264 . [Assembly 



fed in the same house. He said that only the poorest lands are 

 allotted to the tea. while the rich soils grow rice and sweet po- 

 tatoes. The tea leaves are raised for two to four cents a pound, 

 but by the time they reach Canton, bring twenty cents. By the 

 time the consumer gets it. it stands him, on an average, a dollar 

 a pound, and that adulterated, old and valueless, when compared 

 with the China tea leaf, as used in China or Russia. Such is the 

 imposition of the middleman. Truly and really, the tea drank 

 at Calcutta, England and America, is not good, nor has hardly, I 

 may say, relationship to good tea ; that the good teas are drank 

 by the Chinese ; that they are sent west to Thibet, Nepaul, and 

 Russia. Rail says, that the Yen-Pouchong costs there, from 

 f3.75 to $7.50 a pound, and the price of tea in the Bohea district, 

 which is classed as Pouchong and Souchong, is from fifty-two 

 cents to $1.15 cents a pound. English and American consumers 

 have to pay 100 cents a pound for Chinese refuse teas, and tea- 

 house vsweepings, mixed up with worthless leaves. 



If we consider China as having a population of 367 millions — 

 and they as tea drinkers, the amount produced is indeed enor- 

 mous. A Chinaman and his family, everything about him is par- 

 ticularly clean and tastefully arranged, with his cheerful round 

 face and small eyes. On one side of the room may be seen a 

 little tea pot, and beside it a tea cup, to which the whole family 

 have recourse at meals, three times a day, and in the intermediate 

 time, as they become tlilrsty, or as neighbors visit, this little pot 

 is again in requisition. 



THE JACK FRUIT. 



This is fr»m a large tree, growing from 40 to 50 feet high. The 

 fruit is about as large as the largest sized water melon, and grows 

 on the. body of the tree — about 30 to GO of them on one tree. 

 The skin of this fruit is very rough. The natives are very par- 

 tial to it. It is frequently served up on the tables of the Euro- 

 peans in India, in pies, &c. The wood of this tree is yellowish, 

 and capable of high polish ; best in India for printers' blocks. 



The appearance of the tea plants in the difi'erent localities w^est 

 of China, would impress the belief that it has always been indi- 



