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THE TEA PLANT-COMPARISON OF LABOR IN CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES. 
THE TEA PLANT—COMPARISON OF LABOR IN 
CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES, ETC. 
From the Journal of Commerce, we extract 
the following interesting remarks from the pen 
of Dr. Smith, who is taking unusual pains to 
establish the cultivation of the tea plant in the 
United States:— 
The labor of inland transportation of tea in 
China, a distance, upon an average, from the 
tea plantations to the shipping port of Canton 
of 800 to 1,000 miles, and a waste of six weeks 
to two months’ time, costs 4 cents a pound, 
equal to 33 per cent, of the value of the tea at 
the place of its growth. This enormous ex¬ 
pense of transportation only may startle some 
of our friends, when they couple such an ex¬ 
penditure with the boasted cheapness of labor in 
China. But when they consider that in China, 
there is an entire absence of railroad, steam 
navigation, and even of common roads; that 
whole cargoes of tea are constantly carried 
upon the backs of porters, an eighteen days’ 
journey over a mountain pass, to Ho Keil and 
the rivers of Kyang, besides numerous other 
passes, he will perceive that cheap manual 
labor in that country is the most extravagant 
power for the transportation of goods. 
I suppose that in no part of the United States, 
the cost of inland transportation from the place 
of growth to a shipping port would equal one 
quarter that sum, or occupy one tenth of the time. 
The wages of day labor are entirely nominal, 
unless we couple the amount of labor performed. 
The dearness of Hindoo labor, compared with 
American, although nominally cheap enough to 
starve an ordinary man, is officially settled by 
Dr. Jameson, superintendent of the tea planta¬ 
tions of the East-India Company, Himmalaya 
Mountains, northwest provinces of India, in his 
report of 1847, to the governor. He remarks, 
“ that at task work, three acres of tea land to 
dress, weed, and keep in order, is the allotment 
to one laborer. I should be glad to be informed 
how many acres an American farmer, having 
the land already planted and in order to his 
hand, and nothing else to do, would keep in 
good condition? In this part of the Union, em¬ 
bracing all the slave-holding states, one slave 
cultivates and keeps in order ten acres of cot¬ 
ton and ten acres of corn annually. A negro 
laborer, therefore, in the United States, per¬ 
forms more than six times the labor in the same 
time that a Hindoo does in India. That is un¬ 
doubtedly about the difference of physical 
force. The payment, therefore, of 6 cents a day 
to a Hindoo laborer would be equivalent to the 
payment of 36 cents to a field negro laborer in 
the United States. Cheap labor compels cheap 
living; a little boiled rice without animal food, 
just keeps the attenuated frame of the Hindoo in 
existence, but renders him incapable of severe 
trial. The negro is well and amply fed three 
times a-day upon the strongest food consumed by 
man—Indian-corn bread, hommony,and bacon. 
His muscular and hardy frame shows his force. 
I have no desire to see people of this country 
live without labor, but I wish to see them live 
by their labor. In nothing are the blessings of 
the curse more manifest, than in the necessity 
entailed on man to labor for his bread. A state 
of moral degradation, inconceivably wretched, 
follows a condition of general indolence. 
A few more particulars will show the favor¬ 
able position in which the American agricultu¬ 
rist is placed, and I apprehend will be sufficient 
to confirm, in the judgment of a discreet observ¬ 
er, the truth and validity of the principle advo¬ 
cated. The nominal value of labor in Java, 
China, and India is perhaps sufficiently known 
to render a repetition here ^Unnecessary; but 
the contingent expenses of freight, insurance, 
&c., are important items in the aggregate cost 
of labor, and claim some attention. 
Freights of tea and other goods from China 
and India are $24 a ton of 40 cubic feet to Eu¬ 
rope; time occupied in a passage four to six 
months. Freights from the United States to 
Europe, $6 a ton; time occupied in steam 
ships, fifteen days. Insurance, from China and 
India to Europe, 3 per cent. From the United 
States to Europe, by steamships, one half per 
cent. Mark the difference, and see how soon 
your cheap labor exceeds your dear. Inland 
and foreign transportation, with the consequent 
necessary expenses, constitute a part of the 
cost of labor, just as much as tilling the soil, in 
order to supply the market. Without further 
investigation, l am content to rest the claims of 
the American cultivator for success, upon' the 
strength of this argument. The difference in 
the cost of the produce delivered in the market 
gives us the power of it, and all the wealth the 
East-India Company can pour out, in support 
of their enterprise, will avail nothing. Like 
the forced growth of cotton, the more they ex¬ 
pend, the more they will lose. 
I cannot close this communication without 
expressing my gratification in the removal of 
my tea plants, last week, from the village of 
Greenville to this plantation. I never before 
had an opportunity of examining the roots of 
the plants put out when I first came to Green- 
