Year: 1877




Tho United States Commissioner
OF Agriculture, General LIE Due, is
alive to tho fact that farmers arc
not careful, thoughtful and mothodi-
cal enough, and rely too much upon
tho habits and manners that havo
come down perhaps from long limo
! Of ancestors. Ho knows thoy too
frequently fail to calculate tho cost
OF growing q crop, and perhaps
never know till the end Of the year
whether n crop has or has not any
not money in it. Ho is therefore
particularly anxious to test a variety
OF vegetables and plants in different
latitudcs, and learn whether or not
they would not be more profitable
as crops than those now cultivated.
With this Wow he is anxious to in
troduco tho tea plant into South
Carolina, and thinks that if our
people arc really as poor as they say
they are, the tea plant might sup
plant lnnay Of tho roses and ever,
greens seen in tho front OF most of
our dwellings,; for whilo these lat
ter simply please the ego or refresh
the Olfactorics, tho former if cult
vated properly, would DO made to
help tho pocket.


No ono receives material pay
ncnt for cult1vnting flowers, and it
is quite IN expense and labor and
hence al over South Carolina those
grand and beautiful old flower gar
dcns, which were SO handsome in
ante tei!'tn& times, are now freuucnt-
ly given up to weeds and briars.
1t would not be SO with the ten
plant for after II ycar or two, it
would become q source of profit,
and this profit would Increase an
nually.


At present the United States arc
importing annually several millions
Of dollars worth Of Chinese teas
and they arc nj. moro or less, so
mcdicatod that, It's said, the original
grower could scarcely recognize tho
beverage if no wero to quaf' it in
America. If South Carolina were
half rs devoted to tea culture as she
is to the culture and improvement
of cotton, there could be millions Of
dollars worth Of ton grown and sold
in this State annually and that,
! too, by tho intelligent, Industrious,
lovely South Carolina women. Only
think what we arc losing by our
ignorance.


Goncral lie DUO has received
valuable information upon this sub
icct from Mr.. James Edward Cal
houn, Of Abbcvillc county, S. c.,
who for years has grown the tea
plant, and Il. unk it pure and unadnl-
tcrated. Mr.. Calhoun writes him
the fruit of tho tea plant is cap
sulc, tho hull of which has many of
tho properties Of quininc. This is
another valuable discovery, and
should make us moro anxious all ovor
the South to introduce tho culture
Of the tea plant.


About two thousand plants have
this fall been sent into South Caro-
lipa by TIC Commissioner, and it is
about all he had. He is preparing
to have u million plants ready by
next fall, and if tho parties to
whom he has sent these plants in
South Carolina will aid him in his
efforts, and report, as promised,
their success with tho plants given
them, he anticipates that in few
years no will be ablo to have tho
ton prepared for market, with much
profit, in several portions of the
State. His idea is to induce tho
cultivation of tho plant at many
points, and when tho area becomes
largo enough, then to establish in
somc central point, perhaps Colum-
bia, the manufacture Of the morchan-
table article.


We sincerely hope tho parties to
whom these plants have been sent
will bestow moro than ordinary caro-
upon them, and ut tho proper timo
report their success to tho depart
mont.


General lie Due is also very anx-
ious to subject tho sweet potato
(yam) to chemical analysis, with
Wow to test whether or not IT would
be a profitable business to engage
in the manufacture of sugar from
the yam. Millions of dollars worth
of sugar are mado annually by the
French, and by the Canadians on