January i, 1892.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
found that tea aided the assimilation of food, and 
made it " go further." I call that a comforting 
little list of scientific authorities to back us up in the 
consumption of our precious " flf o'cloquer," as the 
French fashionable world calls the afternoon meal 
that it has adopted from the English. I am afraid 
that I for one should go on taking tea if all the savants 
abused it ; but still it is comfortable to be encouraged 
with scientific approbation in doing as one likes. 
Something we must have when we are deprived by 
any circumstances of the great natural stimuli, plenty 
of open-air exercise and long sound slumbers. These 
natural boons are not to be commanded by students 
sitting close to work, by women engaged in sedentary 
employments, or by a large number of housewives, 
whose fingers must always be busy and whose brains 
must be, early and late, paying tax to family responsi- 
bility. Such classes positively have need of some 
stimulant to prevent their nerves getting exhausted 
and their faculties sluggish. Is there anything better 
than tea ? 
Certainly not. Alcohol is a thousand times worse, 
more disastrous to the body, more periloiis to the mind. 
The tribe of narcotics, which have the dangerous 
peculiarity of stimulating in small doses and soothing 
in larger ones, are rapidly fatal to the health and 
energies of those who fall under their control. Even 
comparatively mild drugs do this, as well as opium 
and morphia. The nurses in a certain London hospital 
recently contracted a habit of taking antipyrin as a 
"pick-me-up," with results that need not be detailed 
beyond saying that they were quite deplorable. In 
fine, no beverage has yet been discovered that is 
for one moment comparable in the combination of 
efdciency as a stimulant and inuocuousness with that 
so dear to the Englishwoman and the man of highly 
developed nerves — tea. [Hearl hear! — Ed. T.A.] 
But judiciousness U required in its use, of course. 
The tannin which is drawn out by prolonged infusion 
tends to cause indigestion ; and the too-frequent or 
violent application of even this mild stimulation to 
the nervous system makes it over-excited and unstable. 
There is great truth in what Sir A. Clark says about 
the wicked tea of many afternoon 'At Homes." Tea 
which has been nursed under a cosy for half an hour* 
is like corked wane or tainted fish — it was good once, 
but it has "gone off," to be disgusting and injurious. 
The only plan that a hostess can pursue to avoid 
at one time waste of tea and bad liquor is to have the 
tea poured off the leaves ten minutes after it is made.t 
I venture to say ten in place of Sir A. Clark's five, be- 
cause London water is hard and draws slowly. The 
liquid can be kept hot afterwards in any way most con- 
venient. It may even be left in a jug on the kitchen 
stove without doing it any damage. It is the continuous 
drawing of the leaves, not the standing in heat of the 
completed infusion, that is mischievous. The tea being 
made, therefore, in the proportion of one large teaspoon- 
ful of the dried leaves to each half pint of boiling water 
— not over-boiled but fully at boiling point — should 
be allowed to stand for ten minutes, and then the in- 
fusion should be poured off into a big teapot that 
can be kept under a cosy, or put into a silver urn 
with a little spirit-lamp burning underneath, not high 
enough to boil the tea, but just so as to keep it hot. 
TEA IN THE UNITED STATES 
Ib thus noticed without a word about the essential 
element of cheap abour : — 
A correspondent ot the American Garden, Blr. W. F. 
Massey, writing from Charleston, S. C, gives some very 
iiitorestiug information aboat domestic tea culture. 
He says : " We were very much interested in 
visiting Dr. Shepard'a tea gardens at Summer- 
ville, twenty-two miles from Charleeton. Here 
Gcu. La Dqc, when Commissioner of Agriculture, 
be^an some experiments in tea culture, which his 
ehort term of office left no time to complete and 
which his successor abandoned. Dr. Shepard has 
* Over the leaves. — Eu. T. A. 
■\ Five to seven miuutoa atiU better, iu most 
caaeSi— Eu. T. A, 
bought the old Government plantation, and has planted 
a large adlitional area. The old trees planted by the 
Agricultural Department have been given over to seed 
bearing, and now nurseries are being started from 
these and from imported see 1. The new t^a gardens 
are all planted with the Assam hybrid tea, but the doc- 
tor has orders abroad for seed of all the best sorts from 
China, Japan and the Himalaya region. His tea has 
been pronounced vary superior by experts. The well- 
caltivated gardens and the thrifty plant is perfectly at 
home there. " That a high quality of tea can be easily 
made in North and South Carolina aeema evident. Be- 
fore going to South Carolina we visited a plantation of 
tea made over thirty yeirs ago ueac Fnyetteville, North 
Carolina. We found the tea bushes struggling for ex- 
istence in a thicket of pine, laurel, cherry, and all 
manner of wild growth. It has had iio culture what- 
ever since the war, and yet from these trees the old 
lidy who owned them gave mo a large bundle of tea ot 
remarkably fine quality, which a New York dealer who 
tested it at the hutel proQouQced worth f 1 per pound 
at wholesale. Th'3 ridicule with which the Northern 
press treatol Gen. Le Due's experiments caused the 
abandonment of systematic effort in this direction, but 
it does looks as thojgh a new money crop of great 
value might be added to the South, aud I am glad to 
record the fact that Dr. Shepard is giving the matter a 
thorough test. I hope his work may be crowned with 
successful results." 
■ 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
The Impost of Tea in Octobee. — The Board of 
Trade Returns for October show that the imports ot 
tea reached the high total of 30,485,170 lb.— about the 
biggest total ever recorded in one month. India sent 
18,-263,000 lb., Ceylon 5,(551,000 lb., and China, &c., 
0,569,000 lb. The greatest proportional increase is of 
Ceylon, the receipts being more than double those of 
October, 1890. 
Last Week's Sales. — The Grocer says of Indian 
tea : — " The deliveries continue to progress favourably, 
and list month equalled 10,520,450 lb., in contrast 
with 9,822,000 lb. in the former year, but as the im- 
ports were uncommonly heavy, stretching to 16,094,850 
lb., against 15,236,900 lb. in October, 1890, the stock 
was further increased to 31,534,200 lb , and at the end 
of the month presented a comparative excess of 
5,477,000 lb. Too public sales since our last summary 
have offered about 42,900 packages Indian tea, which 
have had lo be disposed of, as the saying is, ' by 
hook or by crook'; and a very tryiog period it 
has been for the tasters aud valuers, who have 
had at least two days' hard work to do in 
the same time usually allowed for only one. Tbi< 
ig the third week in succession that the auctions 
have aggregated over 40,000 packages as the supply 
to be immediately dealt with by the wholesale 
dealers, and no wonder that their energies begin to 
flag. The biddings have lacked sharpness and deoi- 
eiveness in many cases and been positively spiritless 
in others, bo that several invoices have had to be 
wholly withdrawn, aud where sales have becu comple. 
tci prices have ruled irregularly and lower. The com- 
mon to fair grades below 9d and is, which preponderate 
largely in the general supplies, have been, as hitherto, 
most out of favour, and mast be considered Jd to ^d 
per lb cheaper, or even Id under the ratej secured a 
month or six weeks ago ; but prices for the mediam 
kinds, though here aud there weaker, have .shown more 
uniform steadiness, and the, finer qualities, being far 
from plentiful as they might be, have realised rela- 
tively firm rates. The landings of Ceylon tea last 
month amounted to 4,596,600 lb. The Produce Sifar- 
/■■cts Ueview eays : — " The demand for Indian 
tea is well maintained, but at the later sales the 
common grades sold at irregular, but, on tho 
whole, at rather easier prices. These descrip- 
tions have been largely represented at recent auctions, 
aud, as many of thu teas are very inferior, it is not 
surprising that thoir value shows a drooping teudeuoy. 
Thu demand foe low-priced teas is also lesa active that) 
