June i, 1889.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
797 
abode of some genie, dedicate it to their gods as 
a saored stone. The particular variety of chrysoberyl 
which was originally found in the Ural Mountains, 
and owes its celebrity to its remarkable transforma- 
tion of colour from green to red as viewed by natural 
or artificial light, was named alexandrite after the 
former Czar of Russia. — KvMow's Trade Review. 
THE SEASON IN MADRAS. 
The following is a summary of reports for the week 
ending 9th April: — Rainfall nil. Ganjara, Godavari, 
Nellore, Madras, Ohingleput, South Arcot and South 
Canara ; fair Nilgiris. Standing crops generally guod, 
but suffe*ing from want of rain in Ganjam, Vizaga- 
patam, Bellary North Arcot, Trichinopoly, Tinnevelly 
and Coimbatore ; wet crops withering in parts Cudda- 
pah, A.nantnpur and Chinglepnt. Stock suffering very 
badly, chiefly from rinderpest in Tinnevelly, and badly 
in in intapur, Tanjore. Cuddapah, Madura, and Mala- 
bar. Pasture deficient in Gaujain. Vizagapatam, Cud- 
dapah, Bellary, North Arcot, Madura, Tinnevelly, Coim- 
batore, Nilgiris, Salem and Malabar. Prices, falling in 
Ganjnm, Vizagapatam and st ven other districts, rising 
in eight and stationary iD others. General prospects 
favorable, except in Ganjam ; improving in Coimbati re 
Laborers employed last day of week, Rnshikulya works 
r_',747 Gupalpuo canal 7,979, Taptapani road 408. — 
Madras Times. 
+ 
THE TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA AND 
THE CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE 
OF TEA BY THE CHINESE. 
(Exteacted prom Williams' "Middle Kingdom.") 
[Vol. I. p. 109.] The province of Nganhwin was 
so named by combining the first words in its two 
large cities, Nganking and Hwinchan. * * * most of 
the green tea districts lie in the south eastern parts, 
particularly iu the Sunglo range of hills in HwincLau 
prefecture. 
[ " p. 111.] The province of Kiaog-si' (i. e , West 
of the River) lies south of Nganhwin and Hupeh, 
between Chehkiaug and Fuhkien on the east and Hu- 
nan on the west, reaching from the Yangtsz to the Meilhig 
on the south. The soil generally is productive, and 
large quantities of rice, wheat, silk, cotton, indigo, 
Tea, and sugar are grown and exported. 
["p.H4-J The maritime province of Chehkiang, 
the smalle-t of the eighteen, lies eastward of Kiangsi 
and Nganhwin, and between Kiangsu and Fuhkein 
north and south, and derives its name from the river 
Cheh or "Crooked," which runs across its southern 
part. * * * The whole province produces cotton, silk, 
sea, rice, ground nuts, wheat, indigo, vegetable tallow 
(stillingia), and pulse in abundance. 
['' P- 127.] The province of Fuhkien (i.e. happily 
established) is bounded on the north by Chehkiaug, 
north-west and west by Kiangsi, south-west by Kwang- 
tung, and east by the Channel of Formosa. * * * * 
Black Tea, camphor and other woods, sugar, China- 
ware, and grass-cloth are the principal exports. 
[ " p. 146.] The province of Hunan is bounded 
north by Hupeh, east by Kiangsi, south by Kwaug- 
tung and Kwangsi, west by Kweichan and Sz'chuen. 
* * * The productions of Hunan do nut represent a 
very high development of its soil or mines. Tea and 
Coal are the main exports : Tea-oil, ground-nut and 
tuny oils, hemp, tobacco, and rice, with iron, copper 
tin, and coarse paper make up the list. 
[" p. 154.] The province of Sz'chuen ("Four 
streams ") * * * is now one of the richest in its pro- 
ductions. It is bounded north by Kansuh and Shensi, 
east by Hupeh and Hunan, south by Kweichan and 
Yunnan, west and north-west by Thibet and Koko- 
nor. * * * The exports consist of raw and woven 
silk, of which more is sent abroad than from any 
other province : salt, opium, musk, crotou (tuny) oil, 
gentian, rhubarb, tea, coal, spelter, copper, iron, and 
insect-wax, are all grown or made for other regions 
[Vol I, p. 241.] (In Thibet) the food called jamba 
is prepared by cooking brick tfa during several hours, 
then adding butter and salt, and stirring the mixture 
until it becomes a thick broth. When eaten the stuff 
is served in wooden bowls, and a plentiful supply of 
roasted barley-meal poured in, the whole being kneaded 
by the hands and devoured in the shape of dough 
pellets. 
[Vol II, p. 39.] The subjects of tea culture and 
the preparation of its leaf have engaged the atten. 
tion of writers among the Chinese and Japanese ; 
while its effects on the human system as a beverage 
have been discussed most carefully by eminent western 
chemists and pathologists. Its virtues iu restoring 
the energies of the body and furnishing a drink of 
the gentlest and most salubrious nature has been 
fully tested in its native land for many centuries, snd 
is rapidly becoming known the world over. The 
following are some of the leading facts relating to 
the plant and the preparation and nature of the 
leaf, derived from personal observation in the country 
or from the writings of competent observers: — 
Tea does not grow in the northern provinces of 
China and Japan ; its range lies between the twenty- 
third and thirty-fifth degrees of latitude, and reach- 
ing in longitude from Yedo to Assam. No accounts 
have come to us of the tea-shrub being cultivated 
for its infusion till a. d. 350. The people in differ- 
ent parts of China gave different names to the suc- 
cessive pickings of the leaves, which have now become 
disused. Our word tea is derived from the common 
sound of the character for the plant at the city of 
Amoy, where it is tay : at Oantou and Peking it is 
cha, at Shanghai dzo, at Fuhchan ta. The Russians 
and Portuguese have retained the word cha, the Spanish 
is te or tay, and the Italians have both te and cha. 
Tea is so nearly akin to the various species of camel- 
lia that the Chinese have only one name for all. 
The principal difference to the common observer is 
in the thin leaf of the tea, and the leathery glab« 
rous leaf of the beautiful Camellia Japonica. When 
allowed to grow they both become high trees. The 
tea flower is small, single, and white, has no smell, 
and soon falls, its petals are less erect than the Ca- 
mellia. The seeds are three small nuts, like filberts 
in color, enclosed in a triangular shell which splits 
open when ripe, with valves between the seeds. Its 
taste ie oily and bitter. Two species of Camellia are 
cultivated for their oily seeds, the oil being known 
as tea oil among the natives: it is used for lamps 
and cooking. There is probably only one species of 
the tea plant, and all the varieties have resulted from 
culture; but the Theaviridis is most cultivated. The 
nuts are ripe in October. They are put in a mixture 
of sand and earth, dampened to keep them fresh till 
spring; they generate heat and spoil if not thus se- 
parated. Iu March they are sown in a nursery, and 
the thrifty shoots t:ausplanted the next year in rows 
about four feet apart. Leaves are collected when 
the plant is three years old, and this process is con- 
tinued annually to a greater or less extent according 
to the demand and strength, until the whole bush 
becomes so weak and diseased, that it is pulled up 
for firewood to give place to a new shoot. On the 
average this is about the eighth year. The plants 
seldom exceed three feet ; most of them are half that 
height, straggling and full of twigs, often covered 
with lichens, but well-hoed and clean around their 
roots. All tea plantations are merely patches of the 
shrubs caiid for by small farmers, who cultivate the 
plant and sell the leaves to middle-men, or more 
often pick the crop themselves if they can afford to 
do so. The great plantation or farm, with its land« 
lord and the needy laborer, each class trying to get 
as much as possible out of the other, are unknown 
in China: the farmer has not there learned to em- 
ploy skill, maohinery, and capital all for his own 
advantage, but each farmstead is worked by the family, 
who rather emulate each other in the reputation of 
their tea. Tea is cultivated on the slopes nr bases 
of hills, where the drainage is quick and the mois- 
ture unfailing, This is of more consequence* than 
