P. L. Simmonds

“ To illustrate the hardihood of the plant, I may observe, that notwithstanding the zero severity of February frost destroyed the leaves and branches of most of the plants, and those now blooming in great beauty and strength are from roots the growth of this summer, I have one green tea-plant the stem and branches of which withstood the frost of February without the slightest protection, and is now a splendid plant, covered with branches and evergreen leaves, affording undeniable evidence not only of its capability of resisting frost, but of its adaptation to just such a degree of temperature. ”

“ With a rapidly increasing population in all parts of the civilized world, the production of bread is obviously the first object to be sought after, alike by the statesman and the peasant. I scarcely dare give the calculation of the immense amount which would be realised in any great country, by the single saving of a bushel to an acre, in the quantity of seed ordinarily sown. The same result would follow if an additional bushel could be produced in the annual average yield of the wheat crop. ”

“ The introduction of new objects of industry into the colonial dependencies of the British Empire, is no longer considered a mere subject of speculation, but one well worthy the attention of the eye of science; and the fostering hand of care is beginning to be held out to productions of nature and art, which, if not all equally necessary to the welfare of man, yet certainly merit the attention of the cultivator and capitalist, and have great claims on the scientific observer, and on those interested in raising the manufactures of our country to a higher standard. ”

“ As the duty on tobacco is about to be reduced, the present production may fall off, unless an immediate improvement in its quality take place. Instead of being importers of tobacco, we should, if it was grown here to perfection, be exporters of it to all our sister colonies; and in its raw state, also to the European markets. At present, for home consumption, there is a greater profit to be made by its cultivation, if skilfully managed, than in any part of the world; for the duty upon imported is a positive bonus to the grower. ”

“ The general appearance of the plantation is that of a copse, with laurel leaves and stems, about the thickness of hazel; occasionally a tree may be seen which, having been allowed to grow for seed, has reached a height of forty or fifty feet, with a trunk eighteen inches in diameter. When in full bloom, the cinnamon bushes have a very beautiful appearance, the small white petals affording a most agreeable contrast with the flame-colored extremities of the upper, and the dark green of the inferior foliage, with the blossoms of various lovely parasitical plants. ”

“ As the stems and leaves of wheat plants grow before their seeds, if all the phosphoric acid, potash, and lime available in the soil is consumed before the organization of the seeds begin, from what source is nature to draw her supply of these ingredients to form a good crop of wheat? If the farmer could reverse the order of nature, and grow a good supply of seeds first, and make straw afterwards, then many a one would harvest more wheat and less straw. ”

“ After a full consideration of the subject, I am satisfied that stock-raising at the West is much more profitable than raising grain. Indeed, an examination of the north-western States shows a vast difference in the wealth of the grazier over those who crop with grain. The profits of wheat appear well in expectation on paper, but the prospect is blasted by a severe winter, appearance of insects, bad weather in harvesting, in threshing, for there are but few barns at the West, or transporting to market, or last, a fluctuation in the market itself. ”

“ There is, on almost every hill-farm, some place favorable for the growth of a maple orchard—some rocky spots yielding little grass, and impervious for the plough. Such spots may be favorably chosen for the growth of a maple orchard; and whether the increase be used for manufacturing sugar or molasses, or for timber or fuel, the proprietor of the land will find a profit better than money at interest in the growth of this beautiful tree, which will spontaneously propagate itself in many positions. ”

“ The combustion of the mass of vegetable material used in this kingdom would yield about 340 million pounds of carbonic acid gas; so that the yearly produce of carbonic acid gas from tobacco smoking alone cannot be less than 1,000,000,000 lbs.—a large contribution to the annual demand for this gas made upon the atmosphere for the vegetation of the world. Henceforth let no one twit the smoker with idleness and unimportance. Every pipe is an agricultural furnace,—every smoker a manufacturer of vegetation,—the consumer of a weed that he may rear more largely his own provisions. ”

“ Corn culture and wheat culture, if skilfully and scientifically conducted, go admirably together. Of the two, more bread, more meat, and more money can be made from the corn than from the wheat plant in this country. But so soon as what is called "high farming" in England, shall be popular in the United States, the crops both of wheat and corn grown here will demonstrate how little we appreciate the vast superiority of our climate for the economical feeding and clothing of the human family, over that of our "mother country." ”

“ Now, the whole matter which forms the stems, leaves, roots, cobs, and seeds of corn, where the crop is 100 bushels per acre, is not part and parcel of the soil. A harvest equal to fifty bushels per acre can be obtained without consuming over ten per cent, of earth, as compared with the weight of the crop. No plant can imbibe more of the substance of the soil in which it grows, than is dissolved in water, or rendered gaseous by the decomposition of mould. ”

“ No substances are so essentially necessary to mankind, or form such important articles of commerce, as those which we come first to consider, the dietetic products—cacao, coffee, tea, and sugar. The consumption of these in all civilized countries is immense, notwithstanding that in many they have been fettered with heavy fiscal duties. The investigation of the culture of the plants from which they are obtained, and the manufacture of the products, is a very curious object of research. ”

“ The mountain range, which runs through the centre of the island, is the most productive, because the tea gardens, extending from near the base, high up the mountains, reach an atmosphere tempered by elevation. The plant escapes the scorching heats of the torrid zone, and finds a climate, by height rather than by latitude, adapted to its nature. But the plant is not confined to lofty ridges. In the plains, the hedges and fences, if one may so call them, are all planted with the tea shrub, which flourish in greater or less perfection throughout the island. ”

“ One that has rich land needs only to plough it deep and well, plant in season, and cultivate the earth properly with a plough or cultivator, to secure the growth of a generous crop. On poor soils the case is very different.
To raise a good crop of corn on poor land, and at the least possible expense, requires some science and much skill in the art of tillage. Take the same field to operate in, and one farmer will grow 100 bushels of corn at half the cost per bushel that another will expend in labor, which is money. ”

“ Its cultivation is the most attractive and pleasant of all descriptions of husbandry; and its rewards are generally remunerating, when the soil and climate are favorable, and the markets are not too distant.
It is important to know what our relation is to this staple of the world, and what is, and what is likely to be, our contribution to the great aggregate of production. Beyond feeding our own great and rapidly increasing population, it probably will not soon, if ever, be very great. It is a mistake, I apprehend, to suppose our country is naturally a great wheat-producing country. ”

“ The oil obtained from this seed is inferior to good olive oil, but is better adapted for the manufacture of soap.
This plant is not unlike hemp, but the stalk is cleaner and semi-transparent. The flower also is so gaudy, that a field in blossom looks like a bed of florist's flowers, and its aromatic fragrance does not aid to dispel such delusion. It flourishes most upon land which is light and fertile. The fragrance of the oil is perceptibly weaker when obtained from seed produced on wet, tenacious soils. A gallon of seed seems to be the usual quantity sown upon an acre. ”

“ In proportion to the amount of labor and money expended in the production of maple sugar, it is as capable of yielding as large a return of profits as any other branch of farm business. It is certainly an object of great national interest to the inhabitants of our North American Colonies, that they should supply their own market with such products as their highly-favored country is capable of producing. Sugar is an article which will ever find a ready sale at highly-remunerating prices, provided that it be properly manufactured and brought into market in good condition. ”

“ There is no crop, the skilful and successful cultivation of which on the same soil, from generation to generation, requires more art than is demanded to produce good wheat. To grow this grain on fresh land, adapted to the peculiar habits and wants of the plant is an easy task. ”

“ An infusion of the coffee-leaf has long been an article of universal consumption amongst the natives of parts of Sumatra; wherever the coffee is grown, the leaf has become one of the necessaries of life, which the natives regard as indispensable.
The coffee-plant, in a congenial soil and climate, exhibits great luxuriance in its foliage, throwing out abundance of suckers and lateral stems, especially when from any cause the main stem is thrown out of the perpendicular, to which it is very liable from its great superincumbent weight compared with the hold of its root in the ground. ”

“ The United States are the largest consumers of coffee, as it is admitted into their ports free of duty, and can therefore be sold for nearly the price per pound which the British Government levies on it for revenue. The entire consumption of the United States and British North America, calling their population 23,000,000 and ours 30,000,000, exceeds ours, on an estimate of population, by sixfold. Thus the average consumption of coffee by each American, annually, is about 81⁄2 lbs., while the quantity used by each person in the European States is less than 11⁄2 lb. ”

“ The most general mode of obtaining the necessary supply of weed, as it is called by the planter, is as follows:—The land attached to the factory is parcelled out among the ryots or farmers, who contract to devote a certain portion of their farm to the cultivation of indigo, and to deliver it, for a fixed price per bundle, at the factory; a sum of money, usually equal to half the probable produce, has to be advanced to the ryot by the planter, to enable him to accomplish the cultivation, and to subsist upon until the crop is ready for cutting. ”

“ There are myriads of small rocky islets in the boundless ocean, and there are thousands of miles of barren rocky coast and sterile mountain range in every part of the world, which, though at present unfit to bear any of the higher members of the vegetable kingdom, are yet carpeted and adorned with a rich covering of lichens, and of those very species too, which I have already spoken of as prolific in colorific materials. ”

“ But though the cultivation of the root is almost unknown to the higher classes in society, and little regarded by planters in the colonies, it is a most valuable article of consumption. Amongst the laboring population it is the principal dependence for a supply of food. Long droughts may disappoint the hopes of the yam crop, storms and blight may destroy the plantain walks, but neither dry or wet weather materially injure the coco; it will always make some return, and though it may not afford a plentiful crop, it will yield a sufficiency until a supply can be had from other sources. ”

“ The Oswego starch factory has happily introduced the use of Indian corn, as a grain producing a larger proportion of pure amylaceous properties than any other known vegetable substance, proffering to the American manufacturer another economic advantage, sustaining, in a most legitimate matter, sound rivalry and competition with all the world. I am not aware whether the Oswego factory has converted its starch into gum—a process easily accomplished by heat, and thus rendered soluble in cold water, which cannot be done while in its condition of starch. ”

“ But I must not be understood to recommend poor worn out hill lands for tea cultivation,—land on which nothing else will grow. Nothing is further from my meaning. Tea in order to be profitable requires a good sound soil,—a light loam, well mixed with sand and vegetable matter, moderately moist, and yet not stagnant or sour. Such a soil, for example, as on these hill sides produces good crops of mundooa, wheat or millet, is well adapted for tea. ”

“ The points which appeared to me worthy of remark in visiting the beet-root sugar works are, the extreme care that nothing shall be lost—the great attention paid to cleanliness in every part of the process, besides the particular care given to defecation. No vessel is ever used twice without being thoroughly washed. Such a thing as the employment of an open fire in any part of the manufacture is quite unknown. Everything is done by steam, of a pressure of from 4 to 5 atmospheres. In the more recently started works, the evaporation is entirely carried on in vacuum. ”

“ We beg, therefore, respectfully to express our opinion, that if the duty on tobacco were reduced to one shilling per pound, it would be alike beneficial to the interests of legitimate commerce; to the consumers, who consist almost entirely of the poorer classes; to the revenue, by increasing the productiveness of the duty, and by greatly diminishing the expenditure so ineffectually incurred to suppress the illicit trade ”

“ I do not see any reason to doubt, from a year's experience, that the tea-plant in its varieties will flourish in what I heretofore denominated the tea-growing district of the United States, as well as in any part of China.
The slowness of its growth requires patience. But when once established, the tea-nuts will supply the means of extending cultivation, and the duration of the plant for twenty years diminishes the expense of labor. ”

“ Grown persons would find it rather too tedious to stoop to examine the under part of every leaf, and seek the worm under ground: nor would they be so much alive to the value of a spoonful of sugar, or other light reward. Beside, where the former would make the search a matter of profit and pleasure, it would to the latter prove only a tedious and irksome occupation. Here I will observe, that it is for similar reasons that the culture of the Cuba tobacco plant more properly belongs to a white population, for there are few plants requiring more attention and tender treatment than it does. ”

“ It is true that the nutmeg tree, aided by manure, will grow in almost any soil where water does not lodge, but it makes a vast difference in the degree of success, whether the soil be originally good, or poor and improved by art. The tree does not thrive in white or sandy soils, but prefers the deep red and friable soils formed by the decomposition of granite rocks and tinged with iron, and the deeper the tinge the better. I am therefore inclined to think, that iron in the soil is almost necessary for the full development of the plant. ”