90 
PORTABLE STEAM ENGINE, ETC. 
The Nagore bull, bred to common cattle, will 
give a product like those brought home by Lieut. 
Lynch. The water oxen are so called, from 
their fondness of going into that element. They 
are queer-looking brutes, but said to be invalu¬ 
able for work in hot climates. 
The Maltese goats are without horns, and pos¬ 
sess remarkable milking qualities. 
Doct. Davis also brought home a great many 
rare seeds, which he has distributed with a 
liberal hand. 
PORTABLE STEAM ENGINE. 
We give a cut of an English portable steam 
engine, which is extensively used. We think 
these may be introduced into many of the oper¬ 
ations of American husbandry, (partially as a 
substitute for horse power,) with decided advan¬ 
tage. For many small farms, they are not at 
Portable Steam 
all suited ; but where large operations are car¬ 
ried on, they may occupy a place among farm¬ 
ing implements, with as much propriety as the 
plow. 
TEA NUTS. 
The following letter, from Dr. Junius Smith, 
now residing in South Carolina, to the editors 
of the New-York Journal of Commerce, will be 
interesting to agriculturists, as well as to tea 
drinkers:— 
The small quantity of tea nuts planted in 
December, 1848, failed to germinate, though fine, 
healthy nuts. Considering that they have no 
covering, or protection, whatever, after planting, 
in consequence of my absence in New York, 
and a severe frosty winter to encounter, it would 
not be expected that they would vegetate. 
Whether the same season of the year adapted to 
the planting cf the tea nut in China, Java, and 
India, will be equally favorable in this country, 
will soon be proved, by the result of tea nuts 
planted in October. The fact that the tea plant 
buds and blossoms at the same time of the year 
in this climate, as it does in Asia, is in favor of 
an identity of time in planting. At the same 
time, I think early in the spring will be more 
certain. The tea nut, generally denominated 
“ tea seed”, is of the size and color of a hazelnut, 
and equal in weight to eight cotton seeds. The 
bulk of a full-sized tea nut is 2F inches in cir¬ 
cumference; a middling-sized nut, IF inches, 
average perhaps about H inches. Like all nuts, 
it contains an oily kernel, which is covered 
with a shell thicker than that of a cotton seed, 
but rather thinner than that of a hazelnut. The 
public mind is misled by calling it tea seed. It 
should be called tea nut, denoting more defi¬ 
nitely its true character. Many persons have 
written to me from a distance, requesting me to 
forward a small quantity of tea seed in a letter. 
Engine.—Fig. 33. 
evidently misled by calling it tea seed. The 
nut, therefore, should be packed and trans¬ 
ported in boxes, proportioned to the quantity 
and bulk. To avoid misconception, it may be 
well to call it by its true name, “ tea nut.” 
It was not to be expected that people residing 
in the interior of Asia, unaccustomed to packing 
tea nuts and plants for foreign countries, and 
with no other guide but mere guess work, should 
make a successful shipment. The consequence 
of this want of experience, was an almost total 
failure of my last importation. 
It was a great, though an expensive point 
gained, to know, with absolute certainty, what 
modes of packing will not answer. Plants and 
nuts, now on their passage home, were packed 
according to my instructions; and if they fail, 
so far as the manner of packing is concerned, the 
error, as well as the loss, will be my own. 
Golden-Grove Tea Plantation , \ Junius Smith. 
Greenville , & C., Jan. 22d, 1850. $ 
