The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-12-20
aaaerspn gntellige.ater,
The Commissioner Of Agriculture.

The Commissioner Of Agriculture.
Frequentsinteryiews have induced the
beiief that the Commissions of Agricul-
lure is striving very hard to so systema-
tie and develop the interestsof his De-
partment as to make it valuable to the
turner's and to the country. The history
! of the Department has nothing in it very
q brilliant, praiseworthy or notable beyond
the fact that thus, far il has been little
else than a mammoth distributiye seed
store. s, !.
'Tis said of old Gen. Newton, who was
the first man to fill the office of Commits
sioner after the Department was cut
loose from the Patent Office, that he al
ways believed he was "a Cabinet officer
8 because he presided over q Department..
q He said ato q friend he 1was one of the
Presidents counsellors and belonged to
the Cabinet, but be had never "sot"
s. there.
He was succeeded by Mr.. Casson, who
seemed to have been energetic and in-
dustrious, but was more anxious to get to
Japan on u large salary, where he was
sent and has been for about six years,
than he mas to extend the usefulness OF
6 the Department.
hen he went to Japan, President
Grant placed old Judge Watts, o super
+ annnated lawyer from Pennsylvania, over
tl.e Department, -and he allowed things
sto run atloose ends, and did no good to
!: anybody, aud was always willing to
accuse Southerners Of being both lazy
and ignorant His career was proti.less
to;the agficultura interests of the coun-
try
a[r. HIVES brought Gen. lie Due from
Minnesota, perhaps because he was. orig
isa.ly from Ohio, and the Presidents
friend. and placed linn where we trust
he will renoyate matters, and make the
Department at least worthy the admira-
tiof OK: farmers il afSno interest to other
persons. IL Z, 81
Gen. lie Due lis alive to the fact that
& farmers arc not careful, thoughtful and
2 niethodical enough, and rely too much
& upon the habits and manners that have
come down perhaps from a long line Of
s ancestors. He knows they too frequent
Is failto calculate the cost of growing n
crop, ana perhaps never know till the
end duf the year whether a crop has or has
not any net money in it. He is therefore
particularly anxious to test a variety Of
vegetables and plants in different lati-
tutles, and learn whether or not they
would be more profitable rs crops than
those now cultivated. With this view
he is:apxions to introduce the tea plant,
as ne have before stated, into South Car
oiin:t, and thinks that i! our people are
really as poor as they say they are, the
sltea plant might supplant many Of the
roses aud evergreens seen in the front of
most of our dwellings; for while these
latter simply please the eye or refresh
1.-The solfactories, the former, ifcultivated
properly, would be- made toss help the
pocket. 81 = s
No one receives material payment for
cultiyating flowers, aud it is quite All ex-
pense and labor; and hence all over
South Carolina those grand and beautiful
old flower gardens, which were so hand-
some in antc-bellan, times, are now fre-
qnently given upsto weeds and briars.
1t would not be, so with the tea plant;
for after year or two, it would become
"a source ofsproft, and this profit would
Z increase annually.
AT present the United States are i'm.
porting annually several millions of dol
lars, worth of Chinese teas, and they are
all, more or less, so medicated that tits
8 said, the. original grower would scarcely
recognize the beverage If he were to quatf
it in America. If South Carolina were
half as devoted to tea culture as she is to
the culture and Improvement of cotton,
there conld be millions of dollars worth
& of tea grown and sold, in this State an
nually and that, too, By the intelligent,
industrious, lovely South Carolina wo-
men. Only think what we are losing by
our ignorance.
Gen. LIE Due has received valuable In
formation upon this subject from Mr..
james Edward Calhoun, of Abbeyille
g6unsy, IS. G., who for years had grown
theEtea plant, and drank of it pure and
Z .unadulterated. Mr.. Calhoun writes him
the fruit;of the tea plant is q capsule, the
hull of which has many of the properties
of quinine. This is another valuable
discovery, and should make US more
q anxious all over the South to introduce
the culture of the tea plant. 6.
"A bout two thousand plants have this
fall been sent into South Carolina by the
Commissioners, and it is about all he had.
He is preparing to have million plants
ready BY next fall, and if the parties to
whom he has sent these plants in South
will aid him in his efforts, and
report, as promised, their success with
the plants given them, he anticipates
that in very few years he will be able
to have the tea prepared for market, with
much profit, in several portions OF the
State. His idea is to induce the cultiva-
tion of the plant at many points, and
when the area becomes large enough,
Y then to establish in some, central point,
perhaps Columbia, the manufacture of
the merchantable article.
We sincerely hope the parties to whom
these plants have been sent will bestow
more than ordinary care upon them, and
at the proper time report their success
to the department.
Gen. LIE Due is also -ery anxious to
subject the sweet potato YAM to chemi-
= sSCaI duety oiS, WILL q we " " oGSo uSe1iSA
or notit would be profitable business to
engage in the manufacture of sugar from
the yam. Millions Of dollars worth of
s sugar are made annually by the French,
and by the Canadians on this side of the
Atlantic, from the beet, and if the palate
is qualified to judge itcan bear testimony
to the superior sweetness of the yam over
the beet. We have written to a friend to
S send a few yams to the department, and
NE will watch with much interest the
= result of this analysis, and report it.
There is now 8 heavy duty upon sugar,
and every lump child eats costs the
parent more than it should, and hence
Z the necessity and advisability of just
such experiments as are proposed to be
made at the department. The object is
s 1oo,or,ot soonYt fo ctrro ey1oor