Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1851-08-13
From the Pennsylvania Farm Journal
Diversity of Crops Cotton. Coffee
and Tea...Elax.

and Tea Flax.
The interests of Agriculture are directly
promoted by diversifying its productions
SO that the prosperity ofany district viii
generally be in proportion to the variety
of profitable crops, which are cultivated
by its farmers This is shown by the
flourishing condition of agriculture in the
vicinity of our large cities, where the mar.
kets insit' the cultivation of many vege.
table productions, which are not grown al
a distance from such localities.
There are very many agricultural plants
TO. the produce of which we paw large
sums, importing from abroad, what may
Just as well be reared in our country
Neither the sugar cane, rice, tobacco, no,
cotton plant is indigenous and yet these
are all grown with unequalled success III
the United States, and constitute by fal
the greatest amount and value of our ex
ports.
The quantities of coffee and tea con
suined In this country, are prodigious. 1,
has been ascertained that we imported, in
one year, 5000 tons of coffee, when the
quantity imported into France, was bu
2o,65o tons, and that imported into th,
United Kingdoms Of England, Scotland
and Ireland, 1920 tons. We are assur
ediy the greatest coffee drinkers in tn,
world, On the other hand, the English
consume more tea than We do. 1t is with
them universal beverage. Still the use
Of this article in the United States, is very
great and still increasing. Now both the
tea and coffee plants may be cultivated to
any extent in our countryside coffee tree
IN Florida and Texas, and the tea plan,
much further north. The green teas are
raised IN the Northern provinces of China,
where the snow is said to be on the ground
and upon those shrubs for days together
They might doubtless be grown in our
Middle and Western States. 1t is fortu-
nate for our Southern friends, that their
SOIL and climate are so well suited to these
valuable plants for as to their great sta
pie, cotton, the days of their monopoly
are numbered. England can not much
Longer submit to the danger of having but
one adequate source of supply, and that
mn independent one. Already the pro-
duetion in Asia and Africa-not to speak
OF the magnificent regions of Brazil-has
increased to such an extent as to show,
that she will very soon derive a greatly
augmented supply from those quarters.
Besides the experiments on fax, demon
strate that an important competition with
cotton is likely to spring up from the i'm
proved manufacture of that material: of
which the northern, middle, and western
states, will be able to grow enough, to
supply the world.
With respect to coffee and tea, there is
certainty of their continuing to be ar
tcles of diet, without any chance Of change
from the caprice Of fashion. Fashion did
not introduce them, nor can it lay them
aside, any more than dispense with the
use OF sugar. 1t is very remarkable that
these two productions, originating in far
distant countries, should have come into
such general use and acquired SO perma-
nent hold upon the taste of mankind.
Recent chemical analysis satisfactorily ex-
plains it, by developing the surprising
fact, that the essential principle of coffee
rs identical with that of tea. Coteine and
theme, the names applied to these sub
stances respectively, possessing exactly the
same chemical constituents. 1t is also
proved that the beverages made from these
plants, SO far from being slow poison,
Gas was once supposed, are as wholesome
as they are palatable. A. L. HAYES.
Lancaster, july Is, 1851.
49,