Sept,  i,  1896.] 
TH?:  TROPICAL 
Delhi,  etc.  The  refiner  sells  the  purified  article  at 
nearly  the  same  price  as  he  purchased  it,  the  profit 
being  made  on  its  mechanical  absorption  and  re- 
tention of  a large  amount  of  water. 
2nd. — Barus  Camphor  (Bhimsaiui  Camphor)  ob- 
tained from  a tree  found  in  Borneo  and  Sumatra, 
etc.,  namely,  DriiohaUuiops  Camphova.  This  belongs 
to  the  same  family  as  the  Indian  Sal  tree.  It  is  a 
large  and  handsome  tree.  To  obtain  the  camphor 
the  trees  are  felled  and  cut  up  into  small  splinters 
and  the  crystals  of  the  naturally  formed  camphor 
picked  out  from  the  tissire  of  the  wood.  The  crystals 
are  chiefly  found  in  the  interior  of  the  stem  i ften 
existing  as  concrete  masses  which  occupy  longitudinal 
cavities,  more  especially  near  the  knots  and  swell- 
ings formed  where  branches  issue  from  the  stem. 
The  old  trees  are  generally  the  most  productive  and 
a good  tree,  it  is  said,  will  yield  about  11  lb.  In 
searching  for  good  trees  the  natives  are  reported  to 
pierce  the  trees  to  the  heartwood,  but  it  is  stated, 
that,  if  left  for  seven  or  eight  years  after  having  been 
pierced,  they  may  then  be  found  to  yield  a good 
supply.  Only  about  one-tenth  of  the  trees  thus  ruth- 
lessly destroyed  are  remunerative. 
This  is  the  Camphor  of  the  ancient  writers,  and 
naturally  from  the  small  amount  obtained  and  the 
labour  that  has  to  be  expe  nded  on  its  collection  it  is 
very  much  more  expensive  than  the  “Common”  or 
“ Chinese  Camphor.” 
3rd. — Ngai  Camphor  op  Burma  and  China. — This 
is  obtained  from  a species  of  Blumea  and  is  manu- 
factured very  largely  at  Canton.  The  plant  is  a 
herbaceous  or  bushy  member  of  the  family  of  the 
CoMPOsiT.u.  It  seems  probable  that  several  species 
are  employed,  that  most  commonly  being  Blumea 
Balsamifera — a species  frequent  in  vailous  parts  of 
India  as,  for  example,  on  the  Eastern  Himalaya 
between  altitudes  of  1,000  and  4,000  feet ; on  the 
Khasia  hills,  in  Chittagong ; Pegu  and  Tenasserim 
to  China. 
Ngai  Camphor  is  chemically  more  nearly  allied  to 
Barus  than  to  “ China  Camphor,”  and  it  is  in  point 
of  price  intermediate  between  these  two  forms.  Good 
Barus  Camphor  may  fetch  R80  a lb.,  whereas  the 
Common  Camphor  is  little  more  than  half  that  sum 
per  cwt. — AyricuUural  Leilc/er,  ho.  5,  1896. 
INDIAN  PATENTS. 
Applications  in  respect  of  the  undermentioned  in- 
ventions have  been  filed,  during  the  week  ending  18th 
July  1896,  under  the  provisions  of  Act  V of  1888. 
Improving  the  machine  known  as  .Jackson’s  standard 
cross  action  rolling  machines. — No.  247  of  1896. — 
Donald  John  Macrae,  tea  planter,  of  Harmutty  tea 
estate.  North  Luckimpore,  Assam,  for  improving  the 
machine  known  as  Jackson’s  standard  cross  action 
rolling  machines. 
For  Treating  Vegetable  Fibres. — No.  108  of  1890. — 
Kenneth  Thomas  Sutherland’s  invention  for  treating 
vegetable  fibres.  (Specification  filed  4th  April  1892.) 
— Indian  and  Eastern  Engineer,  Aug.  1. 
♦ 
TEA  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 
A letter  written  in  England  in  1740  says : “ Tea 
is  now  become  the  darling  of  our  women.  Almost 
every  little  tradesman’s  wife  must  sit  sipping  tea 
for  an  hour  or  more  in  a morning,  and  it  may  be 
again  in  the  afternoon,  if  they  can  get  it,  and 
nothing  will  please  them  to  sip  it  out  of  but  china- 
ware,  if  they  can  get  it.  They  talk  of  bestowing 
thirty  or  forty  shillings  upon  a tea  equipage,  as 
they  call  it.  There  is  the  silver  spoons,  silver 
tongs  and  many  other  trinkets  that  I cannot 
name.”  (Coffin,  Newbury,  p.  191). 
Tea  parties  gradually  became  the  fashion  in 
New  England  about  this  period.  In  1750  an  excise 
was  granted  the  King  of  12d.  per  pound  on  tea. 
New  Hampshire  laid  an  excise  of  2s.  6d.  per  pound 
on  green  and  ‘ Bohea  ” tea.  In  1763  about  a million 
and  a half  of  pounds  were  consumed  in  this  country, 
only  onc-teuih  of  which  came  from  England 
(Bancroft,  iii.,  p.  59).  Tea  was  a favorite  return 
AGRICULTURIST.  ,7^ 
cargo  with  ships  in  the  China  trade.  In  1793  three 
vessels  carried  2,532  chests  Bohea  tea  into  New 
York  and  Providence,  B.  I. 
Tea  and  coffee  supplanted  the  use  of  alcoholic  spirits 
in  New  England  between  1713  and  1745.  Weeden,  in 
his  “Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,” 
says  “ that  in  this  little  Chinese  leaf  was  folded  the 
germ  which  enlarged  into  American  independence.” 
In  1714  Edward  Mill  advertised  tea  in  the  Boston 
News  Letter-.  “ Very  fine  Green  Tea,  the  best  for  colour 
and  taste.”  In  1718  it  was  not  much  used  at  Lynn, 
Mass.,  and  when  the  ladies  went  visiting  each  carried 
a small  teacup,  saucer  and  spoon.  In  1740  it  was  a 
“fad”  among  the  women  of  Boston. 
In  1666  tea  was  sold  in  New  England  at  68s  per 
pound;  in  1719,  at  34s  per  pound;  in  1721  and  1723, 
at  25s  per  pound  for  Bohea  and  Green;  1729,  4.5s  per 
pound ; 1730,  30s  per  pound ; 1735,  Bohea,  26s  per 
pound;  Congou,  .34s;  Pekoe,  50s;  Green  tea,  30s; 
1737,  Bohea,  16s  & 26s  per  pound  ; 1745,  35s  per  pound 
1756,  £3,  0.  T.,  per  pound;  1771,3s  per  pound  ; 1773, 
Hyson,  18s,  0.  T.,  per  pound;  1774,  Bohea,  £2  5s, 
O.  T.,  per  pound;  1780,  3s  9d  per  pound;  1782,  9s 
9d  per  pound;  1783,  5s  lOd  per  pound;  1784,  3s  lid 
per  pound  ; 1785,  3s  2d,  L.  M.,  per  pound  ; 1788,  Bohea, 
3s  per  pound. 
The  history  of  the  tax  on  tea  in  1767  and  the 
subsequent  attempts  to  have  it  removed  is  too  famliar 
for  repetition.  A few  items,  however,  will  be  new  to 
many.  In  1770  there  were  societies  formed  to  dis- 
courage the  use  of  tea.  The  women  of  Boston 
signed  the  following  pledge  : 
We,  the  daughters  of  those  patriots  who  have,  and 
do  now  appear  for  the  public  interest,  and  in  that 
principally  regard  their  posterity,  as  such  do  with 
pleasure  engage  w'ith  them  in  denying  ourselves  the 
drinking  of  foreign  tea,  in  hopes  to  frustrate  a plan 
that  tends  to  deprive  a whole  community  of  all  that 
is  valuable  in  life. 
Then  it  was  the  leaves  of  the  raspberry  plant, 
thyme  and  other  substitutes  came  into  use.  The 
users  of  China  tea  were  forced  to  drink  the  beverage 
in  secret  places. 
A memorial  tablet  has  been  placed  by  the  “ Sons 
of  the  Revolution”  on  the  site  made  famous  by  the 
tea  party.  It  measures  5 feet  by  3,  and  is  a bas- 
relief,  representing  a full  rigged  ship,  from  which 
men  are  tossing  overboard  chests  of  tea.  Tea  chests 
and  tea  leaves  form  the  border  of  the  tablet.  The 
following  is  the  inscription : 
Here  formerly  stood  Griffon’s  wharf,  at  which  lay 
moored  on  December  loth,  1773,  three  British  ships 
with  cargoes  of  tea.  To  defeat  King  George’s  trifling 
but  tyrannical  tax  of  three  pence  a pound,  about 
ninety  citizens  of  Boston,  partly  disguised  as  Indians, 
poured  the  three  ships’  cargoes,  three  hundred  and 
forty  chests  in  all,  into  the  sea,  and  made  the  world 
ring  with  the  patriotic  exploit  of  the  Boston  Tea 
Party. 
No  ! ne’er  was  mingled  such  a draught. 
In  palace,  hall  or  harbor, 
A freeman  brewed  and  tyrants  quaffed, 
That  night  in  Boston  harbor  ! 
TEA  IN  OLD  ENGLAND. 
In  1746,  John  Wesley,  after  twenty-seven  years’ 
use  of  tea,  abandoned  its  drinking  in  order  to  discredit 
its  use  among  his  followers  and  resumed  the  practice 
twelve  years  after  by  order  of  his  physician.  For  a 
time  he  w'aged  a war  against  tea  drinking,  but  this, 
his  biographer.  Rev.  L.  Tyerman,  says  w'as  “ an 
amusing  episode  in  Wesley’s  laborious  life.”  Josiah 
Wedgewood,  the  famous  potter,  made  and  presented 
to  Mr.  Wesley  a teapot  which  held  four  quarts.  On 
Sunday  mornings  his  preachers  used  to  meet  at 
five  o’clock  and  take  tea  together. — .Imeriean  Grocer, 
June  24. 
NOTES  FROM  OUR  LONDON  LETTER- 
London,  July  24. 
NKW  TK.\  COMPANIES 
are  being  largely  adverci.sed.  During  the 
w'eek  Messr.s.  Gow,  Wilson  & Stanton  have 
announced  that  the  Gartniore  group  of  e.s- 
tate.s  in  Maskcliya,  comprising  about  632 
