290 [Assembly 



five dollars a pecul of 133^ pounds of dry leaves. The total charge 

 therefore from the shrub to its preparation for market, is for gath- 

 ering five pounds of green leaves equal to one pound of dry Tea. 



Curin<T, One cent — 66 mills lb. 



By professional men for market Three" 70 " lb. 



Five cents, thirty-six mills, 5.36 per pound. 



To prepare Tea for home consumption or exportation in this 

 country, we do not consider it necessa.y to go through the process 

 o{ Jireing, nor the various manipulations connected with that process; 

 the expense of labor will therefore be proportionably diminished, 

 and supposing, what undoubtedly is the fact, that the value of labor 

 is much less in China than in the United States, the difference in 

 the quantity of labor expended will probably equal the difference of 

 value, and reduce the actual expense in both countries to about the 

 same level. Five dollars and thirty-six cents will, we imagine, 

 cover the expense of gathering and curing a hundred pounds of Tea 

 in the United States. But whether it will or not, there is ample 

 margin for a greater expenditure, should it be necessary, without 

 extinguishing the ardor, or discouraging the hopes, or materially 

 abridging the profits of the husbandman. So long as we can grow 

 a pound of Tea at as little expense as we can grow a pound of 

 cotton, we shall never want a market nor encouragement to supply it. 



We cannot ascertain with any accuracy, the average rent and 

 taxes upon an acre of Tea growing land in China, but we may ven- 

 ture to assert that the annual expenditure on that score, will exceed 

 the purchase money of an acre of freehold" land in this country. 



NO. III. 



Healthfulness of Tea Beverage — Exemption of the Chinese from Influenza — Few 



Cases of Cholera in China — None of the Plague or Stone — Moral and Social 

 Effects of Tea Drinking — Proved salutary in Russia and Great Britain — 

 Chemical analysis demonstrates its wholesome qualities. 



If I were about to recommend the introduction of a plant which 

 in its use, could in any degree prove detrimental to the health of 

 the population of the community, I should, whatever adventitious 

 advantages it might promise, shrink from the responsibility. But so 

 far from that being the case, I may boldly and fearlessly challenge 



