The Russellville Democrat., 1880-01-15

i Java and Bornee are able to produce | these last most precious deIicacies. ! Ncwly-formed nests or nests in which
 eggs are freshly laid are most prizei. and
 these have to go through process of
 cleansing before they are d1ed and
 despatched for the China market, where,
 however. if in prime condition, they re-
 ward their captors at the rate of 36s, per
 pound. Among more materially minded
 purchasers, window-glass, watches, dyes, paint, and other sundries, find ready sale; and peacocKs' and kingfshers' feathers are eagerly bought up to adorn the hats of mandarins whom the Em-
 peror delights to honor, and the head dresses of fashionable ladies
 In return for these and other imports, China sends into the outer world medi- cines of far greater value than those she accepts from it, though she has evi- dcntly some customers who are fond of rare remedies, and who look with a strange faith to lily flowers, ginseng, and lotus-nnts for relief from some of the ills which flesh is heir to. Even from the disease-bel otten root known as China-root, which grows from the roots Of unhealthy fir trees, fancifu inyalids extract cure for diseases as unreal as the remedy employed to dispel them. Another export due to an un- healthy condition aggravated by an un- congenial climate, is the white wax Of Sze-chuen. In the keen-chang district of that province there grows in abund- ancc the Lisutrm htcid,m, an ever green tree with painted oyate leaves, on the twies of which myriads of insects spread themselves like q brownish film in the spring of each year. Presently the surface of the twig becomes en- crusted with white waxy substance secreted by the insects, and it increases in quantity until the latter part of Au- gust, when the twigs are cut off and boiled in water. During this process the wax, rising to tke surface is skinned of, and is then melted and allowed to cool in deep pans. By one of those curious accidents which have done so much to increase the knowledge of mankind, it was dis covered that by transporting the insects bred in Kecn-chang to the less congenial climate of Kea-ting Flu, the amount of wax produced was vastly increased. No people more readily discern commer- cial advantage than the Chinese, and this singular effect of removing the insects 10 climate so unc ongenial as to prevent their breeding was eagerly taken advantage of by Sze-chuen traders. Tray elers by night on the highroad between kecn-ehang and kea-ting Fu may meet Tn the spring of the year hundreds of wax merchants, each carrying his load of female insects, big with young, on their way to their wax farms ill Kea- hng Flo. The journey is rough and long, and fortnight's sun would precipitate the matching, which should take place after the females have been attached to the trees To the unscientifie eyes of Chinamen the round, pea-like female appears to be nothing more than an egg, and this belief is the more cxcusable since the birth of the young is the signal for the death of the parent. Six or sew en of these prolific mothers are wrapped in palm leat and tied to branch of the Ligustrtm ltcidum. In few days swarms of iniinitcsimally small insects creep forth and cluster on the twigs of the tree, where they fulfill their mission and perish with it's accomplishment in the boiling pot eaci August. Baron Richthofcn considers the value of the annual crop to be on an average upwards of e650, ,000; and during last year there was exported from the one port of Hank row upwards of sl,000 pounds worth of if