836 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June i, 1888. 
develope into the oil-yielding fruits. Its represent- 
atives, the fennel and parsley, grow wild round 
about the town, and are laid under contribution by 
the manufacturers. The Oompositee are represented 
by the wormwood and tarragon (Est raff on). 
The Geranium. — Oil of geranium is produced from 
the rose or oak-leaved geranium, cuttings of which 
are planted in well-sheltered beds iu October. Dur- 
ing the winter they are covered over with w stra 
matting. In April they are taken up, and planted 
in rows in fields or upon easily irrigated terraces. Of 
water they require quantum sufficit ; of Nature's 
other gift, which cheers and not inebriates — the 
glorious suoshine — they cannot have too much. They 
soon grow into bushes 3 or 4 feet high. At Nice 
they generally flower at the end of August. At 
Grasse and cooler places they flower about the end 
of October. The whole flowering plant is put into 
the still. — Chemist and Druggist. 
♦ 
THE POETRY AND IDYLLIC LIFE OF 
TEA PICKERS IN CHINA. 
We are greatly indebted to a friend who spent 
a portion of his holiday at home in making ex- 
tracts for us from Williams' " Middle Kingdom," 
bearing on the tea enterprise in China. Amongst 
the copious extracts there is the pretty, coquettish 
and yet pathetic ballad of the tea picking girl, 
the literary merit of which is so great that we have 
resolved first to give it a place in these columns. 
While we cannot doubt that the sentiments are 
genuine Chinese, our readers will see that the trans- 
lation is in polished and elegant verse. There is 
much of human nature in the Mongolian maiden's 
mingled self-pity amidst her hard work of picking 
and manufacture of tea and household work and of 
truly feminine self-appreciation in regard to her 
pearly finger-tips and rounded arms. We might 
feel regret that the Indian and Ceylon planters 
should be rapidly interfering with the industry des- 
cribed, but we fancy the tea exported from China 
is as nothing to the quantity consumed by the 
people, so that the tea-pickers will not be thrown 
out of employment. The allusions to the ascent 
of " the high Sunglo " shews that tea in China, as 
in India and Ceylon, is mainly grown on hills. 
The Sunglo range of "mountains is the scene of the 
idyll embodied in the ballad. The maiden who 
manufactures, firing " to a tender brown " has her 
weather troubles just as we have in Ceylon, and 
other troubles cause her bosom to " rise and fall 
like a bucket in a well," a homely but not uupoetic 
image. The maiden as a tea manufacturer shews 
esprit de corps and is proud of her "golden buds," 
and of the bitter tea which beats the sweet ! 
" I only wish our tea to be superior over all, 
O'er this one's 'sparrow tongue' and o'er the other's 
'dragon ball.'" 
And pickings limited to three in a season seem 
indicated in the lines : — 
*• When all are picked we' 11 leave theshoots to bud again 
inspring, 
But for this morning we have done the third, last gathering." 
We may add with reference to the love expressed 
by the Chinese maiden for flowers wherewith to 
deck her hair, that on the Darjiling tea eatates, 
the Indo-Mongolian women, Nepalese and Bhuteas, 
shew the same pleasant propensity. To see a 
woman at work, with magnolia blossoms, pink or 
white, as big as saucers, in her hair, and perhaps 
a necklace composed of one hundred strung rupees 
round her neck, was a sight to interest and amuse. 
(From "The Middle Kingdom." by S Weils Williams 
L.L.D., 1883 ) 
Among the bent of Chinese ballads, if regard be had to 
the character of the Hentiment and metaphors, is one on 
picking tea, which the girls and women sing as they collect 
the leaves, 
BALLAD OF THE TEA PICKER. 
1. 
Where thousand hills the vale enclose, our little hut is 
there, 
And on the sloping sides around the tea grows every- 
where ; 
And I must rise at early dawn, as busy as cai be, 
To get my daily labour done, and pick the leafy tea. 
2. 
At early dawn I seize my crate, and sighing, Oh, 
for rest I 
Thro' the thick mist I pass the door, with sloven hair 
half drest ; 
The dames and maidens call to me, as hand in hand 
they go, 
What steep do you, miss, climb today — what steep of 
high Sunglo ? 
3. 
Dark is the sky, the twilight dim still on the hills 
is set ; 
The dewy leaves and cloudy buds may not be gathered 
yet : 
Oh, who are they, the thirsty ones, for whom this work 
we do, 
For whom we spend our daily toil in bands of two 
and two 1 
4. 
Like fellows we each other aid, and to each other say, 
As down we pull the yielding twigs, " Sweet sister, 
don't delay :" 
E'en now the buds are growing old, all on the boughs 
atop, 
And then tomorrow, — who can tell 1 — the drizzling 
rain may drop." 
5. 
We've picked enow : the topmost bough is bare of 
leaves : and so 
We lift our brimming loads, and by the homeward path 
we go ; 
In merry laughter by the pool, the lotus pool, we hie, 
When hark ! uprise a mallard p lir, and hence affrighted 
fly- 
6. 
Limpid and clear the pool, and there how rich the 
lotus grows, 
And only half its openiug leaves, round as the coins, it 
shows — 
I bend me o'er the jutting brink, and to myself I say, 
"I marvel iu the glossy streiui, hjw looks my face 
today ? " 
7. 
My face is dirty ; out of trim my hair is, and awry; 
Oh tell me where' s the little girl so uerly now as I? 
'Tisall because whole weary hours I'm forced to pick 
the tea, 
And driving winds and soaking showers have made me 
what you see ! 
8. 
With morn again come wind and rain, and though so 
fierce and strong, 
With basket big, and little hat, I wend my way along ; 
At home again, when all is picked, and everybody sees 
How muddy all our dresses are, and drabbled to the 
knees. 
9. 
I saw this morning through the door a pleasant day 
set in; 
Be sure I quickly dressed my hair, and neatly fixed my 
pin, 
And fleetly sped I down the path to gain the wonted 
spot, 
But, never thinking of the mire, my working shoes 
forgot I 
10. 
The garden reached, my bow-shaped shoes are soaking 
through and through : 
The sky is changed, the thunder rolls, and I don't know 
what to do ; 
I'll call my comrades on the hill to pass the word with 
speed 
And fetch my green umbrella-hat to help me in my 
need. 
