6t6 
THE TROinCAL AGRICULTURIST. [March t, 1694. 
•' I must warn Miss F." one lady cried ; 
Said another; "He's jilted me; 
This monster from breaUing another heart, 
Must surely prevented be." 
They take no sugar, they take no cream, 
'Twas a bitter Five o'cl' ck Tea ; 
They were ready to weep and vowed vengeance 
On the head of that tickle. Ji. [deep 
So off they hastened to tell Miss F., 
Who faiiited without d- lay ; 
Then wrote in a passio", with many a dash, 
To break off the niavcli tl at day. 
Now all the while 'twas a different "Brown," 
As was proved by the injured youth ; 
And gaily they laughed on their wedding-day 
At the gossipn' lack of truth. 
The news of the day, I venture to fay, 
You'll hear at Five o'clock Tea; 
But take it with salt, lest you be at fault. 
This advice pray accept from me. 
Gideon Nye wrote a capital hook on ' Te<i and the 
Tea-liar/e,' in the American language in IK.'iO, and 
from p. 40 I quote a facetious account (taken from 
J^ioicli), of an " Interview of the Tea Dep''.tation 
with Lord John Kussell": — 
"On Wednesday, the 16th January, a deputation 
from Liverpool, headed by its members, waited on 
Lord John Russell and the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer with the laudable desire of obtaining their 
consent to a reduction in the Tea duty. The busi. 
ness commenced by a few words from Sir Thomas 
Birch, who was very appropriately selected on this 
occasion, for, as the premier (must have mentally) 
remarked "Birch has always been looked upon as 
one of the principal representatives of Tea in this 
country. Mr. Cardwell went into the arithmetic of 
Tea, and proved that while in the United Kiugdom 
the consumption amounted to only a pound and 
three-quarters per head, it was nine pounds per head 
per annum in the Australian colonies. This, at a 
spoonful each and one for the pot, gave several 
million cups of Tea to the colonists, while at the 
same strength of brewing, there would be little more 
than a disn (of Tea) per diem for the inhabitants 
of Great Britain. Mr. Ed. Brodribb enlarged on 
the subtle merits of Tea, and insisted that al- 
though mere spoons had sometimes made a stir 
in Tea, there was now a small but de'ermined 
Tea-party springing up in the Kingdom, and with all re- 
spect he would say that the Government would 
eventually be teased out of the duty. Another mem- 
ber of the deputation took a view of the matter in 
reference to the agricultural interests, urging that 
so long as the genuine tea was kept out of the coun- 
try by the heavy duty, the hedges of the farmer 
would never be safe from those depredators who 
plucked a spurious sort of Twankay from the sloe, 
and stole for the tea market that which was neither 
Hyson nor His'n. After a few further remarks from 
other members of the deputation, Lord John Russell 
courteously acknowledged himself a friend of tea, 
and though some called tea mere slop sent over by 
our foes, the Chinese, he was not one of those who 
regarded it as a " weak invention of the enemy," 
AiEter intimating his willingness to take a tea-leaf, if 
practicable, out of the book of Free Trade, he assured 
the deputation that he and his friend the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer would, some day, after dinner, take 
tea into their best consideration. 
A visit to the Manuscript Room of the Brit sb 
Museum is always full of interest. Here are some 
verses by a Henry Power, that I found there, but 
at what date written I cannot tell. 
VERSES ON THE INDIAN SERPENT GECCO. 
Such deadly poyson lyes within 
: This sea-green lizard's speckled skin, 
That with more revengeful spite 
It kills beyond our Acconite ; 
The divellish Indian knows its force, 
And by it kills without remorse. 
Against their darts dipt in this juice 
yhere are no antidotes in use. 
The cursed Basilisk, which kills 
By looks, to this in venom yields. 
(Note — The Rattle Snake is also frequent in Vir- 
ginia; the proper antidote for it is Radix Polyrbiz*.) 
ON THE PENKITIVE PLANT. 
Whv fleest thou, (pretty plant,) my toacfa, 
And shrivels in thy leaves so much 
Hath Daphne left Apollo's tree. 
And is she Hitted into thee f 
Then welcome, nymph, tboa need'st not fear 
Thy old pursuing ravisher. 
Apollo sticks etuI to bis bays, 
And haunts not such like plants as these. 
The sea and air, thongb both abound 
With horned creatures ; and the ground 
Puts forth her horns also, and wears 
In this plant his Brow- Antliers ; 
Into the rocks and stones it shoots 
Its fibriilooB holdfast roots. 
OF THE PLANT CALLED BILLIVG-BIKO. 
Though acid Citron juice our teeth doth sting, 
The edge is taken off by Billing Bing: 
As greater painea always assuage the lesse, 
So doth all others this plant acidnesse. 
OF TUB PINE- APPLE. 
Do not your palates much provoke 
With this sweet Indian artichoke, 
Nor with their luscious strawberries, 
For in them all their venon lies, 
By which lethiferous fatal juice 
Tney will a bloody flax produce; 
A. M. Feeouosk. 
MK. M. K, BAMBERS TEA BOOK: 
With regard to rolling, he alludes to the too comcnon 
practice of ovcffilling the machine nod iu accordance 
with the whole ot hif pystrm of manaftctnre, advo- 
cates the keeping of leaf "coil" — ani recommends 
the " Rapid, ' with its latest improvetceutci, as the 
most effective machitie extsn'. Th» neit chapter is on 
' oxidation,' which 19 dt scribed nitb truth ai tbe mo't 
important process in the whole maoutacture. Mr. 
Bamber prefers the term '' oxidatijn " to " f<rmen- 
tatiou," and referring to tbe old process of allowing 
the leaf to lay in henps for many bouis, be says the 
ttmpernture would rapidly rise to 90 to 1011 degrees, und 
a kind of fermentation would eet in accompanied by 
decompohition. 
In fact the old-fashioned prrc?68 is entirely con- 
d«mDed as further on the author says a separate room 
apart from the macliinpry nnd prntec^el from the sun 
by a double roof is ncceasary, ss it is impo'sib'e to 
oxidise the leaf properly or ootain a goad color if the 
room is too hot. This will come as a blow to old 
fathiouei manipulator.'', who ball their leaf and 
smother it ia blankets for bourj in the loft above 
tbe fires ! 
Atemper'itureof 85 degrees Fahrenheit, is the bigheit 
for tbe roll to generate, but in following the method 
advocated we have fouad on these hilld that a good 
color is obtaitatile at 75 degrees and lower. 'I'hin 
layers of roll moistened with a spray of water sni 
covered with darv^p cloths, are the means employed to 
keep the leaf cool aud to obtain color by oxi'latioa 
Ofer-withered leaf will turn out dull or d»rk in color, 
but Mr. Barber says this ia partially curable by 
the applicition of clean water during the rolling 
process, or better when tbe leaf is put oat to oxidise, 
as by this means the sap is more diffused over 
the teaf. 
To prove that the process required is cxi'ation, 
not fermentation, a series of experiments was nodef- 
taken, the reeult of which are given, all goiog to prove 
that tbe change in the leit in the so-called lerroenta- 
tion is due to oxidation. 
According to this authority in the old process of • 
long ferment, the acidity of the eapisi increased nndnly 
and tbe leaf becomes sour ani rancid, which can be 
only eorteotod by rapid and high tiling (which aleQ 
