September r, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
149 
The future prospects for China silk are by no means 
bright. The improved worm, a mixture of Japanese and 
European grain, has been firmly esat!>hshed, and 
France and Italy now produce as much silk as thoy 
did before the visitation of the long continued and 
destructive plague that ravaged the silk nurseries 
of Lombardy and Southern France, and the new 
worm, while as prolific as the old race now extinct, 
is much les-, delicate. India also produces largely, 
and an almost boundless new district that pro- 
duces the finest qualities of silk has been found in 
Kashmir. 
Now in China the mulberry trees, owing to the 
method in vogue of growing from slips or cuttings 
instead of from seed, everywhere show signs of fatigue, 
just as tho French vines did before phylloxera, or as 
the Ceylon coffee plantations did before the leaf dis- 
ease appeared. The matter, in some respects, is already 
becoming rather critical, for along with the tree de- 
generation there is the gradual though not rapid ex- 
tension of the diseaso of worms, named peh'ine. 
Thus two important and especially national indu 8- 
triis, tea and silk growing, are, to a more or less ex- 
tent becoming jeopardized, but the evils done by neg- 
lect ami ignorance in each oase can bo rectified before 
the injuries are irreparable. We trust the Imperial 
Chinese Government will cause investigation to be made 
as tho questions involved are of fruly national im- 
1 ortance and should not be neglected. — C/ii»e.<e 'IHmes, 
July 1 1th. 
♦ 
TEA IN CHINA. 
Foocnow. 
Tho Feo how Echo mentions a rumour that Hie 
Chinese teamen at that port are about to form a 
company tor the direct export of tea to London and 
Australia. Our contemporary ditbredits the l'uuiour. 
We are informed on good authority that the 
RMMian Consul yeBterday, iu company with the 
L, kin Taotai and the Haifang-ting, wen to the 
Sun-Choong tea hong, where several Lags of lie tea 
Were seized, and it is reported that the Chinese 
Authorities intend to place the hong under seal. 
We indeed feel very happy to have occasion to 
congratulate our tea merchants on the very lurtu- 
nate result of their shipment per steamer 
"Glenogle," judging from the reports dying round 
the settlement, and we sincerely hope that the same 
happy result will fall to all their shipments during 
the season. 
We hoar that a few tea hongs have, in conse- 
quence of thero being no buyers of lea during the 
last few days, wired to stop buying in the country ; 
as tho teamen, who had made good margin in their 
fir.-t crop, have gone mad and made large purchases 
in the tea districts. It remains to be seen how the 
matter will end at the close of the season. 
OLD-WOltLD NOTIONS ON STRONG DRINK 
AND TEA. 
In a reading raid made somo time ago and tho 
primary object of which need not be definitely 
specified, the writer had occasion to examine more 
or less attentively the whole of the twenty volumes 
of the Old Statistical Account of Scotland, pub- 
ishrd Juat about a hundred years ago. The work 
Is dne that contains a large amount of inters t- 
ing information of varied character bearing on tho 
Bona! and industrial condition ai d habit- of the 
rin ul population during, and toward the closo of 
la-t century. And tiuis in going through the 
work (or any given purpose oiio could haruly 
avoid now and again stepping a little out of his 
way to nuike a note of something in the philo- 
Bophisings or morulisiugs of the reverend writers 
thai awaken, d iinerct or atuucied curiosity. 
As was to be expected, not a few of those 
worthy gentlemen have taken occassion to ex- 
press their opinions upon the social habits of 
the people in their respective parishes, and in 
running through the volumes the writer jotted 
down a considerable part of their remarks 
under this head. A brief selection of these, as 
they bear more immediately upon the question 
of strong drink, it is proposed to) string together for 
the amusement, if not the instruction, ol the reader. 
Without any attempt at classification we take 
up these quaint utterances almost at random, 
and put them together iu the manner of patch- 
work, simply remarking that having, with hardly 
an exception, been written by the parish minis- 
ter, they may be very fairly considered as repre- 
senting the intelligent public opinion of the time 
at which they were penned — (a. d. 1782-1793). 
The subject of drink manufacture will naturally 
come first ; and under the heading KinnefE 
(Kincardineshire) we lind a breakdown in the local 
distillery business made the subject of lamen- 
tation. " The farmers," says the rev. statist 
" have for some years past regretted tho failure 
of the Firth distillers, as the great consumers of 
their bere and barley." His Highland contem- 
porary at Tarland (Aberdeenshire) would have 
kept the mat. rial at home. He says, " It might 
well be of service to have a publio distillery at 
Tarlund, as the county yields a great deal of 
good bere." This man had a taste for nothing 
better than whisky. The statist of Kirkmicliael 
(Ayr) would have told him that " whisky, so 
prevalent in many places, is not esteem-d a genteel 
drink in ihis corner. " However, other parts of 
Aberdeenshire loved to encourage " the trade " for, 
says the statist of Newmachar — " A tew years 
ago they frequently had malt feasts, i. e., far- 
mers from whom the country brewers bought their 
mall and barley convened when the price of the 
malt became due, and spent part of it very ohe rfully 
to encourage their customers." And, still in th same 
shire, we find the virtues of beer as a potent m dicine 
magnified, for in 1771-3 a putrid fever, we are told, 
cutoff many in the parishes of Kinellar and Skene, 
so many as 33 burials taking place within three 
weeks. " A stop was put to it (the fever) when 
it came near the manse, by the minister's sister, who 
gave a bottle of s rong beer warmed, in the begin- 
ning. This produced a great perspiration and 
carried off the fever from all that took it, after 
sevi raj had died who used the bark and other 
meuiuii.es." How far this rev. gentleman would 
have gone with tho folks of Sutherland us pictured 
by the minister of Golspy we cannot say. f Alany 
iu this country," says that gentleman, "think spiri- 
tuous liquors a cure for almost all diseases, and 
the poor child in the small-pox is plied hard 
with whisky in all the stages ol the disease, which 
never cures, but seldom fails to kill." Other people 
could tell of wonderful cures effected through the 
agency of intoxicating drink, aud we find none 
more wonderful in its way, nor it may be added, 
more apocryphal-looking, than one related in u 
gossipy way by the minister pi Tillicoultry (Clack- 
mannanshire), who slates that in 1758 a 
labourer was cured of "inveterate ihrianiuiism '.' 
by "drinking freely of new ale full o( barm or yeast." 
He had been confined to Ins bed for a yea- and 
a hall, and hi? neighbours very kindly cuuie to 
make merry wiih him on "Handsel Moi.duy." 
Though he could not rise, he alwuy- look his 
share of the ale as it went round, and in- the end 
became " much intoxicated. The consequence \\ .i - ." 
says this credulous chronicler, " that lie had the 
use of his limbs next morning, and was able to 
walk about, lie lived more than twenty years. 
