686 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[March i, 1892. 
OARDENINO BEET. 
Thia uaeful salad plant liixoriatea in juat 
such a soil and situation as suits the carrot, viz, 
a deep and warm light sandy loam, rich and sweet, 
and 111 an open and sunny spot. The roots 
abstnuit a good deal of potash, soda, carbonic acid, 
and chloride of sodium (common salt) from the 
soil, which should therefore lie rich in those 
principles. Hence salt, kainit (which supphea 
potash), nitrate of soda, and, soot or any kind of 
charred or burnt material, are tho best maimres 
for this crop, and may be freely applied either 
to tho soil Before sowing, or after the plants are 
up, in the shape of a top dressing, r or all 
ordinary purposes the first week in May is quite 
soon enough to sow beet ; if done mucli before 
this the roots are apt to become too largo and 
coarse. For small gardens, Dell's Cviinson and 
Nutting's Dwarf Ked are perhaps the heat kinds 
to grow, and a now variety known as the Chelten- 
ham Black or (Ireen-top has lately been attract- 
ing much attention. In lifting beet taka particular 
care to avoid breaking the roots; if any of even 
the smaller fibres are injured the roots bleed, 
and both the colour and quality sutler. Tho 
best way is to dig a deep trench, and take 
Uie roots one by one out of the flat aide or wall 
of it. — fl, J. Observer, 
TEA. 
Continuing his remarks, already quoted in the 
Liverpool Mm'curn, K. M. writes : — ... 
In the strange Bepublic of Chili, with its Indians 
and Europeans, its narrow seaboard and wild plateaus, 
the Natives drink mate. Sitting in their windowlesa 
houses on a bleak night, with all airholes stopped 
up, they sing strange songs to the sound of the 
guitar, and ^e dark-eyed girls dance, castanets in 
hand, while the old, blear-eyed women sit and suck 
mate. They do not drink it as we drink tea, but they 
Slick it through a tube like a pipe stem. -A black, 
fire-smoked jar stands on tho earthem brasior all 
tho time, and in tho intervals of tho song and dance 
tho jar is passed from hand to hand, ench one 
using tho tube in turn. Tho taste of the liquor is 
disagreeable at first, but it soon grows pleasant, for 
it contains the essential of tea, and all the poor 
people use it. The methods of imbibing mate are 
repulsive to us, but when we live in Koine it is best 
to do as the Eoinona do, and so we soon acquire 
tho Chilono habit, and take our tea under now con- 
ditions. it is this widespread yearning after tea 
which made tho ovor-pi'oen plant tako ftiich a deep 
hold on hnnianity. Dharina carried the «eedM of 
the plant to China long ago, and tho Chinese ciilti- 
vated it in every snare place. They did not give it 
tho best ground; that was reserved for rico and 
vegetables. They planted tho seeds of the over-green 
on hillsides, on ombanknionts, and in places 
where little else would grow. The plant was hardy, 
and survived all its ill-treatment. It lived through 
hoeing and pruning and insect plagues, and became 
a strong defiant plant. It will grow to be a ti-ee HD 
loot in neight, and a foot in diameter, if let alone. 
The leaves of the Chinese tea plant wi I expand to 
four inches in length, and some of the Indian tea 
plants grow to nine inches, but they are not allowed 
to develop into trees. They are set out in rows 
in a garden, and suffered to grow to three, four, 
or even five feet in height, but that is all. I he 
flower of tho tree is whitish, or aromatic, and pretty ; 
the loaves resemble the willow, but closer is the rela- 
tionship it bears to the camellia; and more of that 
anon. They have about l,nDO tea plants to tho acre, 
and this produces in a year say 3(K) pounds of tea, 
though it is almost needless to add that lea garden- 
ing varies with districts, countries, and climates. 
The plaiits are dug up every tvyclvo years, and a 
new seedling is planted, which is ready for jiicking 
in about four years or less, according to tho condi- 
tions. The Chinese had a monopoly of tea for cen- 
turies, though our first shipiiienta came from .lava, 
aad it was woU on in the loth centuiy before we 
ever hoard of it. It will bo an interesting story 
to tell how tea was first introduced to England, and 
we will come to tliat lator. 
The Indian people seemed to have forgotten all 
about tea, and nobody dreamed that India was tho 
real home of the plant. It was in the year 1820 
that Mr. David Scott sent some leaves from a 
northern province of India to the Government at 
Calcutta. Tliese leaves were said to belong to the 
wild tea plant, and Mr. Scott wanted tho Govern- 
ment Botanist to oxaniine them. Now, Botanists are 
very clover people as a rule, but it is perfectly 
astonishing to find how little discernment many of 
them possess. Botany seems to reduce a man’s 
mind to tho smallest possible technical limits, and 
the few great-BouIed botanists only go to proro tlie 
rule. Tills botanists at Calcutta said the loaves 
were those of tho caniellia, the familiar oruaineiital 
flowering plant which mows so heartily in our hot 
houses in England today. Such faith did Mr. Scott 
and his allies have in the botanist, that the master 
was dropped out of sight. 1 lie gold mine of the tea 
trade was coolly passed over and forgotten, and the 
leaves from Kiich Bohar and Kangpur were no more 
remembered by tho wise men of Calcutta. It was 
in the yeiu- IHHI that another man, more determined 
ttian Mr. Scott, said that "Camellia or not, these are 
tea leaves," and then began a new era. The leaves 
of tlie tree were indeed those of the over-green, 
which had filled China with the wealth of Europe. 
It was discovered that in tho deep, pathless, tiger- 
hunted, fever-cursed jungles of Assam, the tea tree 
grew wild. We never saw wheat grow wild, tho 
Chinese never saw tea grow wld; but here, in the 
poisonous jun(?lo, the tea plant was growing wild. 
It was 11 startling discovery, for Nature seldom makes 
a mistake. If the tree had been an alien it would 
not have flourished so through long comurios, un- 
known and nneared for in this Burniese jungle. Men 
were sent to China to seek out the impleinents and 
tlie gardeners for the cultivation of this indigenous 
tea plant, and the work was begun in England's 
mighty colony. The tea fever seized the people 
just as tho gold fever has taken hold of other races, 
and everybody who could raise money or interest 
wont into tho trade. In IS.Hti a pound of ton was sent 
to England from the indigenous leaves of tho Assam 
tea plant. In 1 10 the great Assam Tea Company 
was formed, aim tho trade has gone on ever since 
with strange fluctuations. Indian tea was better than 
Cliiiiese tea, but English palates had grown accus- 
toinod to the flavour of the Celestials’ plant, and a 
new taste had to bo acquired. We reject tea which 
is much superior to what wo have been in the habit 
of drinking, simply because it is strange to our taste. 
Thou, too, the tea planters, in their haste to grow 
rich, forgot the old laws of Leviticus, which are 
founded in adamant. The "shall not" of the law- 
giver was rooted deep in Nature’s heart. The growers 
went into the moist depths of tho hitherto untrodden 
jungle, and brought forth the seeds of the tea plant, 
and set them in well-prepared gardens. But the 
new conditions wore not favourable to the moisture- 
loving plants of tho jungle, and tho evergreen be- 
eanio delicate and difficult to rear. Fortunes wore 
lost in the undertakings of foolish people who dreamt 
not of the undying nature of law. Fire burns, 
water drowns; and no policemen are ever required 
to see that they obey the law. "Thou slialt not," 
if based on tru'th, is eternal. The Indian tea was 
a failure until tho wise men saw wliat was needed. 
The Indian plant could not succeed on the broad 
garden lands of Assam, hecaiiso tho jungle had been 
swept away. The Chinese plant had contrived, 
through long centuries, to live under hard condi- 
tions, and now it was brought back to its ancestral 
home. To live under the new conditioiia, would soon 
have told injuriously on the bar K Chinose tree, for 
it was not used to bo coddled and cared for in an 
equable climate; but it learned how to share its 
rugged hardiness with its Indian kinsinen, and tho 
result was wonderful. The Assam tree, tho indigonoim 
plant, was hard to roar; but it was strangely good. 
The Chiiio.so relation was strong and wiry and easy 
to teal', and tho hybrid product of the two luaUo 
