IMPROVEMENTS IN GARDENING. 
461 
the tea-plant with its culture into the northern provinces of India: now 
it is confirmed that the plant will thrive there. Whether its culture 
and the manufacture of the leaves may he as cheaply executed in Assam 
as in China, is a question, the answer to which will determine how far 
the discovery will or will not be valuable to the Company. If the 
Assamese be tractable, and if they be as indefatigably industrious as 
the Chinese, can subsist on as cheap food, and have Chinese cultivators 
and overseers to set the business going, the cultivation may be profit¬ 
ably established, prosecuted, and render dependence on the Chinese 
market less necessary than it now is. But if the Chinese can keep the 
tea monopoly to themselves, and undersell the Assamese and all others, 
any speculation of the Company to manufacture their own tea must 
prove unsuccessful. 
However, the very attempt to compete with the Chinese will do 
much good. It may moderate the supercilious hauteur of the celestial 
empire, and compel the emperor to be a little more accommodating in 
his commercial relations. 
The new territory is spoken of as being salubrious, temperate, and 
fit for the production of all European as well as Chinese plants; and if 
it also be suitable for the culture of rice (the grand and indispensable 
necessary of life in those countries), this would greatly facilitate the 
introduction of any rural improvement, or any new branch of manufac¬ 
ture. Silk, cotton, tobacco. New Zealand hemp, &c., may all, no 
doubt, be cultivated to advantage in such a climate. And whatever is 
undertaken and upheld by the powerful protection and assistance of 
the Company can scarcely fail to succeed, more especially if recom¬ 
mended by such a philosopher as Dr. Wallich, who has sent home the 
intelligence alluded to above. 
Mr. Loudon has suggested that the expense of manufacturing the tea 
may be, he thinks, much reduced by a more speedy and less particular 
mode of curing. This may be practicable; but the public taste must 
be consulted; machinery may be employed in the drying, and other 
expedients may be invented to expedite the process ; but the elegant 
and convenient condition of the article, as well for retail as for use, 
must not be much changed. 
Improvements in Gardening {continued from page 436).—The 
first, and perhaps the most important improvements to be mentioned 
are those made in the culture of some of the old, and by the introduc¬ 
tion of many culinary vegetables, unpractised or unknown to gardeners 
half a century back. 
The new practices in the treatment of old-established kitchen-garden 
plants are but few ; but among them may be noticed the now-prevail- 
