The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1878-01-18
THE TEA PLANT,

The United States Commissioner of Ag'
rlculture, General Lie Due, is alive to the
TACT that farmers are not careful, thought
lul and methodical enough, and rely toe
much upon the habits and manners thn,
rhavc come down perhaps from long line
OF ancestors. He knows they'too frequent
iy fail to calculate the cost Of growing q
crop, and perhaps never know till the enJ
OF the year whether a crop has or has no,
any net money in it. lie is therefore par
t'cuarly anxious to test variety of vegc
tables and plants in different attitudes, and
learn whether or not they would not be
more profitable as crops than those now cul
ffStradncs thS To- Nc isi; IT n xieus IS
and think that if our people arGiteally a.
poor as they say they are, the tea plant
might supplant many of the roses and ever
greens seen in the front of most of our
dwellings; for while these latter simply
| please the eye or refresh the olfactorics
the former, if cultivated properly, would be
made to help the pocket
No one receives material payment for cul.
tivating flowers, and it is quite an expense
and labor; and hence all over South Caro-
lima those grand and beautiful old flowe,
gardens, which were so handsome i'm ant,
dellun' times, are now frequently given Up
to weeds and briars
ltwould not be so with the tea plant for
after year or two, it would become q
source of profit, and this profit would in
crease annually.
AT present the United States are import
ing annually several millions of dollars
worth of Chinese teas, and they are all,
more or less, so medicated that, tits said
the original grower could scarcely recog-
nlze the beverage if he were to auaff it in
America. If South Carolina were half as
devoted to tea culture as she is to the cul-
ture and in trovemcnt of cotton, there
could be millions of dollars worth of tea
grown and sold in this State annually and
that, too, by the intelligent, industrious,
lovely South Carolina women. Only think
what we are losing by our ignorance.
General LIE Due has received valuable
information upon this subject from Mr..
James Edward Calhoun, of Abbevillc coun-
ty, S. c., who for years has grown the tea
plant, and drunk it pure and unauthorized.
MIR. Calhoun writes him the fruit of the
tea plant is capsule, the hull of which
This is another valuable discoveFs7 and
should make us more anxious all over the
South to Introduce the culture of the tea
plant.
About two thousand plants have this fall
been sent into South Carolina by the Com
missioner 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 Carolina will
aid, him in his efforts, and report, as prom
ised, their success with the plants given
them, he anticipates that in few years he
will be able to have the tea prepared for
market, with much profit, in several por-
tions of the State. His idea is to induce
tho cultivation OF the plant at many points
and when the area becomes large enough,
then to establish in some central point, per
haps Columbia, the manufacture of the n,er.
chantable 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.
General lie Duo is also very anxious to
subject the sweet potato (yam) to chemical
analysis, with q view to test whether or not
it would be profitable business to engage
in the manufacture of sugar from the yam.
Millions of dollars worth of sugar arc made
annually by the French and by the Cana
dians on this side of the Atlantic, from the
beet, and if tho palate is qualified to judg, 4,
it can bear testimony to the superior sweet.
ness Of the yam over the beet. We have
written to friend to send few vans to
the department, and we will watch with
much interest the result of this ANALYSIS,
and repor it.
There is now d som On kbon sugar
nna n,"re every sEyn lump =, hc. the parent
ty and advisability of juse such experiments
as are proposed to be made at the depart.
ment. The object is to learn if wo cannot
manufacture sugar to export, and prevent
the necessity of any importation. Let us
hold up the Commissioners hand in his cf
forts.
NEURALGIA AND RHEUMATISM "A
very simple relief for neuralgia is to boil q
small handful of lobela i'm half n mint oI