AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
55 
'mrtoltral Sqrartmetti 
TEA, 
The tea plant is a pretty shrub, growing from 
two to five feet high, though unmohsted, it is 
said to attain the height of thirty feet. It is 
cropped down every season,'so that the new 
shoots may produce a great quantity of leaves. 
It is planted in rows like hedges, and in hills 
like corn. The blossoms look and smell like 
those of the apple tree. Each shrub produces 
from five to ten ounces. All the varieties are 
comprised under two kinds, green and black 
tea, which differ from each other only as they 
are gathered early or late in the season. Tea 
gathered early is better, the young leaves hav¬ 
ing a stronger and richer flavor. The great 
number of varieties arises mostly from differ¬ 
ences in manufacture or preparation—a few 
only from mixing and scenting. In America, 
we are apt to suppose Hyson, Green, Black, 
Souchong, &c., so many distinct kinds, whereas 
there are only two kinds, Green and Black. 
Nongyong receives its name from the place 
where it grows. Bohea, so called because it is 
raised on two hills of that name. Being gath¬ 
ered after the rains, and latest, it is the poorest 
kind of tea. The time of gathering Green tea 
is in March, April, or May, and that for Black 
tea is in June, July, or August. 
Good tea is raised in Java, Sumatra and Hin- 
dostan, as well as in China. In point of soil 
and temperature, it would probably flourish as 
well in the United States, but it can never be 
cultivated with profit till the price of labor is 
greatly reduced. 
SEEDLING PELARGONIUMS. 
Any of our readers who have the curiosity 
can call and examine the colored plates of the 
beautiful flowers described here. We cannot 
give them in our publication, and common ink 
engravings would convey no idea of their res- 
plendant coloring. The largest of these spe¬ 
cimens are two and a half inches across the 
petals. They are the most magnificent speci¬ 
men we have seen within our recollection. 
We present our readers this month with a 
double plate, representing some of the new va¬ 
rieties of our three largest raisers, Messrs. Fos¬ 
ter, Hoyle & Beck, and which are to be sent out 
in the autumn of the present year. In spite of 
some severe remarks from the editor of the Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle, this flower has lost none of its 
popularity, and we doubt if it was ever so 
largely or so well cultivated as it is at the pres¬ 
ent time. Indeed, we have heard that several 
leading nurserymen were unable to supply the 
demand for the best varieties during the past 
season; and from the inquiries for lists of the 
superior sorts addressed to ourselves, we are 
quite satisfied that raisers of seedlings have 
only to go on and prosper. One thing we 
would earnestly impress upon them, and that 
is, to use every means in their power to increase 
the varieties of color, a thing much required in 
a first-rate collection. It should always be 
borne in mind that contrast is necessary to pro¬ 
duce effect, and that brilliancy loses half its 
claims to our admiration if it has nothing to re¬ 
lieve and set it off. We know from experience 
how difficult it is to obtain some colors in com¬ 
bination with good habit of plant and bloom. 
Year after year we have had intensely bright 
color—rich purples, the deepest maroons, &c.— I 
and yet accompanied by faults of such a charac-1 
ter that we could not propagate—could only 
seed from them, hoping in time to get all we 
required. We are always encouraged when we 
meet with desirable color alone, because it tells 
what is in store for him who does not allow 
himself to be di-heartened, but perseveringly 
proceeds with a determination to succeed. We 
would add that, with every care, it is impossible 
for the artist to give the exact colors of nature. 
In the present instance the drawings were made 
from the plants, and we trust our readers will 
see the latter all frequently exhibited in the 
winning collections of next season. 
In another page Mr. Beck has supplied a 
short account of the flowers raised by him, and 
now in the hands of Dobson and Son. 
As regards the two varieties figured in Plate 
92, they are both free bloomers of good habit 
Both flowers took first-class certificates at the 
National Fioricultural Society, on which occa 
sion the following description was taken ol 
them: 
“ Phaeton: A rich orange scarlet, stout, 
smooth, and of good form ; also a free bloomer.” 
“Wonderful: This is a large flower, of the 
finest form, with smooth stout petals. The top 
petals are dark maroon, shaded off to the mar¬ 
gin with orange and rose. The lower ones are 
deep pink. Large white centre.” — London 
Florist and Fruitist. 
CARRYING ERUIT TO MARKET. 
But few days pass at this season of the year, 
during which may not be witnessed at any ol 
our market-towns, the effect of carelessness in 
carrying fruit to market. It is well known to all 
salesmen that, be their wares what they may. 
the better their appearance, the better will they 
sell. Tlr.s fact seems to be entirely overlooked 
oy farmers when carrying their produce, and 
more especially fruit, to market. 
For instance, a farmer having early apples foi 
sale, will shake them from the tree, pick them 
up, bruised and all, throw them into the box ol 
a lumber-waggon, and drive them eight or ten 
miles at a smart pace, and over a rough road. 
Upon arriving at his destination he finds them 
bruised, discolored, and withal, looking far 
more fit for consumption by swine than for hu¬ 
man use. The next effort is to sell them, and 
in this branch of the operation the results ol 
his heedlessness are soon made manifest. It is 
only after a great waste of time and words that 
he succeeds in disposing of them, and then but 
for a mere trifle. It is no marvel that he goes 
home in a state of mind no ways enviable, find¬ 
ing fault with every body, and every thing, ap¬ 
ple-buyers and apples in particular, and ending 
with a resolution to let the trees take care ol 
themselves in future. 
Had this man (who by the way is but a fair 
specimen of the majority) picked his apples 
carefully, put them in baskets or barrels, and 
driven slowly to market, a quick sale and high 
price would have rewarded him in full for his 
care and attention. Nor would these be the 
only benefits arising from such a course, the 
purchaser would be well pleased with his bar¬ 
gain, and a great saving would be made in the 
time and temper of the farmer. Finally, and 
best of all, he would return to his home with a 
firm determination to take the best of care ol 
his trees .—Dollar Newspaper, 
FRENCH GARDEN IMPLEMENTS—STONE- 
LABOR. 
I sometimes wonder that any thing grows in 
France, the tools used in gardening and in agri¬ 
culture are so uncouth and unhandy. The hoe, 
an instrument of constant use, has a handle 
but two feet long, so that the hoer is obliged to 
bend into the very earth, in order to reach the 
object of his care. He thus has his back con¬ 
tinually horizontal—a position as laborious and 
painful as it is degrading, for it gives to a man 
the appearance of a beast of the field, crawling 
on all fours. The French soade is even worse. 
The handle is straight, like the American hoe; 
it is not furnished with a hand-piece at the end, 
which at home is thought to increase its effi¬ 
ciency two-fold. This tool is a monstrous 
misapplication of strength to labor, and, as 
might be supposed, performs very small days 5 
works. In fact, the spade and the shovel are 
both one, whereas they ought to be as distinct 
as poker and tongs. The rake, an ornamental 
instrument at best, is furnished with nails in 
ihe place of teeth; but as it is often double, 
being a rake on both sides, it is a tolerably 
vigorous utensil. The watering-pot, on the 
other hand, is a superior article. It is con¬ 
structed on mechanical principles. The two 
handles—the carrying and the watering han¬ 
dles—form but one handle, passing along the 
top to the side. The gardener thus slides his 
band from the one position to the other, and may 
hold a watering-pot in each. The wheelbarrow 
is an ill-built affair, and usually creaks. The 
mortar used in the construction of stone walls 
is the best in the world. In two hours it is 
harder than the stones it cements, and never, at 
any age, does it crumble to pieces. It is ex¬ 
pensive, and even the wealthiest proprietors re¬ 
sort to the following expedient to diminish their 
consumption of it. At every twenty feet of 
the wall to be built, a fragment of it—say a 
portion two feet wide—is made with mortar, the 
rest is cemented with mud—the commonest 
mud, made upon the spot, with any earth that 
happens to be at hand. The whole wall is then 
faced with mortar, thus assuming a similar ap¬ 
pearance in its whole length. The result is 
a wall that will last for centuries, there being 
no frosts powerful enough to upheave or dis¬ 
joint it. 
I said the mortar was stronger than the 
stone. No one who has ever seen French build¬ 
ing stone, in the neighborhood of Paris, can 
form even a remote idea of what it is. The 
masons snip it, shape it, edge it, as if each 
lump were a pine-apple cheese. I have seen 
the adze penetrate a block as it would have pen¬ 
etrated a ripe water-melon. This quality, 
which adds to the facility with which it is 
adapted, is in no way disadvantageous. The 
stone will bear any weight, and never splits or 
chips of its own accord. With time its color 
changes from a rich cream color to a dingy 
brown, but a scrape every five years restores it. 
Its softness is in fact as great an advantage as 
malleability is to a metal; for while it is as 
easily fashioned as cheese, it is as durable as 
granite. 
I told you that I once hired an old woman to 
weed a gravel path and strawberry bed. I am 
happy to stale that this venerable creature is 
now well provided for. She and her good man 
are engaged as husbandmen upon a neighboring 
farm. They work twelve hours a day, stead¬ 
ily, and she performs the same labors, and quite 
as much labor as he. She digs, weeds, plants, 
“ snatches” potatoes, trains grape-vines, mounts 
drays, ascends ladders, gets into trenches, 
sinks wells, like the veriest male of them all. 
1 sat the other day upon a hay-cock of her 
making. She is richly bronzed, and her limbs 
—which she exposes with an agricultural free¬ 
dom—are gnarled and knotted to a degree 
quite unusual with the sex. The two are 
boarded and lodged by their employer, and the 
wages they get are proportionately reduced. 
Still, the smallness of the figure will astonish 
you as it did me. They earn, together, $180 a 
year—being thirty cents a day for him, and 
nineteen cents a day for her. They lay by 
$100 a year, and when they are too old to 
work, will be able to keep them out of the poor- 
house and avoid the hospital, even though sad¬ 
dled with sickness in addition to poverty.— 
Dick Tinto, in N. 7. Times. 
The Sky Larks imported from England to 
the State of Delaware, have greatly multiplied, 
we learn, and are daily heard oyer a track of 
six miles in extent, 
