mongols, Tartars, and Tibetans, churned with 

 milk, salt, butter, and boiling water, more as a soup than as tea 

 proper. Certain quantities are forced upon the acceptance of the 

 "Western tributaries of the Chinese Empire, in payment for the 

 support of troops, &c. ; and is hence, from its convenient size and 

 form, brought into circulation as a coin, over an area greater than 

 that of Europe. Dr. Hooker, in Jury Reports. 



The quantity and value of the tea imported into the United 

 States, from 1821, is thus stated: 



The animal reports of the Secretary to the Treasury, for the lat*t 



