part seven

and eight years old, about 12 per cent, are in flower or in bearing, and give a return of about twenty-four nuts per tree, on an average, yearly. On the next oldest, the return is not near so great. But few of the estates here will, I think, pay interest on the money laid out, and many will never pay anything over the expense of keeping them up, even after coming into bearing. I doubt if any estate in this district, however economically managed, will ever give a net return of more than £2, or perhaps of £2 10s. per acre, at least without there is a great increase in the consumption of oil in Europe. The consumption of this oil, in Europe, is under 5,000 tons. If the beetles do not destroy half the trees, the estates here when in bearing, if they yield anything, will give half that quantity; and it must be borne in mind that coco-nut oil is not a strong oil, like palm oil, and that soap boilers will never use it to any extent, for it will allow but little admixture of rosin, &c.; its use in Europe will be principally for candles and fancy soaps; but as by refining and compression they can now purify tallow, and make of it candles fully equal to those made from coco-nut oil, the consumption of the latter is not likely to increase. The consumption of candles is always limited on the continent of Europe, liquid oil being preferred, and in many instances gas is now being used where candles formerly were.

The return of land planted with coco-nut trees in Ceylon, in 1851, was 22,500 acres; but this refers only to regular estates recently opened and cultivated chiefly by Europeans. Let us suppose that the natives possess besides, twenty millions of trees; Butollac in his time estimated the number at thirteen millions. At 100 trees to the acre, twenty millions of trees give 100,000 acres, so that the total amount of land planted with coco-nut trees would be 122,500 acres.

An hydraulic press, for the manufacture of coco-nut oil, 1,200 horse power and weighing twenty-three tons, was cast at the Ceylon Iron Works, in 1850, by Messrs. Nelson and Son.

In the island of Singapore there are now many extensive plantations in a very flourishing condition, holding out favorable prospects to the proprietors. Hitherto the island has been supplied almost wholly from abroad with nuts and oil for its consumption, which will, before long, be obtained exclusively from its own soil. In 1846 there were 10,000 coco-nut trees in bearing in Singapore.

I have omitted to notice, in the foregoing observations, a very mistaken notion which prevails in many quarters, that it is best to let the trees drop their fruit, and not to pick the nuts when ripe. Nature directs differently. As soon as the husk of the nut is more brown than green it should be picked. It then makes better oil and better coir, than when left to shrivel up and fall from the tree.

Colonel Low, in his "Dissertation on Pinang," gives some interesting details and statistics on coco-nut planting:--

On a rough estimate--for an actual enumeration has not been lately taken--the total number of _bearing trees_ in Pinang may be stated at 50,000, and those in Province Wellesley at 20,000; but very large accessions to these numbers have of late years been made. The tree is partial to a sandy soil in the vicinity of the sea, and Province Wellesley offers, therefore, greater facilities, perhaps, for its cultivation than Pinang does, as its line of clear beach is longer, and has many narrow slips of light or sandy land lying betwixt the alluvial flats inland. There are several kinds of this tree known here; one has a yellowish color, observable both on the branches and unripe fruit; its branches do not droop much. A second has green spreading branches, more drooping than the former, the fruit being green colored until ripe; this is, perhaps, the most prolific; it also bears the soonest, if we except the dwarf coco-nut, which fruits at the second or third year, before the stem has got above one foot high. This last kind was brought from Malacca; it attains in time to the height of the common sort. Its fruit is small and round, and of course less valuable than the other sorts. There is also a coco-nut so saturated with green, that the oil expressed from its kernel partakes of that color.

It is a mistaken supposition that the coco-nut tree will flourish without care being taken of it. The idea has been induced by the luxuriant state of trees in close proximity to houses and villages, and in small cove's where its roots are washed by the sea. In such circumstances, a tree, from being kept clear about the roots, from being shaded, and from occasional stimuli, advances rapidly to perfection; but in an extended plantation, a regular and not inexpensive system of culture must be followed to ensure success.

The nuts being selected, when perfectly ripe, from middle-aged trees of the best sorts, are to be laid on the ground under shades, and after the roots and middle shoots, with two branches, have appeared, the sooner they are planted the better. Out of 100 nuts, only two-thirds, on an average, will be found to vegetate. The plants are then to be set out at intervals of thirty or forty feet--the latter if ground can be spared--and the depth will be regulated by the nature of the soil, and the nut must not be covered with earth. The plants require, in exposed situations, to be shaded for one and even two years, and no lalang grass must be permitted to encroach on their roots. A nursery must be always held in readiness to supply the numerous vacancies which will occur from deaths and accidents. The following may be considered the average cost of a plantation, until it comes into bearing:--

FIRST COST--100 ORLONGS OF LAND. Spanish dollars. Purchase money of land, ready for planting 1,000 7,000 nuts at 1½ dollars, per 100 105 Houses of coolies, carts, buffaloes, &c., &c. 100 ----- Spanish dollars 1,205

YEARLY COST OF SEVEN YEARS.

First year, 10 laborers at 3 dollars per month, including carts, &c. 360 Wear and tear of buildings, carts, and implements 50 Overseer, at 7 dollars per month 84 Quit rent, average 50 Nursery and contingencies 50 ----- Total per annum 594 Seven years at the rate will be 4,158 ----- Total, Spanish dollars 4,752

To this sum interest will have to be added, making, perhaps, a sum total of 6,000 Spanish dollars, and this estimate will make each tree, up to its coming into bearing, cost one Spanish dollar at the lowest. The young tree requires manure, such as putrid fish and stimulating compounds, containing a portion of salt. On the Coromandel coast, the natives put a handful of salt below each nut on planting it.

The cultivators of Kiddah adopt a very slovenly expedient for collecting the fruit. Instead of climbing the tree in the manner practised by the natives on the Coromandel coast, by help of a hoop passing round the tree and the body of the climber--and a ligature so connecting the feet as will enable him to clasp the tree with them--the Malays cut deep notches or steps in the trunk, in a zig-zag manner, sufficient to support the toes or the side of the foot, and thus ascend with the extra, aid only of their arms. This mode is also a dangerous one, as a false step, when near the top of a high tree, generally precipitates the climber to the ground. This notching cannot prove otherwise than injurious to the tree. But the besetting sin of the planter of coco-nuts, and other productive trees, is that of crowding. Coco-nut trees, whose roots occupy, when full grown, circles of forty to fifty feet in diameter, may often be found planted within eight or ten feet of each other; and in the native campongs all sorts of indigenous fruit trees are jumbled together, with so little space to spread in, that they mostly assume the aspect of forest trees, and yield but sparing crops.

The common kinds of the coco-nut, under very favorable circumstances, begin to bear at six years of age; but little produce can be expected until the middle or end of the seventh year. The yearly produce, one tree with another, may be averaged at 80 nuts the tree; where the plantation is a flourishing one--assuming the number of trees, in one hundred orlongs, to be 5,000--the annual produce will be 400,000 nuts, the minimum local market value of which will be 4,000 Spanish dollars, and the maximum 8,000 dollars. From either of these sums 6 per cent. must be deducted for the cost of collecting, and carriage, &c. The quantity of oil which can be manufactured from the above number of nuts will be, as nearly as possible, 834 piculs of 133-1/3 lbs.

The average price of this quantity, at 7 dollars per picul 5,838 Deduct cost of manufacturing, averaged at one-fourth, and collecting, watching, &c 2,059 ----- Profit, Spanish dollars 3,779

The Chinese, who are the principal manufacturers of the oil, readily give a picul of it in exchange for 710 ripe nuts, being about 563 piculs of oil out of the total produce of the plantation of 100 orlongs. The price of coco-nut oil has been so high in the London market as £35 per tun, or about an average of ten dollars per picul. It is said that English casks have not been found tight enough for the conveyance of this oil to Europe, but if the article is really in great demand, a method will no doubt be discovered to obviate this inconvenience.

So long, however, as the cultivator can obtain a dollar and a half, or even one dollar for 100 nuts, he will not find it profitable to make oil, unless its price greatly rises.

Soap is manufactured at Pondicherry from this oil, but it is not seemingly in repute; the attempt has not been made in Pinang with a view to a market.

There is scarcely any coir rope manufactured at this island, so that the profit which might (were labor cheaper) arise from this application of the coco-nut fibre, is lost. The shell makes good charcoal; the leaves are scarcely put to any purpose, the nipah or attap being a superior material for thatching.

The coco-nut tree is extremely apt to be struck by lightning, and in such cases it is generally destroyed. It is a dangerous tree, therefore, to have close to a house. If the trees are widely planted, coffee may be cultivated under their shade. It is generally believed that the extracting of toddy from this tree hastens its decline. The Nicobar and Lancavi Islands used partly to supply the Pinang market with this indispensable article; but their depopulation has greatly reduced the quantity.

On the whole it may be said that there is no cultivation which insures the return of produce with so much certainty as that of the coco-nut tree; and as Rangoon, the Tenasserim coast, and Singapore will, probably, always remain good markets for the raw nut, there appears to be every chance of the value of the produce affording ample remuneration to the planter.

_Coco-nut beetle._--The chief natural enemy of this tree is a destructive species of elephant-beetle (_Oryctes Rhinoceros_), which begins by nibbling the leaves into the shape of a fan; it then perforates the central pithy fibre, so that the leaf snaps off; and lastly, it descends into the folds of the upper shoot, where it bores itself a nest, and if not speedily extracted or killed, will soon destroy the tree. At Singapore, on account of the depredations of this beetle, the difficulties have been considerable.

In Pinang and Province Wellesley it has only been observed within the last two years, and it is believed to have come from Keddah. A similar kind of beetle is, however, found on the Coromandel coast. The natives of Keddah say that this insect appears at intervals of two, three, or more years.

Its larvæ, which are also very formidable insects or grubs, about three inches long, with large reddish heads, are found in decaying vegetable matter. It is when the tree has made considerable progress, however, that the parent insect does most mischief. When they are from one to two years old, throwing out their graceful branches in quick succession with the greatest vigor, and promising in three or four years more to yield their ruddy fruit, this destructive enemy begins to exercise his boring propensities; and, making his horn act as an auger, he soon penetrates the soft and yielding fibre of the young tree, and if not discovered in time, destroys the leading shoot or branch. The only remedy which has been adopted in Ceylon, is the following:--Several intelligent boys are provided each with an iron needle or probe, of about a foot long, with a sharp double barbed point, like a fish-hook, and a ring handle; they go through the plantation looking narrowly about the trees, and when they perceive the hole in the trunk, which indicates that the enemy is at work, they thrust in the barbed instrument and pull him out. Sometimes he may only have just commenced, when his capture is more easily effected, but even should he have penetrated to the very heart of the tree, the deadly needle does not fail in its errand, but brings the culprit out, impaled and writhing on its point. This is the only known way of checking the ravages of this beetle, except destroying its larvæ. Some cultivators, however, think pouring salt water or brine on the top of the tree, so as to descend among the folds of the upper shoots, a good plan to get rid of the larvæ.

Nearly two million coco-nuts are shipped annually from Bahia.

From Ceylon, 114,600 coco-nuts were shipped in 1851, and 70,185 in 1852.

Coco-nut oil; 98,159 gallons were shipped from Ceylon in 1852; 359,233 gallons in 1851.

The prices of Ceylon oil have ranged from £31 to £33 10s. per tun; of Cochin oil, £34 to £35, within the last two years. The price per leaguer in Colombo, without casks, has been £8 10s. to £9.

_Copperah_ is the name, given by the natives to the kernel of the ripe nut after it has been exposed to the sun on mats, until it has become rancid and dissolved. It has recently been shipped to England in this state for the purpose of converting into oil. The exports of copperah from Ceylon were, in 1842, 115 cwts.; in 1843, 2,194; in 1844, 2,397; and in 1852, 39,174 cwts.

The returned value of the copperah or kernels exported from Ceylon, as entered in the Custom House books, is--

1840 2,508 1841 1,460 1842 3,022 1843 5,795 1844 6,194 1845 3,282 1846 5,517 1847 6,503 1848 12,639 1849 7,819 1850 4,166 1851 9,678 1852 13,325

632 cwts. of poonac (being the refuse or cake, after expressing the oil) were exported from Ceylon in 1842. It is worth there about £10 the ton.

The oil from the nut is obtained for culinary purposes by boiling the fresh pulp, and skimming it as it rises. That for exportation is usually obtained by pressing the copperah in a simple press turned by bullocks. Recently, however, steam power has been applied in Colombo, with great advantage. About 2½ gallons of oil per 100 nuts, are usually obtained. It is requisite that care should be taken not to apply too great and sudden a pressure at once, but by degrees an increasing force, so as not to choke the conducting channels of the oil in the press.

In many of the colonies the oil is expressed by the slow and laborious hand process of grating the pulp.

The quantity shipped from Ceylon was 2,250 tuns, in 1842; 3,985 in 1843; 2,331 in 1844; 1,797 in 1845. The quantity in gallons shipped since, was 101,553 in 1846; 197,850 in 1847; 300,146 in 1848; 867,326 in 1849; 407,960 in 1850; 442,700 in 1851; and 749,028 in 1852.

The duty on importation is of and from British possessions, 7d. and 7/8ths. per cwt.; if the produce of foreign possessions, 1s. 3¾ d, per cwt. In the close of 1852, the price of coco-nut oil in the London market was, for Ceylon, £32, £33, to £33 10s. per ton; Cochin, middling to fine, £34 to £35.

The following return shows the Custom House valuation of the oil shipped from Ceylon for a series of years, and which is of course much below its real value:--

1839 £26,597 1840 32,483 1841 24,052 1842 34,242 1843 43,874 1844 24,067 1845 15,945 1846 7,939 1847 19,142 1848 24,839 1849 34,831 1850 35,035 1851 31,444 1852 58,045

Among the coco-nut oil exported from Ceylon, in 1849, there were 47,427½ gallons, valued at £3,595, the whole of which, I believe, was Cochin oil; the raw material of this kind not being, like the copperah generally in Ceylon, subjected to the action of fire, the product is finer, and fetches a better price in the London market.

Amongst the imports from British possessions in Asia, were 2,600 cwts., of copperah (dried coco-nut kernels, from which oil is expressed), valued at £1,100; amongst the imports re-exported to Great Britain, we find 870 cwts. of the same article, valued at £300. Of the oil exported a quantity of 11,000 gallons was shipped for the United States. About 600,000 piculs of coco-nut oil are annually exported from Siam.

A large quantity of oil is made in Trinidad, chiefly on the east coast, where, in one locality, there is an uninterrupted belt of coco-nut palms fourteen miles in extent. They usually bear when five years old.

The cultivation of the coco-nut in a proper soil presents a very profitable speculation for small capitalists. Whether sold at the rate of a dollar per hundred in their natural state, to captains of ships, who freely purchase them, or manufactured into oil, they are a very remunerative product. Each tree in the West Indies is calculated to produce nuts to the value of one dollar yearly. There is one thing to which we would draw the attention of chemists and other scientific men.

For twenty-four or even forty-eight hours after its manufacture this oil is as free from any unpleasant taste as olive oil, and can be used in lieu of it for all culinary purposes, but after that time it acquires such a rancid taste as to be wholly unpalateable. If any means could be discovered of preventing this deterioration in quality, and preserving it fresh and sweet, it could compete with olive oil, and the price and consumption would be largely raised.

COCO-NUT OIL IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM.

Imports. Retained for home consumption. cwts. cwts. 1835 19,838 14,015 1836 26,058 26,062 1837 41,218 28,641 1838 -- 38,669 1839 -- 15,153 1840 -- 37,269 1841 -- 26,528 1842 -- 26,225 1843 -- 29,928 1844 -- 42,480 1848 85,453 54,783 1849 64,451 14,622 1850 98,040 46,494 1851 55,995 2,333 1852 101,863 27,112

A London coco-nut oil soap was found, on analysis by Dr. Ure, to consist of:--

Soda 4.5 Coco-nut lard 22.0 Water 73.5 ----- 100.0

This remarkable soap was sufficiently solid; but it dissolved in hot water with extreme facility. It is called marine soap, because it washes linen with sea water.

Of the six principal vegetable oils, namely--palm, coco-nut castor, olive, linseed, and rape, the first four are imported in the state of oil only; the two last chiefly as seed. The proportion in which they were imported is shown in the following tables; and if to these quantities are added about a million and a half cwt. of tallow, and nearly twenty thousand tuns of whale oil and spermaceti, they will nearly represent the total quantity of oil imported into Great Britain.

IMPORTS IN 1846. Palm oil. Olive oil. Castor oil. cwts. tuns. cwts. Western Africa 475,364 1 -- United States 13,349 -- 290 Naples and Sicily 14 9,661 -- East Indies -- -- 6,315 Canary Islands 3,719 -- -- Malta -- 2,237 -- Turkish Empire -- 1,712 -- Tuscany -- 832 -- Spain -- 753 -- Brazil 525 -- -- Ionian Islands -- 506 -- Morocco -- 368 -- Madeira 353 -- -- Sardinia -- 333 11 Miscellaneous 7 471 65 ------- ------- ------- Total 493,331 16,864 9,681

IMPORTS IN 1850 Linseed. Rape seed. quarters. quarters. Russia 482,813 3,235 Sweden 870 -- Norway 268 -- Denmark 37 3,092 Russia 87,273 645 Hanse Towns 1,153 2,872 Holland 7,734 201 Naples 1,476 -- Austrian Territories 40 2,580 Greece -- 1,637 Wallachia and Moldavia 910 1,280 Egypt 17,517 -- East Indian Empire 26,142 13,126 Miscellaneous 262 922 -------- ------ Total 626,495 29,495

OIL-CAKE.--It has been observed by Evelyn that one bushel of walnuts will yield fifteen pounds of peeled kernels, and these will produce half that weight of oil, which the sooner it is drawn is the more in quantity, though the drier the nut the better its quality. The cake or marc of the pressing is excellent for fattening hogs and for manure.

Oats contain, as a maximum, about seven per cent. of oil, and Indian corn nine per cent. The cake of the gold of pleasure contains twelve per cent. Indeed the most valuable oil-cakes are those of the _Camelina sativa_, poppies and walnuts, which are nearly equal; next to these are the cakes of hemp, cotton, and beech-mast. In France the extraction and purification of oil from the cotton seed is a recent branch of labor, the refuse of which is likely to prove useful in agriculture; its value as a manure being nearly ten times greater than that of common dung. Oil is obtained from maize or Indian corn in the process of making whiskey. It rises in the mash tubs and is found in the scum at the surface, being separated either by the fermentation or the action of heat. It is then skimmed off, and put away in a cask to deposit its impurities; after which it is drawn off in a pure state, fit for immediate use. The oil is limpid, has a slight tinge of the yellow color of the corn, and is inoffensive to the taste and smell. It is not a drying oil, and therefore cannot be used for paint, but burns freely in lamps and is useful for oiling machinery.

Among the various seeds used in the manufacture of oil-cake, flour of linseed is the most important. Rape seed is also employed, but is considered heating. In Lubeck, a marc, called dodder cake, is made from the _Camelina sativa_. Inferior oil-cake is made from the poppy in India. Cotton-seed cake has lately been recommended on account of its cheapness, being usually thrown away as refuse by the cotton manufacturers. It is extensively used as a cattle food, in an unprepared state, in various parts of the tropical world, and to a limited extent in this country.

The cost of seed, freight included, was 2d. per lb. from Charlestown to Port Glasgow. Cotton oil-cake is now ordered at the same price as linseed cake. The produce of oil-cake and oil from cotton seed, is two gallons of oil to one cwt. of seed, leaving about 96 lbs of cake; 8 lbs. is the daily allowance for cattle in England.

Cotton seed oil, very pure, is manufactured to a considerable extent at Marseilles, by De Gimezney, from Egyptian seed; and he received a prize medal at the Great Exhibition.

Account of the export of linseed and rapeseed cakes from Stettin, principally to England, in--

cwts. 1834 33,518 1835 27,038 1836 56,581 1837 70,643 1838 119,540 1839 115,416 1840 162,457 1841 143,816 1842 119,814

The quantity of oil-seed cakes imported into the United Kingdom was in--

tons. 1849 59,462 1850 65,055 1851 55,076 1852 53,616

Cargoes of oil-cake, to the value of £22,207, were exported from the port of Shanghae, in China, in 1849.

2,467 tons of oil-cake were brought down to New Orleans from the interior in 1848, and 1,032 tons in 1849.

Seven samples of American oil-cake gave the following results:--

Oil 11.41 Water 7.60 Nitrogen 4.74 Ash 6.35

From the above figures, the scientific farmer will see that the manure formed by 100 lbs. of oil-cake is more than that derived from 300 lbs. of Indian corn. 300 lbs. of corn contain about l¼ lbs. phosphoric acid; 100 lbs. oil-cake contain about 2½ lbs.

VOLATILE OR ESSENTIAL OILS occur in the stems, leaves, flowers and fruit of many odoriferous plants, and are procured by distillation along with water. They are called "essences," and contain the concentrated odor of the plant. They usually exist ready-formed, but occasionally they are obtained by a kind of fermentation, as oil of bitter almonds and oil of mustard. Some of them consist of carbon and hydrogen only, as oil of turpentine, from _Juniperus communis;_ oil of savin, from _Juniperus Sabina;_ oil of lemons and oranges, from the rind of the fruit; and oil of nerole, from orange flowers. A second set contain oxygen in addition, as oil of cinnamon, from _Cinnamonum verum;_ otto or attar of roses, from various species of rose, especially _Rosa centifolia;_ oil of cloves, from _Caryophyllus aromaticus_.

Those principally obtained from tropical shrubs and plants are citronella, oil of oranges and lemons, from the rind of the fruit oil of cinnamon and cloves, croton oil, &c.

The oil of Sandal or Sanders wood _(Santalum album_), grown on the Malabar coast, is much esteemed as a perfume. Keora oil, from _Pandanus odoratissimus_, in Bengal. Oil of spikenard, so highly prized, on account of its perfume, by the ancients, may be procured in Sagur, Nepaul, and the mountains of the Himalaya.

956 lbs. of essential oils were imported into Hull in 1850. There were exported from Ceylon in 1842, 902 cases; in 1843, 138; in 1844, 20; in 1845, 25 cases of essential oils, and in the last two years as follows:--

1852. 1851. cases. cases. Cinnamon oil 17 23 Citronella oil 110 87 Essential oil 72 35

Of chemical, essential, and perfumed oils imported from France, the quantity is about 35,000 lbs. annually, worth £10,000. The duty is 1s. per lb. We also imported from France, in 1851, 9,596 cwt. of oil or spirit of turpentine, worth £14,197, on which a duty of 5s. 3d. per cwt. is levied.

From Western Australia some distilled oil of the Liptospermum was shown at the Exhibition, which it is stated may be obtained in any quantity, and a similar oil produced, by distillation, from the _Eucalyptus piperita_, a powerful solvent of caoutchouc, evidently very similar, if not altogether identical, with the oil of cajeput. The characters of these two oils are much alike and without some care it is difficult to distinguish them from one another by the odor; the liptospermum oil has a slight tinge of yellow, its specific gravity is 0.9035; the eucalyptus oil is colorless, and has a density of 0.9145. It is probable that these oils might be used with great advantage in the manufacture of varnish, they readily dissolve copal, and when its solution is spread over any surface the oil soon evaporates, and leaves a hard, brilliant and uniform coating of the resin. These oils, according to Prof. Solly, are specially worthy of attention.

Dr. Bennett, in his "Wanderings in New South Wales," states that a large quantity of camphorated oil, which closely resembles the cajeputi, is produced from the foliage of several species of _Eucalyptus_. Some of the leaves, which are of a bluish green, contain it in such abundance as to cover the hand with oil when one of the leaves is gently rubbed against it.

From the odorous leaves of the _Arbor alba_ is extracted a portion of the aromatic cajeput oil. This celebrated medicinal oil is principally made in the island of Borneo, one of the Moluccas.

The leaf of the _Melaleuca minor_ yields, by distillation, the volatile oil of cajeputi, well known as a powerful sudorific, and a useful external application in chronic rheumatism. It is an evergreen shrub, with white flowers like a myrtle, native of the East Indies, principally flourishing on the sea coasts of the Moluccas and other Indian islands. Two sacks full of the leaves yield scarcely three drachms of the oil, which is limpid, pellucid, and of a green color.

Oil of cinnamon and oil of cassia, according to Mulder, have the same composition. When fresh they are pale yellow, but become brown on exposure to the air. On exposure they rapidly absorb cinnamic acid, two resins and water.

More than 22,000 lbs. of essence of bergamot was imported in 1848. It is obtained by distillation or pressure from the rind of the fragrant citron.

_Andropogon calamus aromaticus_, of Royle, _A. nardoides_, of Nees v. Esenb., according to some yields the grass oil of Namur.

The fruits of _Carum carui_, a hardy biennial British plant, popularly known as caraway seeds, supply a volatile oil, which is carminitive and aromatic. Oils of a similar kind are obtained from _Coriandrum sativum_, from anise (_Pimpinella Anisum_), and cumin (_Cuminum Cyminum_), a native of Egypt.

The production of cinnamon, clove, and cassia oils, have already been noticed in speaking of those spices.

In Malabar, a greenish sweet-smelling oil is obtained, by distillation, from the roots of _Unona Narum_, an evergreen climber, which is used medicinally as a Stimulant.

OIL OF PEPPERMINT.--Mr. De Witt C. Van Slyck, of Alloway, Wayne county, New York, furnished me with the following particulars on the cultivation of peppermint, in December, 1849, which may appropriately be introduced in this place:--

"As an agricultural production, the culture of peppermint in the United States is limited to few localities; this county and the adjoining ones, Seneca and Ontario, comprise the largest bed. In the year 1846 about 40,000 lbs. of oil were produced. In Lewis county, in this state, it is grown, though to a less extent; the amount of oil produced there in 1846 was estimated at 4,500 lbs. In Michigan about 10,000 lbs. are annually produced; Ohio furnishes about 3,000 lbs. and Indiana 700 lbs. per annum. The entire crop in the United States, in the year 1846, is estimated in round numbers at 58,000 lbs.

The above comprises all the localities of any importance in the United States, and the above estimates of the annual product of oil were made from correct data for the year 1846, since which time the cultivation of mint has rapidly decreased in consequence of a speculative movement by a New York company, who in the spring of 1847 purchased nearly all the mint then growing in this State, and stipulated with the growers not to raise it for two years thereafter, which condition was generally observed on the part of the growers. The present year (1849), on account of the drought, has not realised the expectations of those engaged in its culture, although the amount of oil produced is much larger than the product of the two preceding years. In this mint district, 8,000 lbs. have been raised; Lewis county furnishes 1,000 lbs.; Michigan, 8.000 lbs.; Ohio, 1,000 lbs., and Indiana 500 lbs. So that the entire crop of 1849 will not materially vary from 18,500 lbs.

I have consulted several of the principal dealers in mint oil, whose opportunities have been ample to form a tolerably correct estimate of the amount of oil annually consumed, and their opinion fixes the total consumption, for the various purposes for which it is used in the United States and in Europe, at from 20,000 to 30,000 lbs. annually.

The price of mint oil is extremely fluctuating. Like other unstaple commodities, the value of which depends upon their scarcity or abundance, it never has assumed a constant and standing value, but its price has generally been deranged by speculation and monopoly. It has happened that the amount of oil produced was for several years greater than the annual consumption, producing an accumulation in the market, and reducing the price to the very low rate of 75 cents per pound; on the other hand, when the article was scarce, it readily sold for 5 dollars 25 cents per pound. The average price for fifteen vears has been about 2 dollars 50 cents, per pound. This year (1849) it readily sells for 1 dollar 50 cents., (6s. 6d.).

Peppermint began to be cultivated in this vicinity as an agricultural product about the year 1816, but for several years the want of a proper knowledge of its culture, and the expense and difficulty of extracting the oil, prevented its extension beyond a few growers, who, however, realised fortunes out of the enterprise. Almost any kind of soil that will successfully rear wheat and maize is adapted to the growth of mint. Rich alluvions, however, seem to be most natural, as would be inferred from the fact that the wild herb is almost uniformly found growing upon the tertiary formations on the margins of streams. The rich bottom lands along our rivers and the boundless prairies of the West are eminently adapted for its successful culture. It is believed by those best acquainted with the subject, that its cultivation must be ultimately confined to the western prairies, where it will grow spontaneously, and where the absence of noxious weeds and grasses, incident to all older settled lands, renders the expense of cultivation comparatively light, and where the low price of land will be an important item in the amount of capital employed, the expense of marketing being slight in comparison to that of the more bulky products of agricultural industry.

The method of cultivation is nearly uniform. The mode of propagation is by transplanting the roots, which may be done in autumn or spring, though generally the latter, and as the herb is perennial, it does not require replanting till the fourth year. To ensure a good crop and obviate the necessity of extra attendance the first season, the ground intended for planting should be fallowed the preceding summer, though this is not necessary if the land is ordinarily clean. The ground should be prepared as for maize, as soon as possible in the spring furrowed, and roots planted in drills twenty inches apart, and covered with loose earth, two inches deep, the planter walking upon the drill and treading it firmly. The proper time to procure roots is when the herb is a year old, when from six to eight square rods of ordinary mint will yield a sufficient quantity of roots to plant an acre, and the crop from which the roots are taken will not be deteriorated, but rather benefited by their extraction. As soon as the herb makes its appearance it requires a light dressing with a hoe, care being taken not to disturb the young shoots, many of which have scarcely made their appearance above the ground. In the course of a week or two the crop requires a more thorough dressing, and at this stage of growth the cultivator may be used with advantage, followed by the hoe, carefully eradicating weeds and grass from the drills, and giving the herb a light dressing of earth. Another dressing a week or two later is all the crop requires.

The two following years no labor is bestowed upon the crop, though it is sometimes benefited by ploughing over the whole surface, very shallow, in the autumn of the second year, and harrowing lightly the following spring, which frequently renews the vigor of the plant and increases the product.

The mint should be cut as soon as it is in full bloom, and the lower leaves become sere; the first crop will not be fit to cut as early as the two succeeding ones. It is then to be hayed and put in cock, and is then ready for distillation.

I have consulted many mint growers, who have cultivated it for a series of years, in regard to the average yield per acre, and have arrived at the following estimate, which I think is low, provided the land is suitable, and is properly cultivated. I estimate the average yield per acre for the first year at 18 lbs.; the second year at 14 lbs.; and the third year at 8 lbs.--making the product for three years 40 lbs., which I think will not materially vary from the actual result, though growers aver they have raised from 30 to 40 lbs. per acre the first season.

Several years since, the only method of extracting the oil then known was by distilling the herb in a copper kettle, or boiler, and condensing in the usual manner; a slow and tedious process, by which about 12 or 15 pounds of oil could be separated in a day. But recently steam, that powerful agent, which has wrought such immense changes in our social and national economy, has been applied to this subject with its usual attendant success. The present method consists in the use of a common steam-boiler, of the capacity of from 100 to 150 gallons, from which the steam is conveyed by conductors into large wooden air-tight tubs, of 200 gallons capacity, containing the dried herb; from which it is conveyed, charged with the volatile principle of the plant, into a water-vat, containing the condenser. The water collected at the extremity of the condenser, although it does not readily commingle with the oil, is highly tinctured with it, and is used to feed the boiler. Two tubs are necessary, in order that when the "charge" is being worked off in one, the other can be refilled. The oil is then to be filtered, and is ready for market. The expense of a distillery is estimated at 150 dollars, which, with the labor of two men, and a cord of dry wood, will run 40 lbs. of oil per day. The usual price for distilling is 25 cents per pound.

The cost of production is of course greatly modified by circumstances. If grown on rich bottom lands, or prairie, unusually free from weeds and grass, the labor required will be comparatively trifling. From information derived from the principal mint growers in this vicinity, I have prepared the following estimate of the cost of production of an acre of mint for three years:--

FIRST YEAR. Dollars. Rent of an acre of land one year 8.00 One day plough and drag, one hand and team 2.00 Half day furrowing, digging roots, one hand and horse 1.00 Three days planting, at 75 cents 2.25 Two days dressing with hoe, at 75 cents 1.50 Two days with cultivator and hoe, 1.00 2.00 Two days with cultivator and hoe (third dressing) 1.50 One and a-half days cutting new mint, at 75 cents 1.13 Curing and drawing to distillery 1.50 Distilling 18 lbs. oil, at 25 cents 4.50 Can for oil 25 ----- 25.63

SECOND YEAR. Rent of an acre of land one year 8.00 Cutting one acre of old mint 75 Curing and hauling to distillery 1.50 Distilling 14 lbs. oil, at 25 cents 3.50 Can for oil 25 ----- 14.00

THIRD YEAR. Rent of an acre of land one year 8.00 Cutting, curing, &c. 2.25 Distilling 8 lbs. of oil, at 25 cents, and can 2.25 ----- 12.50 ----- Total expenses for three years 52.13

Forty pounds of oil, at dollars 1.37½ per pound 55.00 Deduct expenses 52.13 ----- Net profit 2.87

In the above estimate I have omitted the expense of roots, for the reason that the crop will yield as many as are required for planting. The price of roots is about 50 cents per square rod, and if they are in demand, the profit of the crop will be greatly enhanced by selling them at that, or even a lower price.

It will be readily perceived that the culture of peppermint promises no great return of profit in sections of country where land is valuable, and where the expense of production is nearly double what it is in newly-settled districts. It is a fact that in Michigan, and other Western States, the actual expense of production is about one-half less than the above estimate, and the yield is a fourth greater; the greater distance from market, which is usually New York city, not being taken into account, the freight on oil being comparatively trifling. Another consideration in favor of prairie cultivation is, that the mint will endure for years by simply ploughing over the surface every second year, which seems to invigorate the herb, and obviates the necessity of replanting every second or third year, as must be done in older settled localities."

In India the perfumed oils are obtained in the following manner:--The layers of the jasmine, or other flowers, four inches thick and two inches square, are laid on the ground and covered with layers of sesamum or any other oil yielding seed. These are laid about the same thickness as the flowers, over which a second layer of flowers like the fruit is placed. The seed is wetted with water, and the whole mass covered with a sheet, held down at the end and sides by weights, and allowed to remain for eighteen hours in this form. It is now fit for the mill, unless the perfume is desired to be very strong, when the faded flowers are removed and fresh ones put in their place. The seed thus impregnated is ground in the usual way in the mill and the oil expressed, having the scent of the flower. At Ghazipoor the jasmine and bela are chiefly employed; the oil is kept in the dubbers, and sold for about 4s. a seer.

The newest oils afford the finest perfume. In Europe a fixed oil, usually that of the bean or morerja nut, is employed. Cotton is soaked in this, and laid over layers of flowers, the oil being squeezed out so soon as impregnated with perfume. Dr. Johnson thus describes the culture and manufacture:--

_Cultivation of Roses_.--Around the station of Ghazipoor, there are about 300 biggahs (or about 150 acres) of ground laid out in small detached fields as rose gardens, most carefully protected on all sides by high mud walls and prickly pear fences, to keep out the cattle. These lands, which belong to Zemindars, are planted with rose trees, and are annually let out at so much per biggah for the ground, and so much additional for the rose plants--generally five rupees per biggah, and twenty-five rupees for the rose trees, of which there are 1,000 in each biggah. The additional expense for cultivation would be about eight rupees eight annas; so that for thirty-eight rupees eight annas you have for the season one biggah of 1,000 rose trees.

If the season is good, this biggah of 1,000 rose trees should yield one lac of roses. Purchases for roses are always made at so much per lac. The price of course varies according to the year, and will average from 40 to 70 rupees.

_Manufacture of Rose-water_.--The rose trees come into flower at the beginning of March, and continue so through April. Early in the morning the flowers are plucked by numbers of men, women, and children, and are conveyed in large bags to the several contracting

## parties for distillation. The cultivators themselves very rarely

manufacture.

The native apparatus for distilling the rose-water is of the simplest construction; it consists of a large copper or iron boiler well tinned, capable of holding from eight to twelve gallons, having a large body with a rather narrow neck, and a mouth about eight inches in diameter; on the top of this is fixed an old dekchee, or cooking vessel, with a hole in the centre to receive the tube or worm.

This tube is composed of two pieces of bamboo, fastened at an acute angle, and it is covered the whole length with a strong binding of corded string, over which is a luting of earth to prevent the vapour from escaping. The small end, about two feet long, is fixed into the hole in the centre of the head, where it is well luted with flower and water. The lower arm or end of the tube is carried down into a long-necked vessel or receiver, called a bhulka. This is placed in a handee of water, which, as it gets hot, is changed. The head of the still is luted on to the body, and the long arm of the tube in the bhulka is also well provided with a cushion of cloth, so as to keep in all vapour. The boiler is let into an earthen furnace, and the whole is ready for operation. There is such a variety of rose-water manufactured in the bazar, and so much that bears the name, which is nothing more than a mixture of sandal oil, that it is impossible to lay down the plan which is adopted. The best rose-water, however, in the bazar, may be computed as bearing the proportion of one thousand roses to a seer of water; this, perhaps, may be considered as the best procurable.

From one thousand roses most generally a seer and a half of rose-water is distilled, and perhaps from this even the attar has been removed. The boiler of the still will hold from eight to twelve or sixteen thousand roses. On eight thousand roses from ten to eleven seers of water will be placed, and eight seers of rose-water will be distilled. This after distillation is placed in a carboy of glass, and is exposed to the sun for several days to become pucka (ripe); it is then stopped with cotton, and has a covering of moist clay put over it; this becoming hard, effectually prevents the scent from escaping. The price of this will be from twelve to sixteen rupees. This is the best that can be procured.

_Attar of Roses_.--To procure the attar, the roses are put into the still, and the water passes over gradually, as in the case of the rose-water process; after the whole has come over, the rose-water is placed in a large metal basin, which is covered with wetted muslin, tied over to prevent insects or dust getting into it; this vessel is let into the ground about two feet, which has been previously wetted with water, and it is allowed to remain quiet during the whole night. The attar is always made at the beginning of the season, when the nights are cool; in the morning the little film of attar which is formed upon the surface of the rose-water during the night is removed by means of a feather, and it is then carefully placed in a small phial; and, day after day, as the collection is made, it is placed for a short period in the sun, and after a sufficient quantity has been procured, it is poured off clear, and of the color of amber, into small phials. Pure attar, when it has been removed only three or four days, has a pale greenish hue; by keeping it loses this, and in a few weeks' time it becomes of a pale yellow. The first few days distillation does not produce such fine attar as comes off afterwards, in consequence of the dust or little particles of dirt in the still and the tube being mixed with it. This is readily separated, from its sinking to the bottom of the attar, which melts at a temperature of 84 degrees. From one lac of roses it is generally calculated that 180 grains, or one tolah, of attar can be procured; more than this can be obtained if the roses are full-sized, and the nights cold to allow of the congelation. The attar purchased in the bazar is generally adulterated, mixed with sandal oil, or sweet oil; not even the richest native will give the price at which the purest attar alone can be obtained, and the purest attar that is made is sold only to Europeans. During the past year it has been selling from 80 to 90 rupees the tolah; the year before it might have been purchased for 50 rupees.

_General Remarks_.--Native stills are let out at so much per day or week, and it frequently occurs that the residents prepare some rose-water for their own use as a present to their friends, to secure their being provided with that which is the best. The natives never remove the calices of the rose-flowers, but place the whole into the still as it comes from the garden.

The best plan appears to be to have these removed, as by this means the rose-water may be preserved a longer time, and is not spoiled by the acid smell occasionally met with in the native rose-water. It is usual to calculate 100 bottles to one lac of roses. The rose-water should always be twice distilled; over ten thousand roses water may be put to allow of sixteen or twenty bottles coming out; the following day these twenty bottles are placed over eight thousand more roses, and about eighteen bottles of rose-water are distilled. This may be considered the best to be met with. The attar is so much lighter than the rose-water, that, previous to use, it is better to expose the rose-water to the sun for a few days, to allow of its being well mixed; and rose-water that has been kept six months is always better than that which has recently been made.

At the commencement of the rose season, people from all parts come to make their purchases, and very large quantities are prepared and sold. There are about thirty-six places in the city of Ghazeepore where rose-water is distilled. These people generally put a large quantity of sandal oil into the receiver, the oil is afterwards carefully removed and sold as sandal attar, and the water put into carboys and disposed of as rose-water. At the time of sale a few drops of sandal oil are placed on the neck of the carboy to give it fresh scent, and to many of the natives it appears perfectly immaterial whether the scent arises solely from the sandal oil or from the roses. Large quantities of sandal oil are every year brought up from the south and expended in this way.

6. The chief use the natives appear to make of the rose water, or the sandal attar as they term it, is at the period of their festivals and weddings. It is then distributed largely to the guests as they arrive, and sprinkled with profusion in the apartments. A large quantity of rose water is sold at Benares, and many of the native Rajahs send over to Ghazipoor for its purchase. Most of the rose water, as soon as distilled, is taken away, and after six months from the termination of the manufacture there are not more than four or five places where it is to be met with.

I should consider that the value of the roses sold for the manufacture of rose water may be estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 rupees a year; and from the usual price asked for the rose water, and for which it is sold, I should consider there is a profit of 40,000 rupees. The natives are very fond of using the rose water as medicine, or as a vehicle for other mixtures, and they consume a good deal of the petals for the conserve of roses, or goolcond as they call it.

The roses of Ghazipoor, on the river Ganges, are cultivated in enormous fields of hundreds of acres. The delightful odor from these fields can be scented at seven miles distance on the river. The valuable article of commerce known as attar of roses is made here in the following manner:--On 40 pounds of roses are poured 60 pounds of water, and they are then distilled over a slow fire, and 30 pounds of rose water obtained. This rose water is then poured over 40 pounds of fresh roses, and from that is distilled at most 20 pounds of rose water; this is then exposed to the cold night air, and in the morning a small quantity of oil is found on the surface. From 80 pounds of roses, about 200,000, at the utmost an ounce and a-half of oil is obtained; and even at Ghazipoor it costs 40 rupees (4_l._) an ounce.

Five guineas have been often paid for one ounce of attar of roses. The most approved mode of ascertaining its quality is to drop it on a piece of paper; its strength is ascertained by the quickness with which it evaporates, and its worth by its leaving no stains on the paper. The best otto is manufactured at Constantinople.

A volatile oil, erroneously called oil of spikenard, is met with in the shops, which is obtained from a plant which has been named by Dr. Royle, the _Andropogon Calamus aromaticus._

The true spikenard of the ancients is supposed to have been obtained from the _Nardostachys Jatamansi_, a plant of the Valerian family. Dr. Stenhouse describes rather minutely ("Journal Pharm. Soc." vol. iv. p. 276) a species of East India grass oil, said to be the produce of _Andropogon Ivaracusa_, which he believes to be what is usually called the oil of Namur. It has a very fragrant aromatic odor, slightly resembling that of otto of roses, but not nearly so rich. Its taste is sharp and agreeable, approaching that of oil of lemons. It has a deep yellow color, and contains a good deal of resinous matter.

LEMON GRASS (_Andropogon schoenanthus_).--This fragrant grass, which is now cultivated very generally throughout the West Indies, in the gardens of the planters, as an elegant and powerful diaphoratic, was doubtless introduced from the East. The active principle of the leaves seems to reside in the essential oil which they contain. Lemon grass oil forms an important article of export from Ceylon, amounting in value to nearly £7,000 annually.

The _Andropogon schoenanthus_, which may be seen covering all the Kandian hills, is the best possible pasture for cattle--at least as long as it is young. This species of grass is very hard, and grows to the height of seven feet, and sometimes higher, and has a strong but extremely pleasant acid taste. It derives its name from having, when crushed, an odor like that of the lemon, so strong, that after a time it becomes quite heavy and sickening, although grateful and refreshing at first. It covers the hills in patches--those, at least, that are not overgrown with jungle and underwood--and it is to be found nowhere but in the Kandian district. Spontaneous ignition frequently takes place, and the appearance of the burning grass is described as most magnificent. A few days after, from the midst of this parched, blackened, and apparently dead ground, lovely young green shoots begin to arise--for the roots of this extraordinary grass have not even been injured, far less destroyed, by the fire; and in a very short time the whole brow of the mountain is again overspread with tufts of beautiful green waving grass.--("Journal of Agriculture.")

Otto of khuskhus or scented grass, from another species, _A. digitalis_, obtained at Ulwar in the States of Rajpootanah, was shown at the Great Exhibition in 1851, and Newar oil (from _A. maritima_) from Agra.

CITRONELLA OIL.--In the Southern province of Ceylon some half dozen estates about Galle are cultivated with citronella grass. The exports of this oil from Ceylon in the last three years have been as follows:--1850, 86,048 oz., valued at £3,344; 1851, 114,959 oz., valued at £3,742; in 1852, 131,780 oz., valued at £2,806.

PATCHOULY.--Under this name are imported into this country the dried foliaceous tops of a strongly odoriferous labiate plant, growing three feet high in India and China, called in Bengalee and Hindu, _pucha pat_. About 46 cases, of from 50 to 110 lbs. each, were imported from China, by the way of New York, in 1844. The price asked was 6s. per pound. Very little is known of the plant yielding it. Mr. George Porter, late of the island of Pinang, stated that it grows wild there and on the opposite shores of the Malay peninsula. Dr. Wallich says, that it obviously belongs to the family Labiatæ. Viney, in the "French Journal of Pharmacy," suggests that it is the _Plectranthus graveolens_ of R. Brown. It forms a shrub of two or three feet in height. It is the _Pogostemon patchouly_. The odor of the dried plant is strong and peculiar, and to some persons not agreeable. The dried tops imported into England are a foot or more in length. In India it is used as an ingredient in tobacco for smoking, and for scenting the hair of women. In Europe it is principally used for perfumery purposes, it being a favorite with the French, who import it largely from Bourbon. The Arabs use and export it more than any other nation. Their annual pilgrimship takes up an immense quantity of the leaf. They use it principally for stuffing mattrasses and pillows, and assert that it is very efficacious in preventing contagion and prolonging life. It requires no sort of preparation, being simply gathered and dried in the sun; too much drying, however, is hurtful, inasmuch as it renders the leaf liable to crumble to dust in packing and stowing on board. The characteristic smell of Chinese or Indian ink is owing to an admixture of this plant in its manufacture. M. de Hugel found the plant growing wild near Canton. By distillation it yields a volatile oil, on which the odor and remarkable properties depend. This oil is in common use in India for imparting the peculiar fragrance of the leaf to clothes among the superior classes of natives. The origin of its use is this:--A few years ago, real Indian shawls bore an extravagant price, and purchasers could always distinguish them by their odor; in fact, they were perfumed with Patchouly; the French manufacturers at length discovered this secret, and used to import the plant to perfume articles of their make, and thus palm off homespun shawls as real India! Some people put the dry leaves in a muslin bag, and thus use it as we do lavender, scenting drawers in which linen is kept; this is the best way to use it, as this odor, like musk, is most agreeable when very dilute.--("Gardeners' Chronicle.")

The root of some parasitical plant, under the name of kritz, is used in Cashmere to wash the celebrated shawls, soap is used only for white shawls.

From the flowers of the Bengal quince (_Ægle marmemolos_) a fragant liquid is distilled in Ceylon known as marmala water, which is much used as a perfume for sprinkling by the natives.

Jasmine oil is distilled from _Jasminum sambac_ and _grandiflora_.

SAPONACEOUS PLANTS.--Many plants furnish abroad useful substitutes for common soap. The aril which surrounds the seed and the roots of _Sapindus Saponaria_, an evergreen tree, I have seen used as soap in South America and the West Indies under the name of soap berries. The seed vessels are very acrid, they lather freely in water and will cleanse more linen than thirty times their weight of soap, but in time they corrode or burn the linen. Humboldt says that proceeding along the river Carenicuar, in the Gulf of Cariaco, he saw the Indian women washing their linen with the fruit of this tree, there called the parapara. Some other species of _Sapindus_ and of _Gypsophila_ have similar properties. The bruised leaves and roots of _Saponaria officinalis_, a British species, form a lather which much resembles that of soap, and is similarly efficacious in removing grease spots. The bark of many species of Quillaia, as _Q. saponaria_, when beaten between stones, makes a lather which can be used as a substitute for soap, in washing woollens and silk clothes, and to clean colors in dyeing, in Chili and Brazil, but it turns linen yellow. The fruit of _Bromelia Pinguin_ is equally useful. A vegetable soap was prepared some years ago in Jamaica from the leaves of the American aloe (_Agave Americana_) which was found as detergent as Castile soap for washing linen, and had the superior quality of mixing and forming a lather with salt water as well as fresh. Dr. Robinson, the naturalist, thus describes the process he adopted in 1767, and for which he was awarded a grant by the House of Assembly:--"The lower leaves of the Curaca or Coratoe (_Agave karatu_) were passed between heavy rollers to express the juice, which, after being strained through a hair cloth, was merely inspissated by the action of the sun, or a slow fire, and cast into balls or casks. The only precaution necessary was to allow no mixture of any unctuous materials, which destroyed the efficacy of the soap. A vegetable soap, which has been found excellent for washing silk, &c, may be thus obtained. To one part of the skin of the Ackee add one and a half part of the _Agave karatu_, macerated in one part of boiling water for twenty-four hours, and with the extract from this decoction mix four per cent. of rosin. In Brazil, soap is made from the ashes of the bassura or broom plant (_Sidu lanceolata_) which abounds with alkali. There are also some soap barks and pods of native plants used in China. Several other plants have been employed in different countries as a substitute for soap. The bark of _Quillaia saponaria_ renders water frothy and is used as a detergent by wool dyers. _Saponaria vaccana_ is common in India. The pericarp of _Sapindus emarginatus_ mixed with water froths like soap. Saponaceous berries are found in Java.

The soap-worts to which the genus Sapindus belongs are tropical plants. The fruit of many species of _Sapindus_ is used as a substitute for soap, as _Sapindus acuminata_, _Laurifolius emarginatus_ and _detergens_, all East Indian plants.

SECTION VI.

PLANTS YIELDING DRUGS, INCLUDING NARCOTICS AND OTHER COMMON MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES.

The chief plants furnishing the drugs of commerce, and which enter largely into tropical agriculture, are the narcotic plants, especially tobacco, the poppy for opium, and the betel nut and leaf; as masticatories--but there are very many others to which the attention of the cultivator may profitably be directed. I have already trenched so largely upon my space, that I cannot do that justice to the plants coming under this section I could have wished. There are very many, however, of which I must make incidental mention. Some few medicinal plants have been already alluded to in former sections, particularly in that on dye-stuffs, &c.

THE COCA PLANT grows about four or five feet high, with pale bright green leaves, somewhat resembling in shape those of the orange tree. The leaves are picked from the trees three or four times a year, and carefully dried in the shade; they are then packed in small baskets. The greatest quantity is grown about 30 leagues from Cicacica, among the Yunnos on the frontiers of the Yunghos. Some is also cultivated near to Huacaibamba.

The natives in several parts of Peru chew these leaves as Europeans do tobacco, particularly in the mining districts, when at work in the mines or travelling; and such is the sustenance that they derive from them, that they frequently take no food for four or five days. I have often (observes Mr. Stevenson) been assured by them, that whilst they have a good supply of coca they feel neither hunger, thirst, nor fatigue, and that without impairing their health they can remain eight to ten days and nights without sleep. The leaves are almost insipid, but when a small quantity of lime is mixed with them, they have a very agreeable sweet taste. The natives generally carry with them a leather pouch containing coca, and a small calabash holding lime or the ashes of the molle to mix with them.

_Cocculus indicus_, or Indian berries.--This is the commercial name for the berries or fruit of the _Menispermum Cocculus_ of Linnæus, _M. heteroclitum_ of Roxburgh, _Animerta paniculata_ of Colebrooke, _A. Cocculus_ of Wright and Arnot, and _Cocculus suberosus_ of Decandolle. It is a strong climbing shrub or tree, native of Malabar, Ceylon, and the Eastern Islands. The seeds or drupes contain a bitter poisonous acid, and are used for the purpose of stupefying fish, and, in the form of a black extract, for fraudulently increasing the intoxicating power of malt liquors; one pound of the berries, it is said, will go as far in brewing as a sack of malt. The berry is kidney-shaped, with a white kernel. Whilst the imports in 1846 were but 246 bags, in 1850 they had increased to 2,359 bags of about 1 cwt. each. The price is 19s. to 24s. the cwt.

A crystalline, poisonous, narcotic principle called picrotoxin, has been detected in these seeds, and occasionally employed externally in some cutaneous diseases. _Cocculus crispus_ is used in intermittent fevers and liver complaints.

The annual imports now average 250 tons, and nearly the whole is consumed for illegal purposes by brewers. Though the practice is nominally discountenanced by the Legislature under the penalty of £200 upon the brewer and £500 upon the seller, yet under the recent tariff great encouragement is given to the introduction of these berries, the duty having been reduced from 7s. 6d. to 5s. the cwt.

The capsules and seeds of _Xanthoxylum hostile_ are also employed for the same purpose as cocculus indicus. The bark of _Walseria piscidia_, a native of the Circar mountains, also intoxicates fish.

About 250 tons of _Nux vomica_, another species of dried flat seed possessing intoxicating properties, are also imported annually for the same purposes, and they fetch about 6s. to 8s. the cwt.

BETEL LEAF.--_Piper Betel_, a scandent species of the shrubby evergreen tribe of plants belonging to the pepper family, furnishes the celebrated betel leaf of the Southern Asiatics, in which they enclose a few slices of the areca nut and a little shell lime; this they chew to sweeten the breath, and to keep off the pangs of hunger, and it acts also as a narcotic.

Such is the immense consumption of this masticatory, termed Pan, in the East, that it forms nearly as extensive an article of commerce as that of tobacco in the West. The tax on the leaf forms a considerable portion of the local revenue of Pinang; in 1805, the tax yielded as much as 5,400 dollars.

Rumphius describes six species of this vine, besides several wild and cultivated varieties. It is very easily reared in the Indian islands, but in the countries of the Deccan requires manuring, frequent watering and great care, and in the northern parts of Hindostan it becomes an exotic very difficult to rear. The vine affords leaves fit for use in the second year, and continues to yield for more than thirty, the quantity diminishing as the plants grow older.

ARECA PALM (_Acacia Catechu_).--This is a fine, slender, graceful tree, rising from 20 to 30 feet high, which, being a native of the East, is found abundant in many of the forests of India, from 16 to 30 degs. of latitude. The principal places of its growth are the Burmese territories, a large province on the Malabar coast called the _Concan_, and the forests skirting the northern parts of Bengal, under the hills which divide it from Nepaul, the south and west coasts of Ceylon, the south of China, &c., the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and the Eastern islands, it produces fruit at five years old, and continues bearing till about its twenty-fifth year, when it withers and dies. It thrives at a greater distance from the sea, and in more elevated regions than the coco-nut palm. In Prince of Wales Island some hundreds of thousands of these palms are cultivated.

The seeds or nuts form a chief ingredient in the celebrated eastern masticatory called Pan and which seems to owe its stimulating properties to the leaves of the _Piper Betel_. When prepared for use, the nut is cut into slices and wrapped in the fresh leaves of the betel pepper vine, together with a quantity of quicklime (_Chunam_) to give it a flavor. The flavor is peculiar, between an herbaceous and an aromatic taste.

All classes, male and female, chew it; they say it sweetens the breath, strengthens the stomach, and preserves the teeth, to which it gives a reddish hue; there is probably less objection to its use than tobacco or opium, and its taste is more pleasant; but, if taken to excess, it will produce stupor like other narcotics, and even intoxication. The nuts grow in large bunches at the top, and when ripe are red and have a beautiful appearance; they resemble the nutmeg in shape and color, but are larger and harder. When gathered they are laid in heaps until the shell be somewhat rotted, and then dried in the sun, after which the process of shelling commences. The trees vary in their yield from 300 to 1,000 nuts, averaging about 14 lbs.; which the cultivators sell at about half a dollar (2s.) a picul of 133 lbs. As these palms are planted usually at the distance of 7½ feet, it follows that the produce of an acre is about 10,841 lbs. The tree bears but once in a year generally, but there are green nuts enough to eat all the year long. Betel nut is a staple article of import into China; 25,000 piculs annually is the amount returned, but there is an immense quantity imported in Chinese junks from Hainan, of which there is no account kept. In the single port of Canton alone, 15,565 piculs were imported in 1844, and about 400 to Ningpo. 3,005 piculs of betel nuts, valued at 8,700 dollars, were imported into Canton in 1850, and as much as 4,000 tons of areca nuts are shipped annually from Ceylon.

The astringent extract obtained from the seeds of the Areca-palm constitutes two (or perhaps more) kinds of the catechu of the shops. According to Dr. Heyne ("Tracts Hist. and Statist. on India"), it is largely procured in Mysore, about Sirah, in the following manner:--

The nuts are taken as they come from the tree and boiled for some hours in an iron vessel. They are then taken out, and the remaining water is inspissated by continual boiling. This process furnishes Kassu, or most astringent terra japonica, which is black and mixed with paddy criu, husks, and other impurities. After the nuts are dried, they are put into a fresh quantity of water, boiled again; and this water being inspissated, like the former, yields the best or dearest kind of catechu, called Coony. It is yellowish brown, has an earthy fracture, and is free from the admixture of foreign bodies.

Most of the betel nuts imported into China come from Java, Singapore, and Pinang. Betel nut is not so generally used in the South of China as among the Southern Islands, and in the north of China it is a luxury, as the pepper does not grow freely there. Formerly there was a considerable trade in betel nuts with the Coromandel coast, from whence the natives brought back manufactured goods and other necessaries in return, but this has ceased for some time. The common price was 20,000 for a dollar. These nuts are seldom imported into England, though they might be of use as a dye in some manufactures.

The natives of the East chew the fruit of _Elate sylvestris_, (which is something like a wild plum), in the same manner as the areca nut, with the leaf of the betel pepper and quick lime.

The inner wood furnishes a kind of _Catechu_ or _Cutch_, which contains much tannin and is a powerful astringent. It is obtained by the simple process of boiling the heart of the wood for a few hours, when it assumes the appearance and consistency of tar. It hardens by cooling, and when formed into small squares and dried in the sun is fit for the market.

The produce of Bombay is of uniform texture and of a dark red color. That of Concan and other parts of India is of chocolate color, and marked inside with red streaks.

The analysis of Sir H. Davy gave the following result:--

Bombay. Concan. Tannin 54.5 48.5 Extractive 34.0 36.5 Mucilage 6.5 8.0 Insoluble matters, sand, lime, &c. 5.0 7.0 ----- ----- 100. 100.

Catechu is in extensive use in India for tanning purposes, and of late years it has entirely superseded madder in the calico works of Europe for dyeing a golden coffee-brown, one pound of catechu being found equivalent to six pounds of madder.

Value of the areca nuts exported from Ceylon to the British Colonies and foreign States in the years named:--

£. 1839 22,956 1840 23,096 1841 22,428 1842 29,222 1843 27,028 1844 20,978 1845 31,836 1846 34,209 1847 35,723 1848 42,482 1849 31,746 1850 42,907 1851 54,846 1852 52,230

THE POPPY.

OPIUM is the concrete inspissated juice of the white poppy, _Papaver somniferum_ and its varieties, obtained by scratching the capsules and collecting the exuding juice. The plant has been long known, and is perhaps one of the earliest described. It is a native of Western Asia and probably also of the South of Europe, but it has been distributed over various countries.

In 1826 the imports of opium into the United Kingdom were 79,829 lbs., of which 28,329 lbs. were consumed in this country. The imports and consumption in subsequent years are shown by the following figures:--

Imports. Consumption. lbs. lbs. 1827 113,140 17,322 1830 209,076 22,668 1833 106,846 35,407 1836 130,794 38,943 1839 196,247 41,682 1842 72,373 47,432 1845 259,644 38,229 1848 200,019 61,055 1819 105,724 44,177 1850 126,318 42,324 1851 118,024 50,682 1852 205,780 62,521

Few who have not looked into the statistics of this trade, are aware of the enormous consumption of opium all over the world, but chiefly in China and India.

In 1845, 18,792 chests of opium were sent from Calcutta to China, and nearly the same number of the Malwa opium from Bombay and Damaun. The total production of India exported to China, in 1844, was 21,526 chests from Bengal, and 18,321 from Bombay, in all 39,847 chests. The number of persons in China given to the consumption of opium was estimated, in 1837, at three millions, and the average quantity smoked by each individual is about 17½ grains a day. The consumption of Indian opium (independent of Turkey opium) in China has gradually increased from 3,210 chests in 1817, to 9,969 chests in 1827, and about 40,000 chests in 1837, valued at 25,000,000 dollars. Now it has reached 50,000 to 60,000 chests. Notwithstanding severe penalties, imprisonment, temporary banishment, and even death, the number of those who smoke opium has multiplied exceedingly, and the contraband trade in the drug is carried on to so large an extent, that it is to be feared the practice will become general throughout the empire.

According to Mr. E. Thornton's statistics, the production of opium in Bengal has increased cent. per cent. in the last ten years:--

Chests. 1840-41 17,858 1841-42 18,827 1842-43 18,362 1843-44 15,104 1844-45 18,350 1845-46 21,437 1846-47 21,648 1847-48 30,515 1848-49 36,000

The chest is about 140 lbs., so that the production in 1849 was 5,040,000 lbs.

According to the statements annexed to the statistical papers relating to India, the income from the opium monopoly is obtained by two principal means, namely, by a system of allowing the cultivation of the poppy by the natives of British India on account of Government, and by the impost of a heavy duty on opium grown and manufactured in foreign states, but brought in transit to a British port for exportation. The former system obtains in Bengal, the latter in Bombay. According to the statements published, Bengal opium yields a profit of 7s. 6d. per lb., whilst the duty derived in the Bombay presidency is only equal to a surplus of 5s. 8d. per lb. By these means the total revenue realised by the opium monopoly, in Bengal and Bombay, in the year 1849-50 yielded £3,309,637.

Lest objection should be taken to this large annual revenue derived from the cultivation of a drug, the unnatural consumption of which would be suppressed under any other European government, the Court of Directors is very anxious to show the benefit which the country derives from this monopoly; they say "that as the price of opium is almost wholly paid by foreign consumers, and the largest return is obtained with the smallest outlay, the best interests of India would, appear to be consulted." Nobody at all acquainted with the financial resources and the capabilities of any country, would hazard such an assertion. By paying cultivators for the restricted growth of the poppy a price hardly yielding more than the average rate of wages to the common laborer, I do not see in what way the best interests of India are consulted, nor is it clear that the population derives any benefit by being prohibited altogether from manufacturing a drug, which may be brought from another country _in transitu_ on the payment of a heavy duty; unless indeed the Court of Directors are of opinion that in the event of the abolition of the monopoly, the people of the country would have to make up for the loss of the revenue by submitting to some other mode of direct or indirect taxation. There is an inconsistency in the statements of the Court of Directors, which is absolutely amusing. "The free cultivation of the poppy," say the Directors, "would doubtless lead to the larger outlay of capital, and to greater economy in production; but the poppy requires the richest description of land, and its extended cultivation must therefore displace other products." How very considerate on the part of the Directors, but how strongly at variance with facts, since all the fear of displacing other products, and all this appropriation of the richest description of land for other purposes has not prevented the Indian Government, within less than ten years, from more than doubling the cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium. The Directors tell us that the heavy transit duty charged at Bombay is to discourage production, but they do not say whether that discouragement applies, as one would imagine, to those foreign districts which have to pay the transit duty for their production. If so, the assertion is again at variance with facts, because in a subsequent statement they say, "It is stated that neither the price of opium, nor the extent of cultivation in Malwa, has been affected by the great enhancement of the pass duty, which has taken place since 1845."

The following will show that the Company loses no opportunity of applying the screw:--

The subjugation of Scinde afforded opportunity for the levy of a higher rate. Down to the period of that event, a large portion of the opium of Malwa had been conveyed through Scinde to Kurrachee, and thence onward to the Portuguese ports of Diu and Demaun. That route is now closed, and it was reasonably expected that an advance might be made in the charge of passes without the risk of loss to the revenue from a diminished demand for them. The rate was accordingly increased in October, 1843, from 125 to 200 rupees per chest. Upon the principle that it was desirable to fix the price at the highest amount that could be levied, without forcing the trade into other channels, a further increase was made in 1845. when it was determined that the charge should be 300 rupees per chest. Under the like views it was, in 1847, raised to 400 rupees per chest.

The company was perfectly correct, for though the quantity of opium did not increase, the revenue did; and whilst in 1840-41 16,773 chests yielded an income of only 22,046,452 rupees--16,500 chests brought in 1849-50 actually 72,094,835 rupees into the coffers of the Government of Bombay. But the people of India earned not a pice by it, and those richest descriptions of land, which it was so desirable to reserve for other produce than the poppy, remained barren.

The white variety of the poppy is that which is exclusively brought under cultivation for the production of the drug in India and Egypt. For the successful culture of opium a mild climate, plentiful irrigation, a rich soil, and diligent husbandry are indispensable. One acre of well cultivated ground will yield from 70 lbs. to 100 lbs. of "chick," or inspissated juice, the price of which varies from 6s. to 12s. a pound, so that an acre will yield from £20 to £60 worth of opium at one crop. Three pounds of chick will produce one pound of opium, from a third to a fifth of the weight being lost in evaporation. A chief chemical feature, which distinguishes Bengal opium from that of Turkey and Egypt, is the large proportion which the narcotine in the former bears to the morphia, and this proportion is constant in all seasons. It is a matter of importance to ascertain whether the treatment which the juice receives after its collection can influence in any way the amount of alkaloids, or of the other principles in opium. In Turkey it is the custom to beat up the juice with saliva, in Malwa it is immersed as collected in linseed oil, whilst in Bengal it is brought to the required consistence by mere exposure to the air in the shade, though, at the same time, all the watery particles of the juice that will separate are drained off, and used in making _Lewah_, or inferior opium.

The lands selected for poppy cultivation are generally situated in the vicinity of villages, where the facilities for manuring and irrigation are greatest. In such situations and when the soil is rich, it is frequently the practice with the cultivators to take a crop of Indian corn, maize, or vegetables off the ground during the rainy season, and after the removal of this in September, to dress and manure the ground for the subsequent poppy sowings. In other situations, however, and when the soil is not rich, the poppy crop is the only one taken off the ground during the year, and from the commencement of the rains in June or July, until October, the ground is dressed and cleaned by successive ploughings and weedings, and manured to the extent which the means of the cultivator will permit. In the final preparation of the land in October and November, the soil, after being well loosened and turned up by the plough, is crushed and broken down by the passage of a heavy log of wood over its surface, and it is in this state ready for sowing.

The amount of produce from various lands differs considerably. Under very favorable circumstances of soil and season, as much as twelve or even thirteen seers (26 lbs.) of standard opium may be, obtained from each biggah of 27,225 square feet. "Under less favorable conditions the turn-out may not exceed three or four seers, but the usual amount of produce varies from six to eight seers per biggah.

The chemical examination of different soils in connection with their opium-producing powers, presents a field for profitable and interesting inquiry; nor is the least important part of the investigation that which has reference to variations in the proportions of the alkaloids (especially the morphia and narcotine), which occur in opium produced in various localities. That atmospheric causes exert a certain influence in determining these variations is probable; that they influence the amount of produce, and cause alterations in the physical appearance of the drug, are facts well known to every cultivator: thus the effect of dew is to facilitate the flow of the juice from the wounded capsule, rendering it abundant in quantity, but causing it at the same time to be dark and liquid. An easterly wind (which in India is usually concomitant with a damp state of atmosphere), retards the flow of juice, and renders it dark and liquid. A moderate westerly wind, with dew at night, form the atmospheric conditions most favorable for collection, both as regards the quantity and quality of the exudation. If, however, the westerly wind (which is an extremely dry wind) blow violently, the exudation from the capsules is sparing. Whilst the effect of meteorological phenomena in producing the above results are well marked, their action in altering the relative proportions of the chemical constituents of the juice of the poppy plant is more obscure, and it is highly probable that the chemical composition of the soil plays a most important part in this respect. Dr. O'Shaughnessy is certainly the most accomplished chemist who had ever, in India, turned his attention to the subject, and he has published the results of his analyses of specimens of opium from the different divisions of the Behar Agency, which are worthy of much attention. In the opium from eight divisions of the agency, he found the quantity of morphia to range from 1¾ grains to 3½ grains per cent., and the amount of the narcotine to vary from ¾ grain to 3½ grains per cent., the consistence of the various specimens being between 75 and 79 per cent. In the opium from the Hazareebaugh district (the consistence of the drug being 77), he found 4½ per cent, of morphia, and 4 per cent, narcotine; whilst from a specimen of Patna-garden opium he extracted no less than 10¾ per cent. of morphia, and 6 per cent. of narcotine, the consistence of the drug being 87. With respect to the last specimen, Dr. O'Shaughnessy mentions that the poppies which produced it were irrigated three times during the season, and that no manure was employed upon the soil. It is much to be regretted that these interesting results were not coupled with an analysis of the soils from which the specimens were produced, for to chemical variations in it must be attributed the widely different results recorded above.

Opium as a medicine has been used from the earliest ages; but when it was first resorted to as a luxury, it is impossible to state, though it is not at all improbable that this was coeval with its employment in medicine, for how often do we find that, from having been first administered as a sedative for pain, it has been continued until it has taken the place of the evil. Such must have happened from the earliest ages, as it happens daily in the present; but as a national vice it was not known until the spread of Islamism, when, by the tenets of the Prophet, wine and fermented liquors being prohibited, it came in their stead along with the bang or hasch-schash (made from hemp), coffee, and tobacco. From the Arabs the inhabitants of the Eastern Archipelago most probably imbibed their predilection for opium, although their particular manner of using it has evidently been derived from the Chinese. China, where at present it is so extensively used, cannot be said to have indulged long in the vice. Previous to 1767 the number of chests imported did not exceed 200 yearly; now the average is 50,000 to 60,000. In 1773 the East India Company made their first venture in opium, and in 1796 it was declared a crime to smoke opium.

In different countries we find opium consumed in different ways. In England it is either used in a solid state, made into pills, or a tincture in the shape of laudanum. Insidiously it is given to children under a variety of quack forms, such as "Godfrey's cordial," &c. In India the pure opium is either dissolved in water and so used, or rolled into pills. It is there a common practice to give it to children when very young, by mothers, who require to work and cannot at the same time nurse their offspring. In China it is either smoked or swallowed in the shape of _Tye_. In Bally it is first adulterated with China paper, and then rolled up with the fibres of a particular kind of plantain. It is then inserted into a hole made at the end of a small bamboo, and smoked. In Java and Sumatra it is often mixed with sugar and the ripe fruit of the plantain. In Turkey it is usually taken in pills, and those who do so, avoid drinking any water after swallowing them, as this is said to produce violent colics; but to make it more palatable, it is sometimes mixed with syrups or thickened juices; in this form, however, it is less intoxicating, and resembles mead. It is then taken with a spoon, or is dried in small cakes, with the words "Mash Allah," or "Word of God," imprinted on them. When the dose of two or three drachms a day no longer produces the beatific intoxication, so eagerly sought by the opiophagi, they mix the opium with corrosive sublimate, increasing the quantity of the latter till it reaches ten grains a day. It then acts as a stimulant. In addition to its being used in the shape of pills, it is frequently mixed with hellebore and hemp, and forms a mixture known by the name of majoon, whose properties are different from that of opium, and may account in a great measure for the want of similitude in the effect of the drug on the Turk and the Chinese.

In Singapore and China the refuse of the chandu, the prepared extract of opium, is all used by the lower classes. This extract, when consumed, leaves a refuse, consisting of charcoal, empyreumatic oil, some of the salts of opium, and a part of the chandu not consumed. Now one ounce of chandu gives nearly half an ounce of this refuse, called Tye, or Tinco. This is smoked and swallowed by the poorer classes, who only pay half the price of chandu for it. When smoked it yields a further refuse called samshing, and this is even used by the still poorer, although it contains a very small quantity of the narcotic principle. Samshing, however, is never smoked, as it cannot furnish any smoke, but is swallowed, and that not unfrequently mixed with arrack.

_Preparation_.--In Asia Minor, men, women, and children, a few days after the flower falls from the poppies, proceed to the fields, and with a shell scratch the capsules, wait twenty-four hours, and collect the tears, which amount to two or three grains in weight from each capsule. These being collected and mixed with the scrapings of the shells, worked up with saliva and surrounded by dried leaves, it is then sold, but, generally speaking, not without being still more adulterated with cow's dung, sand, gravel, the petals of flowers, &c. Different kinds of opium are known in the markets of Europe and Asia.

The first in point of quality is the _Smyrna_, known in commerce as the _Turkey_ or _Levant_. It occurs in irregular, rounded, flattened masses, seldom exceeding two pounds in weight, and surrounded by leaves of a kind of sorrel; the quantity of morphia said to be derived from average specimens is eight per cent.

Second, _Constantinople Opium_, two kinds of which are found in the market, one in very voluminous irregular cakes, which are flattened like the Smyrna; this is a good quality. The other kind is in small, flattened, regular cakes, from two to two and a half inches in diameter, and covered with the leaves of the poppy; the quantity of morphia is very uncertain in this description of opium, sometimes mounting as high as 15 per cent., and sometimes descending so low as six, showing the great variety in the quality of the drug.

Third, _Egyptian Opium_, occurs in round flattened cakes, about 3 inches in diameter, and covered externally with the vestiges of some leaf. It is distinguished from the others by its reddish color, resembling "Socotrine Aloes." The quantity of morphia in this is inferior to the preceding. It has one quality which, when adulterated, ought to be known, that is a musty smell. By keeping it does not blacken like the other kinds.

Fourth, _English Opium_, is in flat cakes or balls enveloped in leaves. It resembles fine Egyptian opium more than any other kind. Its color is that of hepatic aloes, and in the quantity of morphia it is inferior to the preceding, but in the strength of the mass it is said by one of its most extensive cultivators to be superior.

Fifth, _French_, and sixth _German Opium_, require no particular remarks. By a recent notice I find the French are cultivating the poppy in Algeria, from which they get opium giving a small per centage of morphia.

Seventh, _Trebizond_ or _Persian Opium_, is sometimes met with of a very inferior quality in the form of cylindrical sticks, which by pressure have become angular.

Eighth, _Indian Opium_, divided into four kinds, Cutch, Malwa, Patna and Benares. Of these Cutch is but little known or cultivated. It occurs in small cakes covered with leaves, and its color is much inferior to Smyrna. Malwa opium is to be met with of two kinds. The inferior is in flattened cakes, without any external covering, dull, opaque, blackish brown externally, internally somewhat darker, and soft. Its color is somewhat like the Smyrna, but less powerful, and with a slight smoky smell. Superior Malwa is in square cakes, about three inches in length and one inch thick. It has the appearance of a well prepared, shining, dry, pharmaceutical extract; its color is blackish brown, its odor less powerful than Smyrna; it is not covered by petals as the following kinds are, but smeared with oil; it is then rubbed with pounded petals.

The Behar, Patna, and Benares Opium, being strictly in the hands of Government, no adulteration can take place, without a most extensive system of fraud; but it will not be uninteresting to trace the progress of the opium from the hands of the natives, to the condition in which it is delivered to the public by the Government.

From the commencement of the hot season to the middle of the rains the Government is ready to receive opium, which is brought by the natives every morning, in batches, varying in quantities from twenty seers to a maund. The examining officer into each jar thrusts his examining rod, which consists of a slit bamboo, and, by experience, he can so judge of the qualities of the specimens before him, which are sorted into lots of No. 1 to No. 4 quality. Opium of the first quality is of a fine chesnut color, aromatic smell, and dense consistence. It is moderately ductile, and, when the mass is torn, breaks with a deeply notched fracture, with sharp needle-like fibres, translucent and ruby red at the edges. It is readily broken down under water, and the solution at first filters of a sherry color, which darkens as the process proceeds. One hundred grains of this yield an extract to cold distilled water of from 35 to 45, and at the temperature of 212 degs., leaves from 20 to 28 per cent., having a consistency of 70 to 72, the consistence of the factory.

The second quality is inferior to the first, and the third quality is possessed of the following properties, black paste, of a very heavy smell, drops from the examining rod, gives off from 40 to 50 per cent, of moisture, and contains a large quantity of "Pasewa;" while the fourth or last number embraces all the kinds which are too bad to be used in the composition of the balls, comprising specimens of all varieties of color and consistence. This number is mixed with water, and only used as a paste to cement the covering of the balls.

The three first qualities are emptied from their jars into large tanks, in which they are kept until the supply of the season has been obtained. The opium is then removed and exposed to the air on shallow wooden frames, until it becomes of the consistency of from 69 to 70, when it is given to the cake maker, who guesses to a drachm the exact weight, and envelops the opium in its covering of petals, cemented by a covering of quality number 4. The balls are then weighed and stored, to undergo a thorough ventilation and drying. Formerly the covering of the balls was composed of the leaves of tobacco; but the late Mr. Flemming introduced the practice of using the petals of the poppy, which was such an improvement that the Court of Directors presented him with 50,000 rupees. The balls, forty in number, are packed in a mango wood case, which consists of two stories with twenty pigeon holes in each, lined with lath and surrounded by the dried leaves of the poppy. Sometimes these balls are so soft as to burst their skins, and much of the liquid opium running out, is lost. In 1823, many of the chests of Patna lost five catties from this cause, and to this day we have the same thing continuing to occur. Patna chests are covered with bullock hides, Benares with gunnies.

Dr. Impey, staff surgeon at Poona, who resided in Malwa from 1843 to 1846, published at Bombay, in 1848, a valuable treatise on the cultivation, preparation, and adulteration of Malwa opium. It was some time before he obtained the permission of the East India Company to publish the result of the experience he had acquired in Malwa, and as Government inspector of opium at Bombay. It is the most practical treatise I have yet met with, although a very elaborate, useful paper, by Mr. Little, surgeon, of Singapore, appears in the 2nd vol. of the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," from which I have quoted the preceding remarks.

Mr. Little furnishes a complete history of the drug, and the physical and mental effects resulting from its habitual use. There are also some able remarks in Dr. O'Shaughnessy's Bengal Dispensatory:--

For the successful cultivation of opium, a mild climate, plentiful irrigation, a rich soil, and diligent husbandry, are indispensable. In reference to the first of these, Malwa is placed most favorably. The country is in general from 1,300 to 2,000 feet above the level of the sea: the mean temperature is moderate, and range of the thermometer small. Opium is always cultivated in ground near a tank or running stream, so as to be insured at all times of an abundant supply of water. The rich black loam, supposed to be produced by the decomposition of trap, and known by the name of cotton soil, is that prepared for opium. Though fertile and rich enough to produce thirty successive crops of wheat without fallowing, it is not sufficiently rich for the growth of the poppy until largely supplied with manure. There is, in fact, no crop known to the agriculturist, unless sugar cane, that requires so much care and labor as the poppy. The ground is first four times ploughed on four successive days, then carefully harrowed; when manure, at the rate of from eight to ten cart loads an acre, is applied to it; this is scarcely half what is allowed a turnip crop at home. The crop is after this watered once every eight or ten days, the total number of waterings never exceeding nine in all. One beegah takes two days to soak thoroughly in the cold weather, and four as the hot season approaches. Water applied after the petals drop from the flower, causes the whole to wither and decay. When the plants are six inches high, they are weeded and thinned, leaving about a foot and a-half betwixt each plant; in three months they reach maturity, and are then about four feet in height if well cultivated. The full-grown seed-pod measures three and a-half inches vertically, and two and a-half in horizontal diameter. Early in February and March the bleeding process commences. Three small lancet-shaped pieces of iron are bound together with cotton, about one-twelfth of an inch of the blade alone protruding, so that no discretion as to the depth of the wound to be inflicted shall be left to the operator; and this is drawn sharply up from the top of the stalk at the base, to the summit of the pod. The sets of people are so arranged that each plant is bled all over once every three or four days, the bleedings being three or four times repeated on each plant. This operation always begins to be performed about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, the hottest part of the day. The juice appears almost immediately on the wound being inflicted, in the shape of a thick gummy milk, which is thickly covered with a brownish pellicle. The exudation is greatest over night, when the incisions are washed and kept open by the dew. The opium thus derived is scraped off next morning, with a blunt iron tool resembling a cleaver in miniature. Here the work of adulteration begins--the scraper being passed heavily over the seed-pod, so as to carry with it a considerable portion of the beard, or pubescence, which contaminates the drug and increases its apparent quantity. The work of scraping begins at dawn, and must be continued till ten o'clock; during this time a workman will collect seven or eight ounces of what is called "chick." The drug is next thrown into an earthen vessel, and covered over or drowned in linseed oil, at the rate of two parts of oil to one of chick, so as to prevent evaporation. This is the second process of adulteration--the ryot desiring to sell the drug as much drenched with oil as possible, the retailers at the same time refusing to purchase that which is thinner than half dried glue. One acre of well cultivated ground will yield from 70 to 100 pounds of chick. The price of chick varies from three to six rupees a pound, so that an acre will yield from 200 to 600 rupees worth of opium at one crop. Three pounds of chick will produce about two pounds of opium, from a third to a fifth of the weight being lost in evaporation. It now passes into the hands of the Bunniah, who prepares it and brings it to market. From twenty-five to fifty pounds having been collected, is tied up in parcels in double bags of sheeting cloth, which are suspended from the ceilings so as to avoid air and light, while the spare linseed oil is allowed to drop through. This operation is completed in a week or ten days, but the bags are allowed to remain for a month or six weeks, during which period the last of the oil that can be separated comes away; the rest probably absorbs oxygen and becomes thicker, as in paint. This process occupies from April to June or July, when the rain begins. The bags are next taken down and their contents carefully emptied into large vats from ten to fifteen feet in diameter, and six or eight inches thick. Here it is mixed together and worked up with the hands five or six hours, until it has acquired an uniform color and consistence throughout, become tough and capable of being formed into masses. This process is peculiar to Malwa. It is now made up into balls of from eight to ten ounces each, these being thrown, as formed, into a basket full of the chaff of the seeds pod. It is next spread out on ground previously covered with leaves and stalks of the poppy; here it remains for a week or so, when it is turned over and left further to consolidate, until hard enough to bear packing. It is ready for weighing in October or November, and is then sent to market. It is next packed in chests of 150 cakes, the total cost of the drug at the place of production being about fourteen rupees per chest, including all expenses. About 20,000 chests are annually sent from Malwa, at a prime cost charge of two lacs and 80,000 rupees. It may easily be supposed that manipulations so numerous, complex, and tedious, as those described, give the most ample opportunities for the adulteration to which the nature of the drug tempts the fraudulent dealer.

In order to enable the cultivator to carry on his agricultural operations, he receives from time to time certain advances, the amount of which reaches in the aggregate to about one-half of the value of the estimated out-turn of produce. If the land has been under cultivation in previous seasons, its average produce is known; if it be new land, and considered by the Sub-Deputy Agent as eligible, then the cultivator, in addition to the usual advances, receives an advance of so much per biggah to enable him to bestow a certain amount of extra care in tilling and dressing the soil. The first advance is made on the completion of the agreement or bundobust, and this takes place in September and October. The second advance is made on the completion of the sowings in November, and the final or Chook payment is made immediately after the delivery and weighing of the produce. Nothing therefore can be fairer to the cultivator than this system of advances; he is subject to no sort of exaction, in the shape of interest or commission on the money which he receives, and it puts within his power the certain means of making a fair profit by the exercise of common care and honesty. It is an established rule in the Agency that the cultivator's accounts of one season shall be definitively settled before the commencement of the next, and that no outstanding balances shall remain over. When a cultivator has from fraud neglected to bring produce to cover his advances, the balances due by him are at once recovered, if necessary by legal means; whereas, if he can satisfactorily show that he has become a defaulter from calamity and uncontrollable circumstances, and that the liquidation of his debt is placed entirely beyond his power, his case is then made the subject of report to the Government by the Agent, with the request that the debt may be written off to profit and loss. These provisions are most wise, for outstanding balances may be made the means of oppression, and to their operation may be traced a considerable amount of litigation and agrarian crime in the indigo districts of lower Bengal. It is clear that when such balances become so large that the cultivator cannot discharge them, he is no longer a free agent, but is perfectly subservient to the will of his creditor, for whom he must cultivate whether he desire it or not. Such burdens may even be handed down from father to son. The fairness of the Agency system, and the justice with which the cultivators are treated, are best evidenced by the readiness with which they come forward to cultivate, and also by the comparative rarity of agrarian crime, arising out of matters connected with the poppy cultivation.

Opium is grown to some extent in Egypt; 39,875 lbs. were produced in 1831, and sold at two dollars a pound.

At the end of October, after the withdrawal of the Nile waters the seed, mixed with a portion of pulverised earth, is sown in a strong soil, in furrows; after fifteen days the plant springs up, and in two months has the thickness of a Turkish pipe, and a height of four feet; the stalk is covered with long, oval leaves, and the fruit, which is greenish, resembles a small orange. Every morning before sunrise, in its progress to maturity, small incisions are made in the sides of the fruit, from which a white liquor distils almost immediately, which is collected in a vessel; it soon becomes black and thickish, and is rolled into balls, which are covered with the washed leaves of the plant; in this state it is sold. The seeds are crushed for lamp oil, and the plant is used for fuel.

A plant known in Jamaica under the name of bull hoof yields a narcotic which has been administered successfully in the shape of tincture and a syrup, instead of opium. This is the _Muracuja ocellata_, or _Passiflora muracuja_, of Swartz, an elegant climber, bearing bright scarlet blossoms. There is another species, _M. orbiculata_, found in Hayti and other islands, which may be expected to partake more or less of the properties of the former. The flowers are the parts most commonly employed.

THE TOBACCO PLANT.

Several species of _Nicotium_ furnish tobacco; that chiefly used in Europe is procured from _N. Tabacum_ and its numerous varieties, a plant naturally inhabiting the hotter parts of North and South America. The popular narcotic furnished by tobacco is probably in more extensive use than any other, and its only rivals are opium and the betel-nut and leaf of the East. The herb for smoking was brought to England from Tobago, in the West Indies, or from Tobasco, in Mexico (whence the name), by Sir Ralph Lane, in 1586. Seeds were shortly after introduced from the same quarter.

"Tobacco, as used by man," says Du Tour, "gives pleasure to the savage and the philosopher, to the inhabitant of the burning desert and the frozen zone; in short, its use, either in powder, to chew, or to smoke, is universal; and for no other reason than a sort of convulsive motion (sneezing) produced by the first, and a degree of intoxication by the two last modes of use."

Tobacco is an annual plant, attaining a height of six feet, having dingy red, funnel-shaped flowers, and viscid leaves. The leaves are the officinal part, and their active properties depend on a peculiar, oily-like alkaloid, called Nicotin. The flavor and strength of tobacco depend on climate, cultivation, and the mode of manufacture. That most esteemed by the smoker is Havanna tobacco, but the Virginian is the strongest. The small Havanna cigars are prepared from the leaves of _Nicotium repanda_, Syrian and Turkish tobacco from _N. rustica_, and fine Shiraz tobacco from _N. persica_. With the exception of the Macuba tobacco, which is cultivated in Martinique in a peculiar soil, the tobacco of Cuba is considered the finest in the world. That grown in the island of Trinidad is, however, fully equal to it in quality, but all raised in the colony is generally consumed there, and is little known in the English market. This ought not to be the case, for no article would pay better.

The Maryland is a very light tobacco, in thin, yellow leaves; that of Virginia is in large brown leaves, unctuous or somewhat gluey on the surface, having a smell very like the figs of Malaga; that of Havanna is in brownish light leaves, of an agreeable and rather spicy smell,--it forms, as I have already stated, the best cigars. The Carolina tobacco is less unctuous than the Virginian, but in the United States it ranks next to the Maryland. The shag tobacco is dried to the proper point upon sheets of copper, and is cut up by knife-edged chopping stamps. There are said to be four kinds of tobacco reared in Virginia, viz., the sweet-scented, which is considered the best; the _big and little_, which follows next; then the Frederick; and, lastly, the _one and all_, the largest kind, and producing most in point of quantity.

According to Loudon ("Encyclo. of Plants"), there are fourteen species of this genus, besides a few varieties. Lindley, however, enumerates 31, but many of these are mere showy species, adapted to flower gardens. I shall therefore follow chiefly London's classification--

1. _N. Tabacum_, a native of several parts of America, but principally known as Virginian tobacco, having a stem rising from four to six feet or more in height, bearing pink flowers. Of this there are three chief varieties known in America by the popular names of Orinoco, Broad-leaved and Narrow-leaved. Lindley enumerates eight varieties of _N. Tabacum_.

2. _N. macrophylla_, or large-leaved tobacco, an ornamental annual, also with pink flowers, native of America, which rises to the height of six feet.

3. _N. fruticosa_, or shrubby tobacco, an ornamental evergreen shrub, native of China, with pink blossoms, which grows to about three feet.

4. _N. undulata_, or _suaveolens_, sweet-scented or New Holland tobacco, a green house perennial, native of New South Wales, with white flowers, which is only two feet high.

5. _N. rustica_.--The common green or English tobacco, an annual plant, native of America, producing white flowers, which seldom grows higher than three feet.

6. _N. paniculata_, or panicled tobacco, an annual plant bearing greenish yellow flowers, native of Peru, rises to the height of three feet.

7. _N. glutinosa_, or clammy-leaved tobacco, also an annual plant, native of Peru, growing to the height of four feet, with bright scarlet flowers.

8. _N. plumbaginifolia_, or curled-leaved tobacco, an ornamental deciduous annual, native of America, with white blossoms, rising to the height of two feet.

9. _N. pusilla_, or primrose-leaved tobacco, an ornamental deciduous biennial, with white flowers, native of Vera Cruz, rising to three feet.

10. _N. quadrivalvis_, four-valved, or Missouri tobacco, an ornamental annual, native of North America, with white flowers, seldom growing higher than two feet.

11. _N. nana_, or rocky mount tobacco, a curious greenhouse annual, native of North America, with white blossoms, rising only three inches high.

12. _N. Langsdorffii_, or Langsdorff's tobacco, an ornamental annual, with greenish yellow flowers, native of Chili, reaching five feet high.

13. _N. cerinthoides_, or honey-wort tobacco, an ornamental annual, with greenish yellow flowers, native country unknown.

14. _N. repanda_, or Havanna tobacco, an annual with white flowers, native of Cuba, rising two feet high.

There are a few species, natives of the Province of Buenos Ayres, which may be particularised. _N. bonariensis_, having white flowers; _N. glauca_, yellowish green flowers; _N. longiflora_, white flowers; and _N. viscosa_, pink flowers.

The important mineral substances presented in Havanna tobacco, examined by Hertung, are in 100 parts of ashes,

Salts of potash 34.15 Salts of lime 51.38 Magnesia 4.09 Phosphates 9.04

These substances were for the most part insoluble in earth, and must have been dissolved during the growth of the crop.

ANALYSIS OF FIVE SAMPLES OF TOBACCO. No. 1. No. 2. No. 3. No. 4. No. 5. Grown on argillaceous soil Grown in calcareous soil. Potash 29.08 30.67 9.68 9.36 10.37 Soda 2.26 -- -- -- .36 Lime 27.67 24.79 49.28 49.44 39.58 Magnesia 7.22 8.57 14.58 15.59 15.04 Chloride of sodium .91 5.95 4.61 3.20 6.39 Chloride of potassium -- -- 4.44 3.27 2.99 Phosphate of iron 8.78 6.03 5.19 6.72 7.56 Sulphate of lime 6.43 5.60 6.68 6.14 9.42 Silica 17.65 18.39 5.54 6.28 8.34 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

From the above it will be seen that on the argillaceous soil the tobacco contained a large quantity of alkalies and silica, while on the other hand, the lime, magnesia and chlorides were high in proportion, in the tobacco grown on calcareous soil.

There is no doubt that the manure which contains the largest proportion of alkaline carbonate, magnesia, lime and gypsum, is that best adapted for tobacco.

I give an analysis taken from Prof. Johnston's "Lectures," (2nd edition) of the ash of the tobacco leaf and the composition of a special manure for tobacco:--

Potash 12.14 Soda 0.07 Lime 45.90 Magnesia 13.09 Chloride of sodium 3.49 Chloride of potassium 3.98 Phosphate of iron 5.48 Phosphate of lime 1.49 Sulphate of lime 6.35 Silica 8.01 ------ 100.00

All the ingredients which are necessary to replace 100 lbs. of the ash of tobacco leaves are present in the following mixture:--

Bone dust, sulphuric acid 23 lbs. Carbonate of potash (dry) 31 " Carbonate of soda (dry) 5 " Carbonate of Magnesia 25 " Carbonate of lime (chalk) 60 " ------ 144 "

The following is the result of an analysis of the fresh leaves of tobacco, by Posselt and Reimann ("Mag. Pharm." xxiv. xxv.):--

Nicotine 0.06 Nicotianine 0.01 Extractive matter, slightly bitter 2.37 Gum, with a little malate of lime 1.74 Green resin 0.26 Vegetable albumen 0.26 Substance analogous to gluten 1.04 Malic acid 0.51 Malate of ammonia 0.12 Sulphate of potash 0.04 Chloride of potassium 0.06 Potash combined with malic and nitric acids 0.90 Phosphate of lime 0.16 Lime in union with malic acid 0.24 Silica 0.08 Woody fibre 4.96 Water (traces of starch) 87.21 ------ 100.10

Dr. Covell, in "Silliman's American Journal," vol. vii., shows its components to have been but imperfectly represented in the above German analysis. He found in tobacco by chemical examination--1, gum; 2, a viscid slime, equally soluble in water and alcohol, and precipitable from both by subacetate of lead; 3, tannin; 4, gallic acid; 5, chlorophyle (leaf green); 6, a green pulverulent matter, which dissolves in boiling water, but falls down again when the water cools; 7, a yellow oil, possessing the smell, taste and poisonous qualities of tobacco; 8, a large quantity of a pale yellow resin; 9, nicotine; 10, a white substance, analogous to morphia, soluble in hot, but hardly in cold alcohol; 11, a beautiful orange red dye stuff, soluble only in acids; it deflagrates in the fire, and seems to possess neutral properties; 12, nicotianine. According to Buchner, the seeds of tobacco yield a pale yellow extract to alcohol, which contains a compound of nicotine and sugar.

M.M. Henry and Boutron Charlard found in 100 parts of

Cuba tobacco 8.64 of nicotine. Maryland 5.28 Virginia 10.00 Ile et Vilaine 11.20 Lot et Garonne 8.20

quantities from 12 to 19 times more than were obtained by Posselt and Reimann.--"Ure's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures."

The following are the results of a series of experiments made by Messrs. Cooper and Brande, for the purpose of ascertaining the quantity of soluble matter in eight samples of tobacco, of detecting the presence and quantity of sugar contained in them, and the nature and relative proportions of their inorganic constituents. An important paper on the state in which _Nicotine_ exists in tobacco, and on the relative proportion of it furnished by different varieties of the plant, has been furnished by Schloessing ("Ann. Ch. et Ph." 3ieme Ser. XIX. 230).

__________________________________________________________________ |P s |P & |P t o |P s a|P s a|P m t|P o i|P m o| |e o |e c |e r f |e o s|e o c|e a h|e b n|e a b| |r l |r . |r e |r l h|r l i|r t e|r t f|r t t| | u | | a a | u .| u d| t | a u| t a| |c b |c i |c t m |c b |c b |c e a|c i s|c e i| |e l |e n |e m o |e l |e l i|e r s|e e i|e r n| |n e |n s |n e n |n e |n e n|n , h|n n o|n e| |t |t o |t n i |t |t |t .|t e n|t d d| |. i |. l |. t a |. i |. i t|. a |. d .|. e | | n | u | . | n | n h| s | | d a| Tobacco dried |o |o b |o w |o |o e|o |o f |o u l| at 212 degs. |f w |f l |f i |f w |f h |f s |f r |f c c| | a | e | t | a | y a| i | o | e o| |e t |w |a h |m t |m d s|i l |a m |s d h| |x e |o i |s |a e |a r h|n i |l |a o| |t r |o n |h c |t r |t o .|s c |c f |c f l| |r . |d | a |t |t c |o a |o e |c r .| |a |y w |a r |e i |e h |l , |h r |h o | |c | a |f b |r n |r l |u |o m |a m | |t |f t |t n | | o |b & |l e |r | |, |i e |e a | t | r |l c | n |i t | | |b r |r t | h | i |e . | t |n h | |& |r . | e | e | c | | e |e e | |c |e | | | | i | d | | |. | | | | | n | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------|----|----|------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 1. Light Missouri}|49 |54.9|20.97 |2.17 |11.73| 5.9 | -- | -- | leaf and stalk}| | |white | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2. Light Missouri}|50 |47.7|19.7 |1.77 |12.83| 5.1 |0.75 |1.50 | leaf only }| | |white | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3. Dark Missouri }|50 |52.4|16.47 |4.2 |10.14| 2.13| -- | -- | leaf and stalk}| | |white | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4. Dark Missouri} |51 |50.6|13.8 |2.17 | 8.73| 2.9 |0.35 |0.71 | leaf only } | | |white | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 5. Light Virginia}|51.5|53.1|16.4 |2.53 | 8.54| 5.33| -- | -- | leaf and stalk}| | |gray- | | | | | | | | |white | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 6. Light Virginia}|54 |46.1|11.97 |2.0 | 6.86| 3.11|1.045|2.09 | leaf only }| | |green-| | | | | | | | |gray | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 7. Dark Virginia }|48.5|51.8|14.7 |4.8 |8.40 | 1.5 | -- | -- | leaf and stalk}| | |gray | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 8. Dark Virginia} |52 |49.8|12.53 |2.63 |8.20 | 1.7 |1.46 |2.93 | leaf only } | | |gray | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------

1. The samples were dried and the woody fibre and extract were also dried at 212 degs. The watery infusions of all contained ammoniacal salts. The salts from the ash, which were soluble in water, consisted of sulphates, carbonates, phosphates, and chlorides; the bases being potassa and lime. The solution by hydrochloric acid contained lime, alumina, phosphate of lime, and oxide of iron.

3. Contained oxide of manganese in small quantity; sulphates in watery solution of ash abundant. Hydrochloric solution contained an abundance of lime.

4. A trace of manganese; a trace only of phosphoric acid in watery solution.

5. Contained abundance of oxide of manganese.

6. Abundance of oxide of manganese.

7. A mere trace of oxide of manganese, and a trace of oxide of iron; only a trace of alumina.

8. A trace of oxide of manganese; quantity of oxide of iron very great; only a trace of alumina.

In rich loams, where the solution of the minerals of the soil is rapid, and where 10 to 20 per cent, of vegetable matter is incorporated in the earth, tobacco may be obtained for many years, but it is always an exhausting crop. It has been stated that 170 Lbs. of mineral matter are removed in less than three months from one acre of land, by a crop of tobacco. This is very much more than wheat or other grains abstract from the soil in eight or nine months.

Tobacco is now very extensively cultivated in France and other European countries, in the Levant, the East and West Indies; and a little is grown at the Cape and in the Australian Settlements.

A good deal of tobacco is raised in Mexico, but only for home consumption, as its export is prohibited. It forms an article of culture in Brazil and some of the South American republics, and is grown to a small extent along the Western shores of Africa. It is from North America, however, that we derive the bulk of our supplies of this great article of commerce, which, with cotton, forms the chief agricultural wealth of the United States.

In 1821, the tobacco exported from the Brazils amounted to 29,192,000 Lbs., but its cultivation was greatly injured by the siege of the capital in 1822-23. Fresh seed was subsequently obtained from Cuba, and in 1835 the exports were 6,051,040 Lbs.

131 cases of Princeza snuff were shipped from Bahia to Lisbon, in 1835; about 60,000 Lbs. per annum of this snuff being now manufactured at Bahia, with the aid of two steam-engines. The exports of tobacco from Bahia increased from 2,048,000 Lbs. in 1833, to 6,051,040 Lbs. in 1835. The average shipments are about 21,000 bales and rolls.

The army of smokers in Great Britain and Ireland consume yearly about six millions of pounds worth of tobacco. The duty alone paid upon snuff and tobacco for the people of Great Britain, averages four-and-a-half millions sterling a year! The quantity consumed--smoked, snuffed, or chewed--during the same period, is about 28 millions of pounds weight, or about four pounds weight per annum for every male adult. Ireland annually pays not less than £800,000 of duty on tobacco and snuff, and only about £30,000 on coffee. For every pound of coffee that the Irish people use, they smoke away about _four pounds of tobacco_.

North America produces annually upwards of 200 million pounds. The combustion of the mass of vegetable material used in this kingdom would yield about 340 million pounds of carbonic acid gas; so that the yearly produce of carbonic acid gas from tobacco smoking alone cannot be less than 1,000,000,000 lbs.--a large contribution to the annual demand for this gas made upon the atmosphere for the vegetation of the world. Henceforth let no one twit the smoker with idleness and unimportance. Every pipe is an agricultural furnace,--every smoker a manufacturer of vegetation,--the consumer of a weed that he may rear more largely his own provisions.

In the year 1842, 605,000,000 of cigars were made in the German Commercial Union.

In 1839, the revenue on tobacco in this country was about £3,600,000. Of this it has been estimated eleven-twelfths are drawn from the working classes, and one-twelfth from the richer classes. The following is a calculation of the consumption of tobacco per head of the population, estimated from the number of pounds on which duty was paid:--

Consumption per head. Rate of duty. ozs. 1801 {1s. 7 3-10d. England } 17 {1s. 0 7-10d. Ireland.} 1811 2s. 2 13-20d. 19½ 1821 4s. 0d. 11 45 1831 3s. 0d. 12 35 1841 3s. 1 8-10d. 12 4-5 1851 3s. 1 4-5d. 21

Thus it will be seen the consumption is materially affected by the rate of duty.

A memorial presented to the First Lord of the Treasury a few years ago, by the American Chamber of Commerce, and signed by Mr. Thomas Todd, the chairman, furnishes some valuable information, and I am therefore tempted to give it entire:--

The American Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool desire respectfully to bring under the consideration of her Majesty's Government the impolicy of the present high rate of duty on foreign tobacco, and the benefit to commerce, as well as to the revenue, which would arise from such a reduction as would remove the temptation now held out to the smuggler.

The cost of tobacco, including freight and all charges, is from 3d. to 4d. per lb., and the duty is 3s. per lb., being 900 per cent, on the value. A duty so enormously disproportioned to the cost offers an irresistible premium to the illicit trader; for the expense of smuggling tobacco by the cargo, including the first cost, does not exceed 9½d. per lb., and it has been ascertained that the smuggler receives 6d. per lb. less than the duty, or 2s. 6d. per lb., which yields him a clear profit of 1s. 8½d. per lb., to the injury not only of the revenue, but of the fair trader.

The effect of this heavy duty in diminishing the consumption of duty-paid tobacco is further exemplified by the fact that, while all other articles of general consumption have progressively increased with the increase of the population, tobacco alone forms an exception, as will appear from the following:--

COMPARATIVE SCALE OF POPULATION AND CONSUMPTION OF TEA, COFFEE, AND TOBACCO, IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, COMPILED FROM PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

Population Tea Coffee Tobacco 1801 16,338,102 Duty, 65 a 95 per ct 19d. per lb. 19d. per lb. & 12½ per ct. & 12½ per ct. Lbs., 23,163,999 871,846 16,895,752 1811 18,547,720 Duty 96 per cent. 8d. per lb. 26½d. per lb. Lbs., 24,461,308 6,895,619 21,376,370 1821 21,193,458 Duty, 96 a 100 per ct. 12d. per lb. 4s. per lb. Lbs., 26,043,257 7,593,001 1,823,365 1831 24,271,763 Duty 96a 100 per ct. 6d. per lb. 3s. per lb. Lbs., 30,648,348 22,740,627 19,418,941 1841 26,855,928 Duty, 26¼d. per lb. 6d. per lb. 3s. per lb. Lbs., 36,396,073 28,420,980 22,094,772

The consumption of tobacco in the island of Great Britain, excluding Ireland, and the duty thereon, were in

Consumption. Duty. 1801 10,514,998 lbs. 1s. 7d. 1811 14,923,243 " 2s. 2½d. 1821 12,983,198 " 4s. 0d. 1831 15,350,018 " 3s. 0d. 1841 16,083,593 " 3s. 0d. 1851 28,062,841 " 3s. 0d.

In the last two periods five per cent is added to all the duties.

Thus, while the consumption of tea and coffee has increased even beyond the ratio of the population, the consumption of tobacco has decreased.

This table also exemplifies the greater productiveness of a low duty compared with a high one; for instance, coffee in 1801, at 1s. 7d. per lb., yielded £77,654; in 1821, at 1s. per lb., £379,650; and, in 1841, at 6d. per lb., £710,524; tobacco in 1821, at 4s. per lb., yielded £3,164,673, and 1841, at 3s. per lb., £3,314,215. But the difference in duty in the latter case was not sufficient to curtail the profits of the smuggler to any material extent.

Cigars afford a remarkable example of the amount of duty being increased by diminishing the rate. In 1828, when the duty was 18s. per lb., duty was paid on 8,600 lbs. only, yielding £7,740. In 1830, when the duty was reduced to 9s. per lb., duty was paid on 66,000 lbs., yielding £29,700; and such has been the increase of consumption, that, in 1841, duty was paid on 213,613 lbs., yielding £100,899.

We would further illustrate the position by the following facts:

In 1798, Ireland, with a population of 4,000,000, consumed 8,000,000 lbs. of tobacco, and now, with more than double the population, she consumes about 3,000,000 lbs. of tobacco less than at the former period. The reason is obvious: in 1789 the duty was 8d. per lb; now it is 3s. In 1798, England and Scotland, with a population of 10,000,000, consumed 10,000,000 lbs. of tobacco, being one half of the relative consumption of Ireland at the same period; the duty in England and Scotland being then 1s. 7d. per lb., and in Ireland only 8d.

But the quantity of tobacco on which duty is paid does not even approximately show the quantity consumed. If the duty now paid on tobacco in the United Kingdom retained the same relative proportion to the population that it held in Ireland in 1798, the duty in 1841 would have been actually levied upon 53,711,856 lbs., instead of 22,094,772 lbs.; and such we believe to be about the actual amount of consumption, the great bulk of the supply being furnished by the illicit trader.

In Prussia, it appears that the consumption of tobacco is at the rate of three pounds per head; while, in England, if we were to judge from the amount on which duty is paid, it is considerably less than one pound per head.

Assuming the actual consumption at only 45,000,000 lbs., or two pounds per head, we believe that a reduction of duty to 1s. per pound would so effectually destroy the illicit trader, that the revenue would gain by the change, not only by bringing upwards of 30,000,000 lbs. under duty, which at present escape, but by the great increase of the consumption consequent upon the encouragement given to the fair trader.

We would not, however, treat the question merely as a matter of revenue. We would strongly represent the injustice which this exorbitant duty inflicts upon those who pursue a legitimate trade, by enabling the smuggler to lessen the extent of their transactions by more than half what they would otherwise be; and we would further earnestly urge upon your consideration the demoralising tendency of such a systematic and extended violation of the law, not only upon those engaged in the illicit trade, also upon those parties who are found to connive at the practice from a sense of the gross injustice and impolicy of a duty so disproportioned to the value of an article of such extensive consumption.

We would refer to the opinion of a committee of the House of Commons on the growth of tobacco in Ireland, in 1840, as follows:--'That it further appears, from the evidence, that smuggling of foreign tobacco is at present carried on to a great extent, and that all the measures now adopted, at great expense to the country, are and will be ineffectual to repress it so long as the temptation of evading a duty equal to twelve times the value of the article on which it is imposed, remains."

We beg, therefore, respectfully to express our opinion, that if the duty on tobacco were reduced to one shilling per pound, it would be alike beneficial to the interests of legitimate commerce; to the consumers, who consist almost entirely of the poorer classes; to the revenue, by increasing the productiveness of the duty, and by greatly diminishing the expenditure so ineffectually incurred to suppress the illicit trade; and to the general morals of society by removing a powerful inducement to infringe the laws.

The imports of all kinds of tobacco for the last five years have been as follows:--

| 1848. | 1849. | 1850. | 1851. | 1852. | lbs. | lbs. | lbs. | lbs. | lbs. Unmanufactured|34,090,360|41,546,848|35,166,358|31,061,953|33,205,635 Manufactured | | | | | and snuff | 1,512,714| 1,905,306| 1,557,618| 2,331,886| 2,930,299 |----------|----------|----------|----------|---------- |35,603,074|43,452,154|36,723,876|33,393,839|36,135,934

Gross duty received:--

| 1848. | 1849. | 1850. | 1851. | 1852. | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ On raw tobacco| 4,267,579| 4,328,217| 4,337,258| 4,386,910| 4,466,533 Cigars, snuff,| | | | | &c. | 97,655| 96,814| 92,873| 98,858| 94,298 |----------|----------|----------|----------|---------- | 4,365,234| 4,425,031| 4,430,131| 4,485,768| 4,569,831

The amount of tobacco consumed is so limited that the trade will not admit of an excessive growth. In the two most thickly populated countries in Europe--France and England--not more than a certain quantity finds its way there. In France the trade is monopolised by Government, which gives out contracts to deliver a stipulated quantity at certain prices; in England the duty imposed is so enormous that only a limited quantity of certain descriptions can be imported without risk of loss. In Germany and Holland, where the trade is more extensively carried on than elsewhere, the duty imposed is almost nominal, and all classes of their citizens are enabled to use the weed at prices very little higher than its first prime cost. The tobacco trade constitutes so large a staple of American produce that it is singular greater efforts are not made upon the part of that Government to cause a reciprocal duty to be imposed, that more favor may be shown by European Governments to this particular article. England, from the duty imposed upon it alone, derives a revenue of £4,500,000, being about £160 to the hogshead, or from ten to sixteen times its original cost. France makes the trade a monopoly, from which she derives an income of £3,000,000 sterling.

STATEMENT OF IMPORTS, SALES, AND STOCKS OF TOBACCO AND STEMS, IN BREMEN, FROM 1840 TO 1850. ----+---------------------------+-----------------------+ | MARYLAND | VIRGINIAN | ----+------+------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | S | | | | S | | S | | | t | S | | | t | | t | | | o D | t | | | o D | | o J | I | | c e | o J | I | | c e | | c a | m | | k c | c a | m | | k c | | k n | p | S | e | k n | p | S | e | Y | u | o | a | l m | u | o | a | l m | e | 1 a | r | l | a b | 1 a | r | l | a b | a | s r | t | e | s e | s r | t | e | s e | r | t y | s | s | t r | t y | s | s | t r | ----+------+------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ 1840| 4,890|14,570|18,399| 1,061| 245| 3492| 3422| 285| 1841| 1,061|19,629|18,321| 2,369| 285| 3466| 3025| 726| 1842| 2,369|20,821|19,067| 4,123| 726| 6729| 5898| 1557| 1843| 4,123|18,483|15,004| 7,602| 1557| 5541| 4242| 2856| 1844| 7,602|16,978|18,338| 6,242| 2856| 5092| 4282| 3666| 1845| 6,242|24,251|24,571| 5,922| 3666| 1588| 3099| 2155| 1846| 5,922|26,785|23,788| 8,919| 2155| 2386| 2456| 2085| 1847| 8,919|21,743|20,681| 9,981| 2085| 911| 2079| 917| 1848| 9,981|12,084| 9,935|12,130| 917| 847| 1054| 710| 1849|12,130|19,285|22,112| 9,303| 710| 1173| 1734| 149| ----+------+------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+

----+---------------------------+-----------------------+ | KENTUCKY | STEMS | ----+------+------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | | | S | | | | S | | S | | | t | S | | | t | | t | | | o D | t | | | o D | | o J | I | | c e | o J | I | | c e | | c a | m | | k c | c a | m | | k c | | k n | p | S | e | k n | p | S | e | Y | u | o | a | l m | u | o | a | l m | e | 1 a | r | l | a b | 1 a | r | l | a b | a | s r | t | e | s e | s r | t | e | s e | r | t y | s | s | t r | t y | s | s | t r | ----+------+------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ 1840| 181| 3,803| 3,699| 285| 2853| 3362| 4564| 1651| 1841| 285| 5,206| 4,941| 550| 1651| 7085| 7054| 1682| 1842| 550| 9,407| 8,939| 1018| 1682| 4151| 5386| 447| 1843| 1018| 7,485| 6,441| 2062| 447| 3969| 3447| 969| 1844| 2062| 9,736| 9,569| 2229| 969| 4753| 5513| 209| 1845| 2269|11,439|10,328| 3340| 209| 5273| 4152| 1330| 1846| 3340| 5,028| 6,099| 2269| 1330| 6092| 4716| 2706| 1847| 2269| 3,816| 5,013| 1072| 2706| 6788| 8038| 1456| 1848| 1072| 4,448| 4,980| 540| 1456| 4912| 4473| 1895| 1849| 540| 4,620| 4,746| 414| 1895| 5188| 5083| 1000| ----+------+------+------+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+

_Culture and Statistics in the United States_.--Tobacco has been the great staple of the States of Virginia and Maryland from their first settlement. About the year 1642 it became a royal monopoly, and afterwards, in order to encourage its growth in the colonies, and thereby increase the revenue of the Crown, Parliament prohibited the planting of it in England. The average quantity shipped from the North American colonies to the parent country, for ten years preceding the year 1709, was about twenty-nine millions of pounds. For some years prior to the American revolution, about 85,000 hhds. were exported, then valued at little more than four millions of dollars, and constituting nearly one-third the value of all the exports of the British North American colonies. From 1820 to 1830 tobacco constituted about one-ninth in value of all the domestic exports of the United States. It finds a market principally in Great Britain, France, Holland, and the north of Europe.[55] The crop of tobacco produced in the four principal States, was in--

1838. 1839. hhds. hhds. Virginia 26,000 45,000 Kentucky 27,000 35,000 Maryland 16,000 16,000 Ohio 3,000 4,000 ------ ------- 72,000 100,000

The whole crop of 1840 was 219,163,319 lbs., which, at the estimate of 1,200 lbs. to the hhd., would be equal to 182,636 hhds., and at the average price of that year, 81 dollars 5 cents. per hhd., would make the value of the crop of the United States 14,802,647 dollars 80 cents. The average annual export for the ten years ending with 1840, was 96,775 hhds. The actual exportation of 1840 was 119,484 hhds. The principal exports are formed of the produce of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, and North Carolina. The exports are chiefly to the following countries--about 30,000 hhds. annually to England, 15,000 hhds. to France, 20,000 hhds. to Holland, 25,000 hhds. Germany, and about 22,000 hhds. to other countries. The whole crop for 1845 was put down at 187,422,000 lbs. In 1839, it was ascertained that one and a half million persons were engaged in the cultivation and manufacture of tobacco in the United States, one million of whom were so occupied in the States of Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. In the city of New York the consumption of cigars is computed at 10,000 dollars a day, a sum greater than that which the inhabitants pay for their daily bread; and in the whole country the annual consumption of tobacco is estimated at 120 million pounds, being 7 lbs. for every man, woman, and child, at an annual cost to the consumers of 20 million dollars (more than four million pounds sterling).

It is estimated that the manufacture of tobacco in the United States is increasing at the rate of 2,000 hhds. per annum.

hhds. The quantity manufactured in 1851, was stated at 55,000 Exportations for the year estimated at 120,000 ------- 175,000

The production for 1852 is supposed to be as follows:--

hhds. Virginia 27,000 Maryland 33,000 Western States, including frosted 65,000 ------- Total production 125,000 Deficiency in the year's crop 50,000

The quantity produced in the United States, in 1847, was 220,164,000 lbs., worth, at 5 cents per lb., nearly 11 million dollars (more than two million sterling). The principal producing States were--Kentucky, 65 million lbs.; Virginia, 50 millions; Tennessee, 35 millions; North Carolina, 14 millions; Ohio, 9 millions; Indiana, 4 millions; Illinois, Connecticut, and a few others in smaller proportions.

The production in 1848 was 218,909,000 lbs., which, valued at four cents per lb., would be worth nine million dollars. From persons largely interested in the tobacco trade, and well informed in relation thereto, I have gathered the following general statements:--

The crops of tobacco to come to market in the year 1851, were estimated as follows--

hhds. Virginia 30,000 Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, about 50,000 Maryland, about 22,000 Ohio, about 14,000

From the above estimate it will be seen that the quantity produced in 1850 is less than two-thirds of the usual production in the States named. The entire crop of Virginia will be required for home consumption. About 15,000 hhds. Kentucky, and 5,000 hhds. Maryland will also be wanted for home use. Owing to the increase of population by immigration and otherwise, the domestic consumption, which was a few years ago so small as not to be considered worthy of notice, has now increased to a very important item, and affords a steady home market for a large portion of the production.

The quantity of Maryland tobacco left for export to Bremen and Holland, in 1851, will only be about 17,000 hhds., which is not more than half the amount usually shipped to these countries every year.

Of the Kentucky tobacco contracted for last year by France and Spain, through their agents in this country, less than one third has yet been purchased, and those governments will this year require the deficiency to be made up, in addition to their annual average supply, which, with the quantity required for England, will take the entire crop, leaving nothing for the rest of Europe, Africa, South America, the West Indies, &c. The tobacco markets throughout the world are in a much more healthy condition than has ever been known, and it is thought prices will rule very high the coming season. In Maryland, while the production has been not more than half an average crop, the price is nearly three times as high as usual; so that the planter will receive more for his diminished crops than in ordinary seasons of plenty.

QUANTITY OF TOBACCO EXPORTED ANNUALLY FROM 1821 TO 1850.

Exports for Year ending hhds.|Stocks in Europe, year ending hhds.

September 30th, 1821 66,850| December 31st, 1821 -- " " 1822 83,169| " " 1822 -- " " 1823 99,000| " " 1823 -- " " 1824 77,889| " " 1824 -- " " 1825 75,986| " " 1825 -- " " 1826 64,099| " " 1826 -- " " 1827 100,020| " " 1827 -- " " 1828 96,279| " " 1828 69,485 " " 1829 77,136| " " 1829 63,670 " " 1830 83,810| " " 1830 50,672 " " 1831 86,718| " " 1831 54,690 " " 1832 106,800| " " 1832 61,868 " " 1833 83,153| " " 1833 50,543 " " 1834 87,979| " " 1834 53,413 " " 1835 94,353| " " 1835 57,458 " " 1836 109,042| " " 1836 68,918 " " 1837 100,232| " " 1837 38,703 " " 1838 100,593| " " 1838 31,067 " " 1839 78,995| " " 1839 38,715 " " 1840 119,484| " " 1840 37,623 " " 1841 147,828| " " 1841 50,880 " " 1842 158,710| " " 1842 62,496 June 30 (9 ms.) 1843 94,454| " " 1843 91,196 " (12 ms.) 1844 163,042| " " 1844 88,973 " " 1845 147,168| " " 1845 91,213 " " 1846 147,998| " " 1846 100,774 " " 1847 135,762| " " 1847 88,858 " " 1848 130,665| " " 1848 80,391 " " 1849 101,521| " " 1849 70,527 " ' 1850 145,729| " " 1850 66,777

It is a curious fact that, notwithstanding the variety of climate and soil in the northern State;, every State and territory in the Union produces some tobacco. In many of the States its cultivation is, of course, a secondary object, and perhaps in several it is attended to as a mere matter of curiosity; but in most of the States, probably a sufficient quantity has been grown, to show that with attention to this object, it might, in case of necessity, be resorted to as a profitable crop. The States in which the great bulk of the crop is grown lie between the latitudes of about 34 and 40 degrees.

There is a considerable increase of consumption of American tobacco in Europe, as well as in the United States, which should encourage the planters of Virginia and North Carolina to cultivate this article more abundantly than they have done for several years past; and, since the home manufacture has increased so much, and the Virginia tobacco is preferred in many parts of the European markets, they may safely count on getting good prices for many years to come.

It is not in the power of Virginia to make any three years together more than 56,000 hhds., even with good seasons, and 30,000 hhds. annually of this will be wanted by our manufacturers.

The planters, then, should enrich their lands, and aim to make full crops.

The increased consumption in Europe is three per cent., and in the United States four per cent. per annum.

The crop of the United States from 1840 to 1850 inclusive--say 11 years--averaged about 160,000 hhds.; this embraces the large crops of 1842-43-44.

The consumption of Europe from 1829 to 1838 was 96,826 hhds.--it is now 130,000.

An account of the quantities of unmanufactured tobacco, manufactured called negro-head, and cigars, imported into the United Kingdom in 1850:--

Countries from whence imported. Unmanufactured Manufactured United States of America 30,173,444 1,191,001 Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador 895,523 527 Brazil 12,138 56,802 Peru 8,649 6 Cuba 589,627 153,819 British West Indies, including Demerara and Honduras 26,169 3,242 British Territories in the East Indies 14,500 25,332 Philippine Islands 12,233 51,210 Hongkong and China 2,706 2,340 Turkey, Syria, and Egypt 140,361 2,882 Malta 13,028 7,818 Italy, Sardinian Territories 431,939 17 Gibraltar 7 3,063 Spain 307,641 1,100 France 29,950 1,521 Channel Islands 149 1,342 Belgium 29,922 6,579 Holland 2,418,732 9,078 Hanseatic Towns 50,610 36,680 Other parts 8,930 1,980 ---------- --------- Total unmanufactured 35,166,358 1,556,321 Ditto manfactured 1,556,321 Snuff 1,197 ---------- Total 36,723,876

From the tobacco circulars of Messrs. Clagett, Son, and Co., leading brokers of London, dated Feb., 1st, 1850, I take the following extracts:--

The exhaustion of the stock has resulted from the concurrence of a gradually decreasing supply and increasing consumption, which may be very clearly perceived by a reference, first to the official returns from New Orleans of the yearly receipts of the western crops in each of the last seven years; and secondly, to the consumption of American tobacco in Great Britain and Ireland in the years 1847, 1848, and 1849, as compared with that of 1840, 1841, and 1842. We have no means of exhibiting with similar accuracy the relative consumption of Continental Europe in the latter as compared with the former part of these last ten years, but it is quite reasonable to assume that the increase, where there has been little or no duty, must have gone on more rapidly than it has done here, under the restraining force of a duty of 800 to 900 per cent.

The deliveries from London and Liverpool, independently of those from Scotland, Bristol, and Newcastle, for the use of Great Britain and Ireland, have been as follows:--In 1840, 15,037 hhds.; 1841, 15,019 hhds.; 1842, 15,468 hhds.; 1847, 18,091 hhds.; 1848, 18,595 hhds.; 1849, 18,738 hhds.

The highest estimates we have seen of the whole of the crops of the United Slates in 1849, do not exceed 140,000 hhds., of which it is not doubted that fully 45,000 hhds. will be required for consumption there, and we estimate the supply required for the consumption of Europe, South America, the West Indies, and Africa, at certainly not less than 125,000 hhds.; if these estimates be realised in fact, it will follow that the stocks at the close of this year must be 30,000 hhds. less than at the close of 1849.

We estimate the present consumption of American tobacco in Great Britain and Ireland as follows:--

The deliveries in London and Liverpool in 1849, were 18,738 hhds.; do. do. Bristol 1,400 hhds.; do. do. Scotland we assume at 2,800 hhds. Total 22,939.

Of Stripts, the deliveries in Liverpool last year were 8,544 hhds., of which about 300 were for exportation; the deliveries, therefore, were--For the use of Great Britain and Ireland, 8,250 hhds. In London we have no account of the deliveries of stripts, as distinguished from leaf, for the whole of last year; it is doubtless less than that in Liverpool, and we assume it at 7,000 hhds.; in Bristol it was about 900 hhds.; in Scotland we assume it at 2,400 hhds. Total 18,550 hhds.

Now, assuming 1,500 hhds. of the deliveries in Scotland and Bristol to be included in the coastwise returns in London and Liverpool, then the consumption of Great Britain and Ireland would appear to be about 21,500 hhds. of American tobacco, and 17,000 for these to be stripts. The progressive increase which we have shown in the returns of 1849, as compared with those of 1840, must still go on.

Without troubling you with any detail of the stocks in each of the several markets, it may be sufficient to show that the summary of the whole in all the markets of Europe, other than Great Britain, consisted on the 31st December, 1849, of about 22,000 hhds.; of which about 18,000 were Maryland and 2,000 stalks; and it is important to notice especially the fact, that the stocks of the manufacturers and dealers in Germany, Holland and Belgium are unusually small. We have taken very considerable care to inform ourselves on this point, and are fully satisfied that the usual stocks in second or dealers' hands do not exist. The whole demand of the year must, therefore, be supplied from those stocks in importers' hands, from England or from the United States.

The following were the prices current in London in the spring of 1853:--Virginia Leaf, common, per pound, 3¼d. to 3¾d.; middling, 5d. to 6d.; good and fine 6½d. to 7½d. Stripts, 5½d. to 10d. Kentucky Leaf: common 3d., to 3½d.; middling, 3¾d. to 4½d.; good and fine, 5d. to 6d. Stripts, 5d. to 7d. Maryland, 3½d. to 9d. Negrohead and Cavendish: common and heated, 4d. to 6d.; middling to good, 6d. to 8d. and 9d.; fine, 10d., 12d., 16d.; Barret's none. Columbian, 7d. to 1s. 8d.; Brazil, 3d. to 6d.; flat, 5d. to 1s. 1d.; Manilla, 7d. to 2s. 6d.; Havana, 10d. to 5s.; Yara, 11d. to 3s.; Cuba, 9d. to 1s. 1d.; ingars, 3s. to 16s.; cheroots, Manilla, 7s. 6d., nominal; German and Amersfoort 4d. to 1s. 3d.; stalks, duty paid, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d.; smalls, 2s. 9d to 2s.

The shipments to Europe were 76,516 hhds. against 40,652 hhds. the previous year, and 43,576 hhds. in 1850. The rapidity of sales, the diminished stocks even now held in first hands, were taken as an infallible index of the progressive rate of consumption; and of a truth the quantity of hogsheads received in the principal markets of Belgium, Holland, Germany, and the North, and as speedily relieved from the control of the importers, was enough to control even those who were alive to the existing necessities of Europe, and to give a color to the rumour of almost inexhaustible consumption.

This extraordinary demand for tobacco on the continent has been occasioned by three distinct causes; the first of which was the pressing wants which, for the last two years, were well known to have existed, and the constant willingness of consumers to act at the very moderate rates which prevailed some time last spring. The second was the compulsory purchases by the Austrian Government, amounting, it is estimated, to 20,000 hhds., by reason that the discontented Hungarians, for political considerations, abandoned altogether the cultivation of tobacco, and which deficiency was obliged to be replaced by American growths. The third cause also had a political origin: the anticipation of the extension of the Zollverein or German Customs League to the Kingdoms of Hanover and Oldenburg, whereby the duties on tobacco in those countries would be greatly increased, was a natural incentive to the dealers and manufacturers there to lay in heavy stocks, to reap the benefit thereon; and these last two causes, therefore, may be viewed in the light of fortuitous circumstances, which have fostered a speculation originally founded on the cheapness of money alone.

It has been shown, and the statistics of the past year fully confirm the statement, that a plethora of money and prosperity among the middle classes of society, while it induces to the consumption of tobacco in general, rather curtails than otherwise the demand for American growths. A poor man addicted to smoking takes his pipe not from choice, but necessity; as he grows independent, the humble pipe is abandoned and the more costly cigar assumed. We have frequently heard this matter noticed, more especially after the disasters which followed the railway speculations of 1846, when the demand for English cigars sensibly declined; and we have now a further verification of the assertion in the opposite sense, the sales of cigar materials in Bremen having been extended more than 40 per cent, in three years, viz., from 94,750 bales and cases in 1850 to 135,650 during last season.

From New Orleans we learn that the arrivals from the interior since the 1st September had amounted to 18,043 hhds. against 5,165 hhds. last season, and the stock on hand was 24,128 hhds. against 7,927 hhds. only.

The shipments from Virginia during the past year exceeded 13,700 hhds. In 1851 they were under 4,000 casks.

From Baltimore 54,272 hhds. have been exported. The official figures for the previous year gave 35,967 as the total.

The aggregate stock of tobacco on the 1st of January last, in the principal ports of America, was taken at 52,982 hhds. against 45,292 the year before and the growth of the Western States, Virginia, and Maryland during 1852, to come forward for our supply the present season, is estimated at 185,000 hhds., notwithstanding all the unfavorable influences and curtailing causes which were said to have prevailed.

The method adopted of cultivating tobacco in Virginia is thus described:

Several rich, moist, but not too wet spots of ground are chosen out in the fall, each containing about a quarter of an acre or more, according to the magnitude of the crop, and the number of plants it may require.

These spots, which are generally in the woods, are cleared, and covered with brush or timber, for five or six feet thick and upwards; this is suffered to remain upon it until the time when the tobacco seed must be sowed, which is within twelve days after Christmas. The evening is commonly chosen to set these places on fire, and when everything thereon is consumed to ashes, the ground is dug up, mixed with the ashes, and broken very fine. The tobacco seed, which is exceedingly small, being mixed with ashes also, is then sown and just raked in lightly; the whole is immediately covered with brushwood for shelter to keep it warm, and a slight fence thrown around it. In this condition it remains until the frosts are all gone, when the brush is taken off, and the young plants are exposed to the nutritive and genial warmth of the sun, which quickly invigorates them in an astonishing degree, and soon renders them strong and large enough to be removed for planting, especially if they be not sown too thick. Every tobacco planter, assiduous to secure a sufficient quantity of plants, generally has several of these plant beds in different situations, so that if one should fail, another may succeed; and an experienced planter commonly takes care to have ten times as many plants, as he can make use of.

In these beds, along with the tobacco, they generally sow kale, colewort, and cabbage seed, &c., at the same time.

There are seven different kinds of tobacco, particularly adapted to the different qualities of the soil on which they are cultivated, and each varying from the other. They are named Hudson, Frederick, Thick-joint, Shoe-string, Thickset, Sweet-scented, and Oronoko. But although these are the principal, yet there are a great many different species besides, with names peculiar to the situations, settlements and neighbourhoods wherein they are produced; which it would be too tedious here to specify and particularise. The soil for tobacco must be rich and strong; the ground is prepared in the following manner:--after being well broke up and by repeated working, either with the plough or hand hoes, rendered soft, light, and mellow, the whole field is made into hills, each to take up the space of three feet, and flattened at the top.

In the first rains, which are here called seasons, after the vernal equinox, the tobacco plants are carefully drawn while the ground is soft; carried to the field where they are to be planted, and one dropped upon every hill, which is done by the negro children. The most skilful slaves then begin planting them, by making a hole with their finger in each hill, inserting the plant with the taproot carefully placed straight down, and pressing the earth on each side of it. This is continued as long as the ground is wet enough to enable the plants sufficiently grown to draw and set; and it requires several different seasons, or periods of rain, to enable them to complete planting their crop, which operation is frequently not finished until July.

After the plants have taken root, and begin to grow, the ground is carefully weeded and worked, either with hand hoes or the plough, according as it will admit. After the plants have considerably increased in bulk, and begin to shoot up, the tops are pinched off, and only ten, twelve, or sixteen leaves left, according to the quality of the tobacco and the soil. The worms, also, are carefully picked off and destroyed, of which there are two species that prey upon tobacco. One is the ground worm, which cuts it off just beneath the surface of the earth; this must be carefully looked for and trodden to death; it is of a dark brown color, and short. The other is a horn worm, some inches in length, as thick as your little finger, of a vivid green color, with a number of pointed excrescences or feelers from his head like horns. These devour the leaf, and are always upon the plant. As it would be endless labor to keep their hands constantly in search of them, it would be almost impossible to prevent their eating up more than half the crop had it not been discovered that turkeys are particularly dexterous at finding them, eat them up voraciously, and prefer them to every other food. For this purpose every planter keeps a flock of turkeys, which he has driven into the tobacco grounds every day by a little negro that can do nothing else; these keep his tobacco more clear from horn worms than all the hands he has got could do were they employed solely for that end. When the tops are nipped off, a few plants are left untouched for seed. On the plants that have been topped, young shoots are apt to spring out, which are termed suckers, and are carefully and constantly broken off lest they should draw too much of the nourishment and substance from the leaves of the plant. This operation is also performed from time to time, and is called "suckering tobacco." For some time before it is ripe, or ready for cutting, the ground is perfectly covered with leaves, which have increased to a prodigious size, and then the plants are generally about three feet high. When it is ripe, a clammy moisture or exudation comes forth upon the leaves, which appear, as it were, ready to become spotted, and they are then of a great weight and substance. The tobacco is cut when the sun is powerful, but not in the morning and evening. The plant, if large, is split down the middle, and cut off two or three inches below the extremity of the split; it is then turned directly bottom upwards, for the sun to kill it more speedily, to enable the laborers to carry it out of the field, else the leaves would break off in transporting it to the scaffold. The plants are cut only as they become ripe, for a field never ripens altogether. There is generally a second cutting likewise, for the stalk vegetates and shoots forth again, and in good land, with favorable seasons, there is a third cutting also procured, notwithstanding acts of the Legislature to prevent cutting tobacco even a second time.

When the tobacco plants are cut and brought to the scaffolds, which are generally erected all around the tobacco houses, they are placed with the split across a small oak stick, an inch and better in diameter and four feet and a half long, so close as each plant just to touch the other without bruising or pressing. These sticks are then placed on the scaffolds, with the tobacco thus suspended in the middle, to dry or cure, and are called tobacco sticks. As the plants advance in curing, the sticks are removed from the scaffolds out of doors into the tobacco house, on to other scaffolds erected therein in successive regular gradations from the bottom to the top of the roof, being placed higher as the tobacco approaches to a perfect cure, until the house is all filled and the tobacco quite cured, and this cure is frequently promoted by making fires on the floor below. When the tobacco house is quite full, and there is still more tobacco to bring in, all that is within the house is struck, and taken down, and carefully placed in bulks, or regular rows, one upon another, and the whole covered with trash tobacco, or straw, to preserve it in a proper condition, that is moist, which prevents its wasting and crumbling to pieces. But, to enable them to strike the cured tobacco, they must wait for what is there called a season, that is rainy or moist weather, when the plants will better bear handling, for in dry weather the leaves would all crumble to pieces in the attempt. By this means a tobacco house may be filled two, three, or four times in the year. Every night the negroes are sent to the tobacco house to strip, that is to pull off the leaves from the stalk, and tie them up in hands or bundles. This is also their daily occupation in rainy weather. In stripping, they are careful to throw away all the ground leaves and faulty tobacco, binding up none but what is merchantable. The hands or bundles thus tied up are also laid in what are called a bulk, and covered with the refuse tobacco or straw to preserve their moisture. After this, the tobacco is carefully packed in hogsheads, and pressed down with a large beam laid over it, on the ends of which prodigious weights are suspended, the other end being inserted with a mortice in a tree, close to which the hogshead is placed. This vast pressure is continued for some days, and then the cask is filled up again with tobacco until it will contain no more, after which it is headed up and carried to the pubic warehouses for inspection. At these warehouses two skilful planters constantly attend, and receive a salary from the public for that purpose. They are sworn to inspect with honesty, care, and impartiality, all the tobacco that comes to the warehouse, and none is allowed to be shipped that is not regularly inspected. The head of the cask is taken off, and the tobacco is opened by means of large, long iron wedges, and great labour, in such places as the inspectors direct. After this strict attentive examination, if they find it good and merchantable, it is replaced in the cask, weighed at the public scales, the weight of the tobacco and of the cask also cut in the wood on the cask, stowed away in the public warehouses, and a note given to the proprietor, which he disposes of to the merchant, and he neither sees nor has any trouble with his tobacco more. The weight of each hogshead must be 950 lbs. nett, exclusive of the cask--for less a note will not be given. Under the name of a crop hogshead, however, the general weight is from 1,000 to 1,200 or 1,300 lbs. nett, but if the tobacco is found to be totally bad, and refused as unmerchantable, the whole is publicly burnt in a place set apart for that purpose. However, if it be judged that there is some merchantable tobacco in the hogshead, the owner must unpack the whole publicly on the spot, for he is not permitted to take any of it away again, and must select and separate the good from the bad; the last is immediately committed to the flames, and for the first he receives a transfer note, specifying the weight, quality, &c. This great and very laudable care was taken by the public to prevent frauds, which, however, was not always effectual, for, even with all these precautions, many acts of iniquity and imposition were committed.

So little is this crop cultivated in the States north of Maryland, that scarcely any notice has been taken of it in the agricultural or other public journals.

In Connecticut, in some few towns of Hartford county, considerable attention has been directed to it for a number of years past. A ton and a-half the acre is said to be no uncommon yield. The tobacco is planted very thick, two feet and a half each way. The seed came originally from Virginia. It is cured in houses, without having been yellowed in the sun, and without the use of fire. It is said that the best Havana cigars (as they are termed) are often manufactured from mixed Cuba and American tobacco, and sold under that name in Connecticut.

In the Connecticut Valley is produced about 500 tons of tobacco annually, the average quantity, 1,500 lbs. per acre, value from seven to ten cents per pound.

_Culture_.--Seed bed made rich and sown as cabbage early in April as possible.

Land well ploughed and manured and harrowed as for corn, laid out in rows three feet apart, and slight hills in the row about two and a-half feet apart; begin to plant about 10th of June, the ground to be kept clean with hoe and cultivator, and examine the plants and keep clear of worms.

"When in blossom and before seed is formed, the plants must be topped about thirty-two inches from the ground, having from sixteen to twenty leaves on each stalk, after this the suckers are broken off, and the plants kept clean till cut. When ripe the leaves are spotted, thick, and will crack when pressed between the fingers and thumb. It is cut at any time of the day, after the dew is off, left in the row till wilted, then turned, and if there is a hot sun, it is often turned to prevent burning; after wilting it is put into small heaps of six or eight plants, then carried to the tobacco house for hanging, usually on poles twelve feet long; hung with twine about forty plants to a pole, twenty on each side, crossing the pole with a hitch knot to the stump end of the plants; when perfectly cured, which is known by the stems of the leaves being completely dry, it is then taken in a damp time, when the leaves will not crumble, from the poles and placed in large piles, by letting the tops of the plants lap each other, leaving the butts out; it remains in these heaps from three to ten days before it is stripped, depending on the state of weather, but it must not be allowed to heat. When stripped it is made into small hands, the small and broken leaves to be kept by themselves; it is then packed in boxes of about 400 lbs. and marked "Seed Leaf Tobacco."

One acre of tobacco will require as much labor as two of corn that produce 60 bags to the acre, and requires about the same quantity of manure. If the tobacco can be cured without fire heat the quality will be improved, and if dried in the open air, should have shades of boards to keep off rain and excess of sun. The chief market for Connecticut tobacco is Bremen.

In a number of the "Charleston Southern Planter," a remedy is described for preventing the destruction of plants by the fly. The writer says: "I had a bushel or two of dry ashes put into a large tub, and added train oil enough (say one gallon of oil to the bushel of ashes) to damp and flavor the ashes completely: this was well stirred and mixed with the hand, and sown broadcast over certain patches, and proved thoroughly effectual for several years, while parts left without the remedy were destroyed."

The best ground for raising the plant, according to Capt. Carver ("Treatise on Culture of Tobacco," &c.), is a warm rich soil, not subject to be overrun with weeds. The soil in which it grows in Virginia is inclining to sandy, consequently warm and light; the nearer, therefore, the nature of the land approaches to that, the greater probability there is of its flourishing. The situation most preferable for a plantation is the southern declivity of a hill, or a spot sheltered from the blighting north winds. But at the same time the plants must enjoy a free current of air; for if that be obstructed they will not prosper.

The different sorts of seed not being distinguishable from each other, nor the goodness to be ascertained by its appearance, great caution should be used in obtaining the seed through some responsible mercantile house, or individual of character.

Each capsule contains about a thousand seeds, and the whole produce of a single plant has been estimated at 350,000. The seeds are usually ripe in the month of September, and when perfectly dry may be rubbed out and preserved in bags till the following season.

There is a large quantity of tobacco raised in the southern part of Indiana annually, equal in quality to the tobacco raised in Kentucky. In some counties the article is extensively cultivated, and generally pays the producer a handsome profit on the labor bestowed on it. The cultivation of it is becoming more extensive every year. Nearly all this crop is taken to Louisville for sale, very little being shipped south on account of the producer.

Heretofore, owing to the heaviness of tobacco and bad roads, the producer has encountered great difficulties in getting his crop to market. The hauling of a few hogsheads fifty or sixty miles, or even forty, is no light job, even over good roads. Hence, tobacco has not been as extensively cultivated as it would have been under different circumstances. But, with the facilities afforded by the railroads in carrying their crops to market, I doubt not the farmers of the interior will more generally engage in the cultivation of tobacco, and those who have been in the habit of raising small crops will extend their operations.

In Maryland the seed is sown in beds of fine mould, and the plants arising therefrom are transplanted in the beginning of May. They are set at the distance of three or four feet apart, and are hilled, and kept continually free from weeds. When as many leaves have shot out as the soil will nourish to advantage, the top of the plant is broken off, which of course prevents its growing higher. It is carefully kept clear from worms, and the suckers which put out between the leaves are taken off at proper times, till the plant arrives at perfection, which is in August. When the leaves turn of a brownish color, and begin to be spotted, the plants are cut down and hung up to dry, after having sweated in heaps one night. When the leaves can be handled without crumbling, which is always in moist weather, they are stripped from the stalks, tied up in bundles, and packed for exportation in hogsheads. No suckers nor ground leaves are allowed to be merchantable. An industrious person may manage 6,000 plants of tobacco, which will yield 1,000 lbs. of dried leaves, and also four acres of Indian corn.

Miller, an American author, thus describes the mode of culture:--

When a regular plantation of tobacco is intended, the beds being prepared and well turned up with the hoe, the seed, on account of its smallness and to prevent the ravages of ants, is mixed with ashes and sown upon them, a little before the rainy season. The beds are raked, or trampled with the foot, to make the seed take the sooner. The plants appear in two or three weeks. As soon as they have acquired four leaves, the strongest are carefully drawn up and planted in the field by a line, at a distance of about three feet from each other. If no rain fall, they should be watered two or three times. Every morning and evening the plants must he looked over in order to destroy a worm which sometimes invades the bud. When they are about four or five inches high, they are to be cleaned from weeds and moulded up. As soon as they have eight or nine leaves, and are ready to put forth a stalk, the top is nipped off in order to make the leaves longer and thicker. After this the buds which sprout at the joints of the leaves are also plucked off, and not a day is suffered to pass without examining the leaves to destroy the large caterpillar, which is often most destructive to them. When they are fit for cutting, which is known by the brittleness of the leaves, they are cut off with a knife close to the ground, and, after lying some time, are carried to the drying-shed or house, where the plants are hung up by pairs upon lines, leaving a space between, that they may not touch one another. When perfectly dry, the leaves are stripped from the stalks and made into small bundles, tied with one of the leaves. These bundles are laid in heaps and covered with blankets; care is taken not to overheat them, for which reason the heaps are laid open to the air from time to time, and spread abroad. This operation is repeated till no more heat is perceived in the heaps, and the tobacco is then ready for packing and shipping.

I have been favored by Mr. J. M. Hernandez, a Cuba planter, with some valuable instructions for the cultivation of Cuba tobacco, which I subjoin. These remarks apply principally to America, but most of the advice and information will be found generally applicable to other localities:--

The first thing to be considered in this, as in every other culture, is the soil, which for this kind of tobacco (_N. repanda_) ought to be a rich, sandy, loam, neither too high nor too low--that is, ground capable of retaining moisture, the more level the better, and, if possible, well protected by margins. The next should be the selection of a spot of ground to make the necessary beds. It would be preferable to make those on land newly cleared, or, at all events, when the land has not been seeded with grass; for grass seeds springing up together with the tobacco would injure it materially, as the grass cannot be removed without disturbing the tobacco plants. In preparing the ground for the nurseries, break it up properly, grub up all the small stumps, dig out the roots, and carefully remove them with the hand. This being done, make the beds from three to four inches high, of a reasonable length, and from three to three and a-half feet broad, so as to enable the hand, at arm's length, to weed out the tender young plants with the fingers from both sides of the bed, and keep them perfectly clean.

The months of December and January are the most proper for sowing the seed in Florida. Some persons speak of planting it as early as the month of November, I am, however, of opinion, that about the latter part of December is the best time to sow tobacco seed; any sooner would expose the plants to suffer from the inclemency of the most severe part of the winter season. Before the seed is sown take some dry trash and burn it off upon the nursery beds, to destroy insects and grass seeds; then take one ounce of tobacco seed and mix it with about a quart of dry ashes, so as to separate the seed as much; as possible, and sow it broadcast. After the seed has been thus sown, the surface of the bed ought to be raked over slightly, and trodden upon by the foot, carrying the weight of the body with it, that the ground may at once adhere closely to the seed, and then water it. Should the nursery-beds apparently become dry from blighting winds or other causes, watering will be absolutely necessary, for the ground ought to be kept in a moist state from the time the seed is planted until the young plants are large enough to be set out.

The nurseries being made, proceed to prepare the land where the tobacco is to be set out. If the land is newly cleared--and new land is probably more favorable to the production of this plant than it is to that of any other, both as respects quality and quantity--remove as many of the stumps and roots as possible, and dig up the ground in such a manner as to render the surface perfectly loose; then level the ground, and in this state leave it until the nursery plants have acquired about one-half the growth necessary to admit of their being set out; then break up the ground a second time in the same manner as at first, as in this way all the small fibres of roots and their rooted parts will be more or less separated, and thus obviate much of that degree of sponginess so common to new land, and which is in a great measure the cause of new land seldom producing well the first year, as the soil does not lay close enough to the roots of the plants growing in it, so that a shower of rain produces no other effect than that of removing the earth still more from them.

The ground having been prepared and properly levelled off, and the plants, sufficiently grown to be taken up--say of the size of good cabbage plants--take advantage of the first wet or cloudy weather to commence setting them out. This should be done with great care, and the plants put single at equal distances, that is, about three feet north and south, and two and a-half, or two and three-fourths feet east and west. They are placed thus close to each other to prevent the leaves growing too large. The direction of the rows, however, should alter according to the situation of the land; where it has any inclination, the widest space should run across it, as the bed will have to be made so as to prevent the soil from being washed from the roots by rain when bedded; but where the land is rather level, the three feet rows should be north and south, so as to give to the plants a more full effect on them by passing across the beds, than by crossing them in an oblique direction. To set the plants out regularly, take a task line of 105 feet in length, with a pointed stick three feet long attached to each end of it, then insert a small piece of rag or something else through the line at the distance of two feet and three-fourths from each other; place it north and south (or as the land may require), at full length, and then set a plant at every division, carefully keeping the bud of the plant above the surface of the ground. Then remove the line three feet from the first row, and so on, until the planting is completed. Care ought to be taken to prevent the stretching of the line from misplacing the plants. In this way the plants can be easily set out, and a proper direction given to them both ways. In taking the plants up from the nursery, the ground should be first loosened with a flat piece of wood or iron, about an inch broad; then carefully holding the leaves close towards each other between the fingers, draw them up, and place them in a basket or some other convenient thing to receive them for planting. After taking up those that can be planted during the day, water the nursery that the earth may again adhere to the remaining ones. The evening is the best time for setting out the plants, but where a large field has to be cultivated it will be well to plant both morning and evening. The plants set out in the morning, unless in rainy or cloudy weather, should be covered immediately, and the same should be done with those planted the evening previous, should the day open with a clear sunshine,--the palmetto leaf answers the purpose very well. There should be water convenient to the plants, so as to have them watered morning and evening, but more particularly in the evening, until they have taken root. They should also be closely examined when watered, so as to replace such plants as happen to die, that the ground may be properly occupied, and that all the plants may open as nearly together as possible.

From the time the plants are set out, the earth around them should be occasionally stirred, both with the hand and hoe. At first hoe flat, but as soon as the leaves assume a growing disposition, begin gradually to draw a slight heel towards the plant. The plants must be closely examined, even while in the nursery, to destroy the numerous worms that feed upon them--some, by cutting the stalk and gnawing the leaves when first set out; these resemble the grub-worm, and are to be found near the injured plant, under ground; others, which come from the eggs deposited on the plant by the butterfly, and feed on the leaf, grow to a very large size, and look very ugly, and are commonly called the tobacco-worm. There is also a small worm which attacks the bud of the plant, and which is sure destruction to its further growth; and some again, though less destructive, are to be seen within the two coats of the leaf, feeding as it were on its juices alone. The worming should be strictly attended to every morning and evening, until the plants are pretty well grown, when every other day will be sufficient. The most proper persons for worming are either boys or girls from ten to fourteen years of age. They should be made to come to the tobacco ground early in the morning, and be led by inducements, such as giving a trifling reward to those who will bring the most worms, to clear it thoroughly. Grown persons would find it rather too tedious to stoop to examine the under part of every leaf, and seek the worm under ground: nor would they be so much alive to the value of a spoonful of sugar, or other light reward. Beside, where the former would make the search a matter of profit and pleasure, it would to the latter prove only a tedious and irksome occupation. Here I will observe, that it is for similar reasons that the culture of the Cuba tobacco plant more properly belongs to a white population, for there are few plants requiring more attention and tender treatment than it does. Indeed it will present a sorry appearance, unless the eye of its legitimate proprietor is constantly watching over it.

When the plants have acquired from twelve to fourteen good leaves, and are about knee high, it may be well to begin to top them, by nipping off the bud with the aid of the finger and thumb nail (washing the hands after this in water is necessary, as the acid juices of the plants, otherwise, soon produce a soreness on the fingers), taking care not to destroy the small leaves immediately near the bud: for if the land is good and the season favorable, those very small top leaves will in a short time be nearly as large, and ripen quite as soon as the lower ones, whereby two or more leaves may be saved; thus obtaining from 16 to 18 leaves, in the place of 12 or 14, which is the general average. As the topping of the tobacco plant is all essential in order to promote the growth, and to equalise the ripening of the leaves, I would observe that this operation should at all events commence the instant that the bud of the plant shows a disposition to go to seed, and be immediately followed by removing the suckers, which it will now put out at every leaf. Indeed, the suckers should be removed from the plant as often as they appear. The tobacco plant ought never to be cut before it comes to full maturity, which is known by the leaves becoming mottled, coarse, and of a thick texture, and gummy to the touch, at which time the end of the leaf, by being doubled, will break short, which it will not do to the same extent when green. It ought not to be out in wet weather, when the leaves lose their natural gummy substance, so necessary to be preserved. About this period, the cultivator is apt to be rendered anxious by the fear of allowing the plants to remain in the field longer than necessary; until experience removes those apprehensions, he should be on his guard, however, not to destroy the quality of his tobacco, by cutting it too soon. When the cutting is to commence, there should be procured a quantity of forked stakes, set upright, with a pole or rider setting on each fork ready to support the tobacco, and to keep it from the ground. The plant is then cut obliquely, even with the surface of the ground, and the person thus employed should strike the lower end of the stalk, two or three times with the blunt side of his knife, so as to cause as much of the sand or soil to fall from it as possible, then tying two stalks together, they are gently placed across the riders or poles prepared to receive them. In this state they are allowed to remain in the sun or open air until the leaves have somewhat withered, whereby they will not be liable to the injury which they would otherwise receive, if they came suddenly in contact with other bodies when fresh cut. Then place as many plants on each pole or rider as may be conveniently carried, and take them in the drying house, where the tobacco is strung off upon the frames prepared for it, leaving a small space between the two plants, that air may circulate freely among them, and promote their drying. As the drying advances, the stalks are brought closer to each other, so as to make room for those which yet remain to be housed.

In drying the tobacco, all damp air should be excluded, nor ought the drying of it to be precipitated by the admission of high drying winds. The process is to be promoted in the most moderate manner, except in the rainy season, when the sooner the drying is effected the better; for it is a plant easily affected by the changes of the weather, after the drying commences. It is then liable to mildew in damp weather, which is when the leaf changes from its original color to a pale yellow cast, and from this, by parts, to an even brown. When the middle stem is perfectly dry, it can be taken down, and the leaves stripped from the stalk and put in bulk to sweat, that is, to make tobacco of them; for before this process, when a concentration of its better qualities takes place, the leaves are always liable to be affected by the weather, and cannot well be considered as being anything else than common dry leaves, partaking of the nature of tobacco, but not actually tobacco. The leaves are to be stripped from the stalks in damp or cloudy weather, when they are more easily handled, and the separation of the different qualities rendered also more easy. The good leaves are at this time kept by themselves as wrappers, or caps, and the most defective ones for fillings, or _tripa_. When the tobacco is put in _bulk_, the stem of the leaves should all be kept in one direction, to facilitate the tying of them in hanks: afterwards make the bulk two of three feet high, and of a proportionate circumference. To guard against the leaves becoming over-heated, and to equalise the fermentation or sweating, after the first twenty-four hours, place the outside leaves in the centre, and those of the centre to the outside of the _bulk_. By doing this once or twice, and taking care to cover the _bulk_ either with sheets or blankets, so as to exclude all air from it, and leaving it in this state for about forty days, it acquires an odor strong enough to produce sneezing, and the other qualities of cured tobacco. The process of curing may then be considered as completed. Then take some of the most injured leaves, but of the best quality, and in proportion to the quantity of tobacco made, and place them in clean water, there let them remain until they rot, which they will do in about eight days; then break open your _bulks_, spread the tobacco with their stems in one direction, and damp them with this water in a gentle manner, that it may not soak through the leaf, for in this case the leaf would rot. Sponge is used in Cuba for this operation. Then tie them in hanks of from, twenty-five to thirty leaves; this being done, spread the hanks in the tobacco house for about twelve hours, to air them, that the dampness may be removed, and afterwards pack them in casks or barrels, and head them tight, until you wish to manufacture them.

The object of damping the tobacco with this water, is to give it elasticity, to promote its burning free, to increase its fragrance; to give it an aromatic smell, and to keep it always soft. This is the great secret of curing tobacco for cigars properly, and for which we are indebted to the people of Cuba, who certainly understand the mode of curing this kind of tobacco better than other people. It is to them a source of great wealth, and may be made equally so to others. We have here three cuttings from the original plants; the last cutting will be of rather a weak quality, but which, nevertheless, will be agreeable to those who confine their smoking to weak tobacco.

In ratooning the plant, only one sprout ought to be allowed to grow, and this from those most deeply rooted; all other sprouts ought to be destroyed.

The houses necessary for the curing of tobacco ought to be roomy, with a passage way running through the centre, from one extremity of the building to the other, and pierced on both sides with a sufficient number of doors and windows to make them perfectly airy.

In addition to what I have said respecting the mode of cultivating and treating the tobacco plant, I have further to state, that when once the plant is allowed to be checked in its growth, it never again recovers it. That in promoting the drying of the leaf, fire should not be resorted to, because the smoke would impart to it a flavor that would injure that of the tobacco itself.

In order to obtain vigorous plants, the seed ought to be procured from the original stalk, and not from the ratoons, by allowing some of them to go to seed for that express purpose. In Cuba, the seed is most generally saved from the ratoon plants, but we should consider that that climate and soil are probably more favorable to the production of the plant than America, and consequently we ought to confide in the best seed, which is had from the original stalk.

All plants have their peculiar empire: nevertheless, we should not be deterred from planting Cuba tobacco here; for even if we should be compelled to import the seed every third year, which would be as often as necessary, it would still prove a profitable culture. Taking 600 lbs., which is the average product per acre, it would yield, if well cured, at 50 cents, per lb., 300 dollars in the leaf.

The following exhibits the profit to be derived from it when manufactured into cigars:--

Dls. Dls. Six hundred pounds, allowing eight pounds to the 1.000, would produce 75,000 cigars, which at ten dollars per thousand 750.00 Cost of the leaf 300.00 Worth of manufacture, at two dollars fifty cents per thousand 187.50 487.50 -------- Difference in favor of manufacturer 262.50

This amount being the profits of the manufacturer alone, the profit to him who could combine both pursuits would be more than doubled.

As to the quantity of land which can be cultivated to the hand, there is some difference in the practice of planters; however, I think that I am within the usual calculation in saying, that an acre and a half would not exceed the quantity that an able hand can easily cultivate and manage properly.

"With reference to the cultivation of Spanish tobacco from the seed, the following remarks are also made by a gentleman residing in Maryland:--

My experience for some years in the cultivation and manufacture of Spanish tobacco into cigars, convinces me that the first-rate variety of Spanish tobacco--that is, the most odorous and fine--will bear reproduction in our climate twice, without much deterioration; by that time it becomes acidulated and worthless as Spanish tobacco. For seven years I have imported annually first seed from Cuba, but have occasionally made experiments with reproduced seed, and I have arrived at the conclusion above stated. I have obtained, annually, a cigar maker from Baltimore, who has made for me on my farm, and from Spanish tobacco. These produced about the average of 70,000 cigars, per year; they have been sold in Baltimore and Philadelphia for five dollars the half box, that is ten dollars the thousand. The tobacco has been uniformly admired, but in former years they have been very badly made; for the last two years, (writing in 1843,) my crops were destroyed by the unfavorable weather. This growth and manufacture do not interfere with my cultivation of other crops; in fact they are wholly unconnected with the other operations of the farmer." He mentions having obtained a premium from an agricultural society, for having produced on one and a half acres, growth and manufacture included, of Spanish tobacco 504 dollars net profit.

The following letter from Mr. Clarke, to the Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, Washington, speaks favorably of a new variety of tobacco:--

Willow Grove, Orange County, Virginia,

Feb. 13, 1844.

Dear Sir,--Agreeably to my promise I enclose you the Californian tobacco seed. It grew from the small parcel given to me by Mr. Wm. Smith, in your office in March last. On getting home, although late, I prepared a bed, and sowed the small parcel, the first week in April, and not having seed enough to finish the bed, sowed the balance of the bed in Oronoko tobacco seed, and to my astonishment the Californian plants were soon ready to set out, as soon as the other kinds of tobacco sown in the month of January; and the Oronoko seed, that was sown with the Californian, did not arrive to sufficient size until it was too late to set out. The Californian tobacco, if it continues to ripen and grow for the time to come, as it did for me on the first trial, must come into general use--first, because the plants are much earlier in the spring (say ten days at least), than any kind we have; secondly, when transplanted, the growth is remarkably quick, matures and ripens at least from ten to fifteen days earlier than any kind of tobacco we have in use amongst us. It is a large broad, silky leaf, of fine texture, and of a beautiful color, and some plants grow as large as seven feet across, from point to point; upon the whole, I consider it a valuable acquisition to the planting community.

Tobacco is one of the chief staples of Cuba. There are many qualities, but it is usually classed into two kinds. That which is raised on the western end of the island and is unequalled for smoking, is called "Vuelta abajo." That which is raised east of Havana, is called "Vuelta arriba," and is far inferior to the former.

The best Havana tobacco farms are confined to a very narrow area on the south west part of Cuba. This district, twenty-seven leagues long and only seven broad, is bounded on the north by mountains, on the south and west by the ocean, whilst eastward, though there is no natural limit, the tobacco sensibly degenerates in quality. A light sandy soil and rather low situation suit the best.

The "Vuelta abajo" is usually divided into five classes.

Calidad or Libra. Ynjuriado Principal or Firsts. Segundas or Seconds. Terceiras or Thirds. Cuartas or Fourths.

Calidad is the best tobacco, selected for its good color, flavor, elasticity and entireness of the leaves. The bales contain sixty hands of four gabillas, or fingers of twenty-five leaves each, and are marked L.60. Ynjuriado Principal has less flavor, and is usually of a lighter color. The leaves should be whole and somewhat elastic. The bales contain eighty hands of four gabillas, or thirty leaves each, and are marked B. 80. Segundas is the most inferior class of wrapper. There are many good leaves in it, but the hands are usually made up of those which are stained, have a bad color, or have been slightly touched by the worm. The bales contain eighty hands of four gabillas of thirty-six to forty leaves each, and are marked Y. 2a. 80.

Terceiras is the best tilling, and much wrapper can usually be selected from it when new. The bales contain eighty hands of four gabillas of more than forty leaves each, and are marked 3a. 80.

Cuartas is the most inferior class, fit only for filling. The bales contain eighty hands of four gabillas of no determined number of leaves, and are marked 4a. 80.

The Vuelta arriba tobacco is prepared in a similar manner, but neither its color or flavor is good, and it does not burn well.

The crop is gathered in the spring, and usually begins to appear at market in July. Good tobacco should be aromatic, of a rich brown color, without stains, and the leaf thin and elastic. It should burn well and the taste should be neither bitter nor biting. The best is grown on the margins of rivers which are periodically overflowed, and is called "De rio." It is distinguished from other tobacco by a fine sand, which is found in the creases of the leaves.

The tobacco plantations in Cuba increased in number from 5,534 in 1827, to 9,102 in 1846. The production of tobacco has nearly doubled in the province, of which St. Jago is the port, in the last ten years.

The following figures show the exports from the Havana:--

Leaf tobacco. Cigars. 1840 1,031,136 lbs. 147,818 thousand. 1841 1,460,302 " 161,928 " 1842 1,053,161 " 135,127 " 1843 2,125,805 " 153,227 " 1844 1,197,136 " 147,825 " 1845 1,621,889 " 120,352 " 1846 4,066,262 " 158,841 " 1847 1,936,829 " 1,982,267 " 1848 1,350,815 " 150,729 " 1849 1,158,265 " 111,572 "

The class of tobacco shipped at the port of Havana, is not the same as that gathered in the districts from which the manufacturers of cigars there receive their supplies--it would cost too dear. However, it is not a rare occurrence to find among a number of bales a few of a quality about equal to that employed there, and this happens in years when the crop has been very abundant, as in 1846 and 1848. The various classes are paid in proportion to the capa, or outside leaves, which are found in an assortment; the three first classes are employed as covers, and often, if the tobacco is new, they may be found in the fourth and even in the fifth. In parcels well assorted, one-fourth is composed of capa--say, first, second, and third, and the rest is composed of tripa, or interior of the cigar. In the first-named, there generally comes more of the _capa_ than is necessary to use; the remaining bales, which contain the inferior class, are fit only for fillings.

The following is an analysis of the ashes of Havana tobacco:--

Salts of potash 24.30 Salts of lime and magnesia 67.40 Silica 8.30 ----- 100.00

Hayti exported in 1836 1,222,716 lbs. Porto Rico, in 1839 43,203 cwt.

The French have been so successful in cultivating tobacco, in their possessions in Northern Africa, that they hope soon to be independent of the foreign grown article. The mode of preparing it, however, is not very well understood by the colonists. In 1851, the number of planters in Algeria was only 137, whereas in 1852, it was 1,073. The number of hectares under culture with the tobacco plant was 446 in 1851, and 1,095 in 1852. The total of the present year's crop is estimated at 1,780,000 kilogrammes, of which 700,000 kilogrammes have been grown by the natives, and the rest by Europeans.

In the province of Algiers alone, the quantity of tobacco sold will amount to 550,000 kilogrammes, which is nearly three times as much as in 1851, and an equal progression has taken place in the provinces of Oran, and Constantina.

The cultivation of tobacco in Algeria has proved most successful; in 1851, only 264,912 kilogrammes were produced; in 1852, the quantity had risen to 735,199 kilogrammes. There are two crops in the year, the first being the best, but even this is capable of almost indefinite augmentation.

CULTURE OF TOBACCO IN THE EAST.

Having touched upon the practice of culture in the western world, we will now bend our steps towards the east, and it may be curious to notice the method pursued in cultivating and curing the celebrated Shiraz tobacco of Persia (_Nicotiana Persica_), which is so much esteemed for the delicacy of its flavor, and its aromatic quality. It is thus described by an intelligent traveller. The culture of the plant, it will be seen, is nearly the same; it is only the preparation of the tobacco that forms the difference:--

In December the seed is sown in a dark soil, which, has been slightly manured (red clayey soils will not do). To protect the seed, and to keep it warm, the ground is covered with light, thorny bushes, which are removed when the plants are three or four inches high; and during this period, the plants are watered every four or five days, only however in the event of sufficient rain to keep the soil well moistened not falling. The ground must be kept wet until the plants are six to eight inches high, when they are transplanted into a well moistened soil, which has been made into trenches for them; the plants being put on the top of the ridges ten or twelve inches apart, while the trenched plots are made, so as to retain the water given. The day they are transplanted, water must be given to them, and also every five or six days subsequently, unless rain enough falls to render this unnecessary. When the plants have become from thirty to forty inches high, the leaves will be from three to fifteen inches long. At this period, or when the flowers are forming, all the flower capsules are pinched or twisted off. After this operation and watering being continued, the leaves increase in size and thickness until the month of August or September, when each plant is cut off close to the root, and again stuck firmly into the ground. At this season of the year, heavy dews fall during the night; when exposed to these the color of the leaves change from green to the desired yellow. During this stage, of course no water is given to the soil. When the leaves are sufficiently yellow, the plants are taken from the earth early in the morning, and while they are yet wet from the dew, are heaped on each other in a high shed, the walls of which are made with light thorny bushes, where they are freely exposed to the wind. While there, and generally in four or five days, those leaves which are still green become of the desired pale yellow color. The stalks and centre stem of each leaf are now removed, and thrown away, the leaves are heaped together in the drying house for three or four days more, when they are in a fit state for packing. For this operation the leaves are carefully spread on each other and formed into sorts of cakes, the circumference from four to five feet, and three to four inches thick, great care being taken not to break or injure the leaves.

Bags made of strong cloth, but thin and very open at the sides, are filled with these cakes, and pressed very strongly down on each other; the leaves would be broken if this were not attended to. When the bags are filled, they are placed separately in a drying house, and turned daily. If the leaves were so dry that there would be a risk of their breaking during the operation of packing, a very slight sprinkling of water is given them to enable them to withstand it without injury. The leaf is valued for being thick, tough, and of a uniform light yellow color, and of an agreeable aromatic smell.

In India, the Surat, Bilsah, and Sandoway (Arracan) varieties of tobacco are the most celebrated. The two first are found to be good for cultivation in the district about Calcutta, but the Cabool is still more to be preferred. Tobacco requires in the East, for its growth, a soil as fertile and as well manured as for the production of the poppy or opium. It is, therefore, often planted in the spaces enriched by animal and vegetable exuviæ, among the huts of the natives. I have tried seed in different soils, says Capt. C. Cowles,--namely a light garden mould with a large portion of old house rubbish, dug to a good depth, which had a top dressing of the sweepings of the farm-yard and cow-houses; a rather heavy loam, highly manured with burnt and decayed vegetables, and old cow dung; the third was a patch of ground, which was originally an unwholesome swamp, from being eighteen inches to two feet, lower than the surrounding land; the soil appeared to be a hard sterile clay, and covered with long coarse grass and rushes. As there was a tank near it, I cut away one side of it, and threw the soil over the ground, bringing it rather above the level. Such was its appearance, (a hard compost marly clay,) that I expected no other good from it than that of raising the land so as to throw the water off; contrary, however, to my expectations, it produced a much finer crop of tobacco than either of the other soils, and with somewhat less manure. The agricultural process is limited to some practical laws founded on experience, and these are subject to two principal agents; viz., the soil and climate. With respect to the former, it is the practice amongst the growers in tobacco countries, such as Cuba, the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and the Philippine Islands, to select a high and dry piece of land, of a siliceous nature, and combined with iron, if possible; and with respect to the latter, there are seasons of the year too well known to the planters to need any explanation. The only difference (if there is any) depends on the geographical situation of the place, with respect to its temperature, or in the backwardness or advancement of seasons, and even on the duration of the same--in which circumstances the planter takes advantage of the one for the other.

The influence of a burning climate may be modified by choosing the coolest month of the year, whereas the soil cannot be altered without incurring great expense. I have seen tobacco lose its natural quality and degenerate by transplanting from one soil to another, although of the same temperature, and _vice versa_.

Mr. Piddington has analysed several Indian soils, distinguished for the production of superior tobacco. These are the table soils from Arracan, (Sandoway,) a soil from Singour, in Burdwan, near Chandernagore, the tobacco of which, though of the same species as that of the surrounding country, sells at the price of the Arracan sort; and the soil of the best Bengal tobacco, which is grown at, and about Hingalee, in the Kishnagur district.

The best tobacco soils of Cuba and Manila, are for the most part red soils. Now, the red and reddish soils contain most of their iron in the state of peroxide, or the reddish brown oxide of iron; while the lighter grey soils contain it only in the state of protoxide, or the black oxide of iron. Mr. Piddington believes the quality of the tobacco to depend mainly on the state and quantity of the iron of the soil, while it is indifferent about the lime, which is so essential to cotton. None of the tobacco soils contain any lime. Their analysis show them to contain:--

Arracan soil. Singour soil. Hingalee soil. Oxide or iron, (peroxide) 15,65 10,60 6,00 Water and saline matter 1,10 75 1,50 Vegetable matter and fibre 3,75 1,10 75 Silex 76,90 80,65 87,25 Alumina 2,00 4,50 1,50 ------- ------- ------- 99,40 97,60 97,00 Water and loss 60 2,40 3,00 ------- ------- ------- 100 100 100

From which it will be seen that the best tobacco soil hitherto found in India contains about sixteen per cent., or nearly one-sixth, of iron, which is mostly in a state of peroxide; and that the inferior sort of tobacco grows in a soil containing only six per cent., or one-sixteenth of iron, which is, moreover, mostly in the state of protoxide, or black oxide. Mr. Piddington thought it worth examining what the quantity of iron in the different sorts of tobacco would be, and found that while the ashes of one ounce, or 480 grains of Havana and Sandoway cheroots gave exactly 1.94 grains, or 0.40 per cent., of peroxide of iron the ashes of the same quantity of the Hingalee, or best Bengal tobacco, only gave 1.50 grains, or 0.32 per cent.; and it appears to exist in the first two in a state of peroxide, and in the last as a protoxide of iron; rendering it highly probable that the flavor of the tobacco to the smoker depends on the state and quantity of the iron it contains! Green copperas water, which is a solution of sulphate of iron, is often used by the American and English tobacconists and planters, to colour and flavor their tobacco; and this would be decomposed by the potass of the tobacco, and sulphate of potass and carbonate of iron is formed. Carbonate of iron is of an ochre-yellow color. Mr. Piddington says he took care to ascertain that this process had not been performed with the tobacco used for this experiment; and adds that Bengal cheroot makers do not know of this method. Mr. Laidley, of Gonitea, dissents from the idea suggested by Mr. Piddington that ferruginous matter in the soil is essential to the successful growth of tobacco. He observes that if we attend only to the iron contained, why every plant will be found to require a ferruginous soil; but tobacco contains a notable quantity of nitrate of potass and muriate of ammonia (the latter a most rare ingredient in plants), and these two salts are infinitely more likely to affect the flavor of the leaf than a small portion of oxide of iron, an inert body. Now as neither of these can be supplied by the atmosphere, we must search for them in the soil, and accordingly he imagined that a compost similar to the saltpetre beds which Napoleon employed so extensively in France, would be a good manure for tobacco lands; namely, calcareous matter, such as old mortar, dung, and the ashes of weeds or wood. He was aware that good tobacco might be grown in Beerbhoom, having raised some himself several years ago from American seed. The plants grew most vigorously, and he further observed, in confirmation of his opinion about the proper manure, that in other districts in which he had resided the natives always grew the tobacco (each for his own use) upon the heap of rubbish at his door, consisting of ashes, cow-dung, and offal of all kinds. While the soil of the Gangetic diluvium almost always contains carbonate of lime, the Beerbhoom soil does not, as far at least as Mr. Laidley had examined it.

The following is the mode of culture pursued about the city of Coimbetore. Between the middle of August and the same time in September, a plot of ground is hoed and embanked into small squares; in these the seed is sown, and covered by hand three times at intervals of ten days. To secure a succession of seedlings water is then given, and the sun's rays moderated by a covering of bushes. Watering is repeated every day for a month, and then only every fifth day. The field in which the seedlings are transplanted, is manured and ploughed at the end of August. Cattle are also folded upon the ground. Four or five ploughings are given between mid September and the middle of October, when the field is divided as above into small squares. These are watered until the soil is rendered a mud. Plants of the first sowing are then inserted at the end of September, about a cubit apart, the transplanting being done in the afternoon. At intervals of ten days the seedlings of the other two sowings are removed. A month after being transplanted the field is hoed, and after another month the leading shoot of each plant is pinched off, so as to leave them not more than a cubit high. Three times during the next month all side shoots thrown out are removed. When four months old, the crop is ready for cutting. To render the leaves sweet the field is watered, and the plants cut down close to the surface, being allowed to remain when cut until next morning. Their roots are tied to a rope and suspended round the hedges. In fine weather the leaves are dry in ten days, but if cloudy they require five more days. They are then heaped up under a roof, which is covered with bushes and pressed with stones for five days. After this the leaves are removed from the stems, tied in bunches, heaped again, and pressed for four days longer. They are now tied in bundles, partly of the small leaf and partly of the large leaf bundles, and again put in heaps for ten days--once during the time the heaps being opened and piled afresh. This completes the drying. A thousand bundles, weighing about 570 lbs., is a good produce for an acre.

In 1760, Ceylon produced a considerable quantity of tobacco, principally about Jaffna, a demand having sprung up for it in Travancore, and on the Malay coast. The cultivation spread to other districts of the island, Negombo, Chilaw, and Matura. Not long after the possession of the island by the British, a monopoly was created by an import duty of 25 per cent., _ad valorem_, and in 1811 the growers were compelled to deliver their tobacco into the Government stores at certain fixed rates. The culture and demand thereupon decreased. In 1853, the duty on the exports of tobacco from this island amounted to £8,386, and in 1836 to £9,514.

Ceylon now exports a considerable quantity of tobacco. The value of that exported in 1844 was nearly £18,000: it went exclusively to British colonies. The shipments since have been as follows:--

1848 £17,992 ---- 1849 22,300 ---- 1850 20,721 22,184 cwts. 1851 21,422 22,523 " 1852 20,531 21,955 "

About 96,000 piculs of cigars, of five different qualities, are exported annually from Siam. A good deal of very fine tobacco is grown in the Philippines, and the Manila cheroots are celebrated all over the globe. The quantity of raw tobacco shipped from Manila in 1847 was 92,106 arrobas (each about a quarter of a cwt.); manufactured tobacco, 12,054 arrobas; and 1,933 cases of cigars. 5,220 boxes of cigars were shipped from Manila in 1844. 73,439 millions of cigars were shipped in 1850, and 42,629 quintals of leaf tobacco.

The manufacture of cigars in Manila is a monopoly of the government, and not only is this the case, but it is a monopoly of the closest description, and any infringement of the assumed rights of the Spanish Indian government is visited by the most severe penalties. Public enterprise, however little of that commodity there now exists in the Spanish character, is thus kept down; and this is not only detrimental to the nation itself, but is also unjust towards those persons who are the purchasers of the article, enhanced in price, as is always the case, by monopoly. The cheroot, which now costs, free of duty, about one halfpenny, could be rendered for half that sum, according to well-authenticated opinions. To protect itself from illicit manufacturers, or smuggling of any kind in connection with cigars, the government is compelled to maintain an army of gendarmes, in order to adopt the most stringent means which despotic states alone tolerate. No person is, therefore, permitted to have even the tobacco leaf in its raw state on his premises, and gendarmes pay, at stated intervals, domiciliary visits to the habitations of the people, in search of any contraband materials. There are several extensive manufactories of cigars and cheroots belonging to the government in and near Manila. Mr. Mac Micking, in his recent work on the Philippines, thus describes the mode of manufacture by those employed by the government:--

In making cheroots women only are employed, the number of those so engaged in the factory at Manila being generally about 4,000. Beside these, a large body of men are employed at another place in the composition of cigarillos, or small cigars, kept together by an envelope of white paper in place of tobacco; these being the description most smoked by the Indians. The flavor of Manila cheroots is peculiar to themselves, being quite different from that made of any other sort of tobacco; the greatest characteristic probably being its slightly soporific tendency, which has caused many persons in the habit of using it to imagine that opium is employed in the preparatory treatment of the tobacco, which, however, is not the case.

The cigars are made up by the hands of women in large rooms of the factory, each of them containing from 800 to 1,000 souls. These are all seated, or squatted, Indian like, on their haunches, upon the floor, round tables, at each of which there is an old woman presiding to keep the young ones in order, about a dozen of them being the complement of a table. All of them are supplied with a certain weight of tobacco, of the first, second, or third qualities used in composing a cigar, and are obliged to account for a proportionate number of cheroots, the weight and size of which are by these means kept equal. As they use stones for beating out the leaf on the wooden tables before which they are seated, the noise produced by them while making them up is deafening, and generally sufficient to make no one desirous of protracting a visit to the place. The workers are well recompensed by the government, as very many of them earn from six to ten dollars a month for their labor; and as that amount is amply sufficient to provide them with all their comforts, and to leave a large balance for their expenses in dress, &c., they are seldom very constant laborers, and never enter the factory on Sundays, or, at least, on as great an annual number of feast days as there are Sundays in a year.

The Japanese grow a good deal of tobacco for their own consumption, which is very considerable. They consider that from Sasma as the best, then that from Nangasakay, Sinday, &c. The worst comes from the province of Tzyngaru; it is strong, of a black color, and has a disgusting taste and smell. The tobacco from Sasma is, indeed, also strong, but it has an agreeable taste and smell, and is of a bright yellow color. The tobacco from Nangasakay is very weak, in taste and smell perhaps the best, and of a bright brown color. The tobacco from Sinday is very good. The Japanese manufacture the tobacco so well, says Capt. Golownin, (Recollections of Japan,) that though I was before no friend to smoking, and even when I was at Jamaica could but seldom persuade myself to smoke an Havana cigar, yet I smoked the Japanese tobacco very frequently, and with great pleasure.

The culture of tobacco is a very profitable article for the laborers, seeing that the produce is obtained from grounds which have already given the first crop. The qualities of Java tobacco are more and more prized in the European markets, the preparation and assortment are not yet all that could be desired, but they have progressed in this branch, and the contracts made with the new adventurers assure them of a considerable benefit. But before the Java tobaccos can find an assured opening in the European markets, it is necessary that the cultivators should make use of seed from the Havana or Manila. The residencies of Rembang, Sourabaya, Samarang, Chinbou, and Tagal, present districts suited for its culture; it has been carried on with success for a good many years in the residencies of Treanger, Pakalongan, and Kedu, but only for the consumption of the interior, and of the Archipelago.

Tobacco is cultivated in Celebes, but merely in sufficient quantity for local consumption. It is exclusively grown by the Bantik population--the mode of preparation is the same as in Java; it is chopped very fine and mostly flavored with arrack. When bought in large quantities, it may be had for thirty cents the pound; but in smaller quantities it costs double that price.

Tobacco is cultivated in New South Wales with much success. Australia produces a leaf equal to Virginia, or the most fertile parts of Kentucky, but the great difficulty is to extract the superabundant "nitre." The first crop in New South Wales exceeds one ton per acre, and the second crop off the same plants, yields about half the weight of the first. In 1844 there were about 871 acres in cultivation in New South Wales with tobacco, and the produce was returned at 6,382 cwts. In New England, New South Wales, as fine a "fig" as could be wished for is manufactured under the superintendence of a thorough-bred Virginia tobacco manufacturer--but the impossibility of extracting the nitre by the heating, or any other process, renders the flavor rank and disagreeable. Perhaps cheroots, or the lower numbers of cigars, manufactured from the Australian leaf, might prove more successful.

In Sydney the time for sowing tobacco seed is September, but in Van Diemen's Land it should be a month later, as tobacco plants cannot stand the frost. The ground should be made fine, and in narrow beds three feet wide from path to path, to allow for weeding without stepping on the beds. The seed, being small, should not be raked in; but after the ground is raked fine, and perfectly clean, and well pulverised, mix the seed with wood ashes, and sow over the beds, and pat in with the spade, or tread in with the naked feet, which is preferable. The ground should be moist, but not much watered, or it moulds the plants. When about as large as moderate sized cabbage plants, they should be put out--three feet or three feet six in the rows, and five feet apart between the rows. When the plant rises to about two feet high, it will throw out suckers at each leaf, which must be carefully taken off with the finger and thumb, and all bottom and decayed leaves that touch the ground taken off. When the tobacco plant throws out flower, it must be topped off, leaving about twelve leaves in the stalk to ripen and come to maturity. When the leaves feel thick between the finger and thumb, and assume a mottled appearance, they are fit to cut.

In "Tegg's New South Wales Almanac" it is stated that the end of July is the usual time for sowing the seed. In order, however, to prevent the plants from being subsequently destroyed by frost, care must be taken not to sow the seed until the frost has ceased in any respective locality (unless raised in a frame). Tobacco requires a rich light soil, and well manured.

By the instructions for cultivating it, the plant must be three feet apart each way, which would give 4,840 plants to an acre; assuming that each plant would yield half a pound for the first crop, this would give 2,420 lbs. to an acre, which is only 180 lbs. in excess of a ton. In New South Wales several parties use the tobacco stems for sheep wash. One pound of tobacco is sufficient to wash five sheep on an average (one washing), which would give 12,100 sheep to one acre.

Assuming that only one crop was grown in New Zealand in one year, of 2,420 lbs. to an acre, at 3d. per pound, (which is about half the market price of a fair sample of tobacco in bond,) it would amount to £30 5s. per acre.

Three rows of Indian corn are planted outside the tobacco plants to shelter them from the wind. In order to save seed, a few plants are allowed to flower. The Virginian tobacco is the largest; it is known by a pink flower; the _Nicotiana rustica_ (common green) has a yellow flower.

A planter in Northern Australia furnishes the following directions:--

The land selected for the growth of tobacco ought to be of the most fertile description, of a friable description, and upon which no water can rest within eighteen inches of the surface. Newly cleared brush lands of this nature are the most prolific; upon such, after good tillage, put the plants about four feet or more apart, in rows, and five feet six inches asunder. In interior or old ground, plant proportionately closer. Before topping or nipping off the head, all the lower leaves (that is such as may touch the ground) ought to be broken off, leaving only from five to seven for the crop, which will yield a greater weight and be of a superior quality than if double that number were left. When ripe, a dry and cloudy day should be selected to cut it, as the sun destroys its quality after cutting. It ought then to lie sufficiently long upon the ground so as to welt before carting to the sheds, hanging up each stalk next morning so as not to touch its fellow.

The drying sheds ought to be built upon an elevated or dry spot, with a hoarded flour of rough split stuff, fifteen or eighteen inches from the ground, with apertures as windows to admit or to exclude the external atmosphere. In damp weather close all the doors and windows, also every night; in contrary weather open all.

In these drying houses the stalks should remain suspended until the vegetable moisture is entirely evaporated, so that on a dry day the stems of the leaves will break like a glass pipe, and the finer parts crumble into snuff upon compression; after which, in humid weather, they will become quite pliable; then strip the leaves off the stems, make them up into hands, and pack them tightly into a close bin: when full, cover it with boards and old bagged stuff, upon which place heavy weights. In this state it undergoes the sweating process, which, in this colony, is little understood or not properly attended to, and yet, upon the skill displayed thereon, the quality of the tobacco greatly depends. I will therefore give some general directions upon this portion of the planter's office. If the tobacco happen to be too damp when put into the bin, it will attain either an injurious or a destructive degree of heat; it must therefore he watched for some days after it is packed. To an experienced operator I would say, if the heat exceed 80 degrees of temperature, immediately unpack and re-hang the whole, waiting its condition as before explained, before it is again put into the sweating bin. Should the degree of heat be below that stated, it may remain for weeks or until the heat has subsided. I have generally removed it from the sweating process in about fourteen or twenty days, sometimes considerably longer, regulating that act by the odor and color of the leaf. If, however, it appears to be attaining a very dark brown color and its heat not subsided, it should be taken out and closely pressed into large cases or casks, when it will again attain a gentle heat called the "second sweating," as is invariably the case with the hogsheads of the American leaf tobacco: this again improves its quality. Here the grower's operations terminate.

It may be necessary to remark, that how skilful and experienced soever the grower may be, it is hardly possible for him to produce a good article upon a small scale; for with a less quantity than one ton to place in the sweating bin at a time, the requisite heat to insure success will not be generated. I would further observe, that the practice of the colonists in growing what they term a "second crop" is most injurious to their interests, their lands, and the quality and character of the colonial tobacco. The American planter never attempts it. I would therefore strongly recommend its discontinuance, and also never to crop one piece of land with tobacco more than two or three years in succession. The Americans rarely take more than two crops unless the land be new; after which they sow it down with grasses, in which state it remains for two or three years until it is again planted with tobacco. I would recommend this plan to the growers.

The character of the American tobacco has been greatly advanced in the mercantile world by an ordinance regulating that source of national wealth. The planters are thereby obligated to deposit their crops in warehouses, over which sworn inspectors preside, who rigidly examine every hogshead, and if found to be of mercantile quality, grant the owner a certificate, by which instrument only he sells his produce. The purchaser is hereby safe in buying these certificates. The tobacco to which they refer is delivered to the holder on presentation to the inspector. I mention this not as applicable here at present, but it most probably may hereafter.

When the colony is suffering severely for the want of labor, it may by some be deemed inopportune in offering remarks upon this article of commerce. To such dissentients I will remark, that a great portion of the work can be performed by women and children. A moiety of our anticipated increase of population will be available for this hitherto mismanaged source of wealth. At present the quantity grown in the colony is equal to three-fourths of its consumption, and which production is of a very inferior quality to the imported. These facts tend to show that my notice of the subject is not inopportune, and particularly so when the object is to point out those errors so generally adopted by the tobacco growers here. Years of practical experience, of personal observation upon the plantations of North America, and my having been, I believe, the grower of the greatest quantity of tobacco in the colony, qualify me to afford instructions thereon; whereby, if attended to, our tobacco will become fully equal to the American, as was proved to be the case by the crops I grew here (upwards of 40 tons),[56] which were sold in Sydney by the Commissariat Department at public auction, at an advance of twenty per cent. more than the imported leaf. As the duty on tobacco is about to be reduced, the present production may fall off, unless an immediate improvement in its quality take place. Instead of being importers of tobacco, we should, if it was grown here to perfection, be exporters of it to all our sister colonies; and in its raw state, also to the European markets. At present, for home consumption, there is a greater profit to be made by its cultivation, if skilfully managed, than in any part of the world; for the duty upon imported is a positive bonus to the grower.

In 1849-50 there were fifteen manufactories of tobacco on a small scale in New South Wales, but these were reduced in 1851 to six.

Many samples of tobacco grown in the colony have been pronounced by competent judges equal to Virginian, but a very considerable prejudice exists against it. There is, however, no doubt that the dealers dispose of a great deal as American tobacco, and get a best price for it. The reduction of the import duties on foreign tobacco, recently made by the Legislative Council, will probably retard the progress of the colonial production and manufacture of this article; but with an abundance of labor there is no question that this branch of industry will be again profitably resorted to. The quantity of tobacco manufactured in New South Wales, in 1847, was 1,321 cwt.; in 1848, 714 cwt.; in 1849, 2,758 cwt.; in 1850, 3,833 cwt.; in 1851, 4,841 cwt.

A correspondent of the _Adelaide Observer_ recommends its culture in South Australia, and supplies the following useful information:--

Without entering into botanical details, I will simply state that the plant is of a shrubby nature, about five feet high, and ought not to be planted nearer than four feet from each other, in rows five feet apart--thus allowing for each plant a space of ground four feet by five, or 20 square feet. An acre will consequently furnish sufficient room for 2,178 plants.

The tobacco plant will thrive in almost any climate, from the torrid zone to the temperature of Great Britain. It luxuriates in rich alluvial valleys, where the soil is either of a _loamy_ or a _peaty_ nature.

Maiden soil is not recommended. The ground should be trenched, worked as fine as possible, and well manured. Tobacco will not answer unless the subsoil is thoroughly broken. The best manure is that obtained from the bullock-yard, and bark from the tan yard; and by two or three ploughings the earth can be brought to a proper consistency, and fit for the reception of the plants.

The usual method adopted in New South Wales, is to raise the plants in a warm, sheltered bed, neither exposed to wind nor to the sun's rays; but if the weather is dry, they should be well watered night and morning. The time of sowing is the end of August or the beginning of September in the latitude of Sydney, according to the state of the weather; and they may be transplanted when they have attained their sixth leaf, which is generally about a month or five weeks after they are up.

The period is rather later in this colony, and care should be taken that the plants have gained sufficient strength in the ground after transplanting to withstand the effect of the hot winds, and, if practicable, the aspect should be either N.E. or N.W., and the rows should incline towards either of these points.

The most suitable spots in this colony for the cultivation of tobacco, are Lyndoch Valley and the districts round the town of Willunga and Morphett Vale.

The greatest care is required from the cultivator to prevent the destruction of the plant from its greatest enemy, the black grub. Daily search should be made for it, and not a plant should be left unexamined; they make their appearance about the beginning of November, when the plants have scarcely had time to take root. The soil between the rows should be kept constantly stirred with a three-pronged fork, that air and the sun's rays may be admitted, which latter are as indispensable to the growing plant as injurious to the seedling. The labor is great, and from first to last requires the constant attention of one man throughout the year, with an additional hand for about six weeks during the process of curing.

The profits even in bad seasons are considerable; but when the season and soil are favorable, they average upwards of 100 per cent. The consumption of tobacco is great in this colony, not only for personal use, but for sheep-wash; and the profits may be considerably greater for the lower leaves, which, owing to their gritty nature, cannot be manufactured, but may be advantageously cured for wash.

It is not my office to argue the point as to the advantages which may accrue from a free trade in tobacco; but this I know, and confidently assert it, from actual experiments made in this province, that a more lucrative article cannot be grown.

The consumption in South America, in 1850, was 147,178 lbs.; and the annual increase since 1840 has been a higher percentage than the increase of population, chiefly owing to extension in sheep-farming.

The probable expense of cultivation per acre may be as under:--

£ s. d. Rent 0 10 0 Labor, 12 months 52 0 0 Ditto, 2 months 8 10 0 Ploughing three times 2 2 0 Harrowing twice 1 0 0 Manure, say 2 10 0 Seed, say 0 10 0 ---------- £67 2 0

The Sydney average quantity is said to be 11-1/3 cwt. per acre, say 10 cwt.; and the cost price per lb. will be 14½d., or £6 15s. 4d. per cwt. The profit will at once be seen on this article of consumption.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous Drugs.--The blood tree (_Croton gossypifolia_), an evergreen shrub, native of the Trinidad mountains, is remarkable for yielding, when wounded, a thick juice resembling blood in color, which is one of the most powerful astringents I know of, and as such would be valuable to medical science. The bark of _Croton Cascarilla_ is, as we have seen in a former section, aromatic, and the seeds of _C. Tiglium_, the physic nut, are purgative; so are those of the purging nut (_Jatropha multifida_), and another species (_J. gossypifolia_).

The pods of cow-itch (_Mucuna pruriens_) act as a vermifuge; the roots of the _Ruellia tuberosa_, or manyroot, and the bulbs of the white lily (_Pancratium Carribæum_ and _maritimum_), are emetic. The Indian root or bastard ipecacuan (_Asclepias curassavica_) has medicinal properties. _A. tuberosa_ is used as a mild cathartic, and a remedy for a variety of disorders. _Hydrastis canadensis_, or Canadian yellow root, is a valuable bitter, and furnishes a useful yellow dye. _Knowltonia vesicatoria_ is used commonly as a blister in the Cape Colony. _Ranunculus saleratus_ (the _R. indicus_ of Roxburgh, and _B. camosus_ of Wallich), common in India, is also used by the natives for blistering purposes.

A kind of sedge rush, common in swampy places in the West India islands, the _Adme cyperus_, enjoys a reputation for the cure of yellow fever. It is also stated to be cordial, diuretic and cephalic, serviceable in the first stages of the dropsy, good in vomitings, fluxes, &c.

Dr. Impey, the residentiary surgeon of Malwa, has just confidence in the indigenous drugs in use by the natives of the East, many of which are quite unknown in European practice. He believes that, in the Indian bazaars and the jungle, drugs having precisely the same effect as those of Europe may be discovered, and has recently drawn up a list of ninety substances, which are perfect substitutes for an equal number of European medicines. The class of tonics, in particular, is most amply supplied, and the Englishman is not the only animal who suffers from disorders of the digestive organs.

My friend Dr. Hamilton, of Plymouth, recently brought under the notice of the profession the medical properties of the prickly poppy or Mexican thistle (_Argemone Mexicana_). It is indigenous to and grows wild in the greatest profusion throughout the whole of the Caribbean islands, and may be found at every season of the year covered with its bright golden blossoms, and bearing its prickly capsules in all their several stages of maturity. It is an annual plant, attaining a height of about two feet, growing abundantly in low and hot uncultivated spots. Its stem is round and prickly, furnished with alternate branches and thorny leaves. The seeds possess an emetic quality. The whole plant abounds in a yellow milky juice, resembling gamboge in color, and not improbably possessing properties similar to the seeds. In Nevis the oil is obtained from the bruised seeds by boiling, and sold by the negroes in small phials, containing about an ounce each, under the name of "thistle oil," at the price of a quarter of a dollar each. The usual dose for dry bellyache is thirty drops upon a lump of sugar, and its effect is perfectly magical, relieving the pain instantaneously, throwing the patient into a profound and refreshing sleep, and in a few hours relieving the bowels gently of the contents. This oil seems fitted to compete in utility with the far more costly and less agreeable oil of the croton.

The seeds of the sandbox (_Hura crepitans_) when bruised, operate powerfully as emetico-cathartic. It is probable that an oil might be obtained from them similar in its operation to the thistle oil.

A cucurbitaceous fruit, one of the Luffas (called by Von Martius _Luffa purgans_), a tribe closely allied to the colocynth and mornordicas, growing in South America, is a powerful purgative, and is used in the province of Pernambuco, where it is called Cabacinha. The fruit is about the size of a small pear and resembles the wild cucumber. An infusion of a fourth part of one of these fruits is administered chiefly in the form of an injection.

Another species (_Luffa drastica_, of Martius) is also employed for the same purpose.

The _Luffa purgans_ grows spontaneously in the suburbs of Recieffe, the capital of the province of Pernambuco, and flowers in November and December. The fruit is a drastic purgative, and an infusion of it is used either internally or in the form of clyster. The tincture is prepared by macerating, for twenty-eight hours or more, four of the fruit deprived of the seeds in a bottle of spirit 21 degrees. The dose is three or four ounces daily, which occasions much sickness.

* * * * *

Poisons.--The vegetable kingdom (observes Mr. Simple), to which man is largely indebted for the materials of food, clothing, and shelter, produces also some of the most deadly poisons with which science, experience, or accident, has made him acquainted. In examining the poisonous productions of the vegetable kingdom, we find that their properties are generally due to the presence of some acid or alkali contained in the plant from which they are derived. Oil of bitter almonds and cherry laurel water are poisonous in consequence of containing prussic acid. Opium owes its activity to the alkaloid morphia. The Upas-tiente derives its energetic powers from the alkaloid strychnia; conia is the active principle of hemlock; veratria of hellebore; aconita of monk's hood; and although there are several poisonous plants in which the active principle has not yet been detected, there can be little doubt that such a principle exists, although it has hitherto eluded the researches of the chemist.--("Pharmaceutical Journal," vol. 2, p. 17.)

The bark taken from the roots of the Jamaica dogwood (_Piscidia erythrina_), which is extensively distributed throughout the Archipelago of the Antilles, is used for stupefying fish. The pounded root is mixed with slaked lime and the low wines or lees of the distillery, and the mixture is put into small baskets or sacks, and so suffered to wash out gradually, coloring the water to a reddish hue. The fish rise to the surface in a few minutes, when they float as if dead.

The expressed juice of the root of _Maranta Arundinacea_ is stated to be a valuable antidote to some vegetable poisons, and also serviceable in cases of bites or stings of venomous insects or reptiles. One of the most popular remedies for the bites of snakes is a decoction of the leaves of the Guaco, or snake plant, of South America, a species of willow which flourishes along the banks of the streams in the sultry regions shaded by other trees. It is said to be both a preventive and cure.

Mr. Edward Otto, writing from Cuba to the "Gardener's Magazine" for May, 1842, p. 286, describes the guaco as a tree growing from four to eight feet in height, with beautiful dark green leaves, having a brown tinge round the margin. The blossoms are small, of a bluish brown, and hang like loose bunches of grapes at the points of the shoots, or even on the stem itself, as it has seldom branches. The milky sap is said to have poisonous effects. "I was told (he adds) that this plant is used efficiently in cholera and yellow fever." This tree is said to be the _Camæladia ilicifolia_ of Swartz, common in Antigua and Hayti, being known in Antigua by the popular name of the holly-leaved maiden plum.

* * * * *

ALOES.--The drug called aloes is the bitter, resinous, inspissated juice of the leaves of various species of an arborescent plant of the lily family, with a developed stem and large succulent leaves, growing principally in tropical and sub-tropical regions, and having a wide extent of range, being produced in Borneo and the East, Africa, Arabia, and the West Indies; many are also natives of the Cape of Good Hope. The plant will thrive in almost any soil, and, when once established, it is extremely difficult to eradicate.

The cultivation and manufacture are of the most simple kind. The usual mode of propagating the plants is by suckers; and all the care required is to keep them free from weeds.

From the high price which the best Barbados aloes fetches in the market, £7 per cwt., its culture might be profitably extended to many of the other islands. The aloes plant is indigenous to the soil of Jamaica, and although handled by thousands of the peasantry and others, there is not perhaps one in five thousand who understands its properties or the value of the plant. With the Jamaicans it is commonly used in fever cases, by slicing the leaves, permitting the juice to escape partially, and then applying them to the head with bandages;--this is the only generally known property which it possesses there.

A series of trials made recently in Paris proved that cordage manufactured from the fibre of this plant grown in Algiers, was far preferable in comparative strength to that manufactured from hemp. Cables, of equal size, showed that that made of the aloe raised a weight of one-fifth more than that of hemp.

The drug is imported into this country under the names of Socotrine, East Indian or Hepatic, Barbados, Cape and Caballine aloes. It contains a substance called Aloetine, which some regard as its active principle. The various species now defined are--_Aloe spicata_, _vulgaris_, _Socotrina_, _Indica_, _rubescens_, _Arabica_, _linguæ-formis_ and _Commelina_. The average imports in 1841 and 1842 were only about 170,780 cwts.; it is now much larger, and a great portion of the supply is drawn from the Cape colony.

The mode of preparing the drug, which I have myself seen in the West Indies, is exceedingly simple. When the plant has arrived at proper maturity, the laborers go into the field with tubs and knives, and cut the largest and most succulent leaves close to the stalk; these are placed upright in the tubs, side by side, so that the sap may flow out of the wound. Sometimes a longitudinal incision is made from top to bottom of the leaf, to facilitate the discharge. The crude juice thus obtained is placed in shallow flat-bottomed receivers, and exposed to the sun until it has acquired sufficient consistency to be packed in gourds for exportation. In preparing the coarser kind, or horse aloes, the leaves are cut into junks and thrown into the tubs, there to lie till the juice is pretty well drained out; they are then squeezed by the hand, and water, in the proportion of one quart to ten of juice, is added, after which it is boiled to a due consistence and emptied into large shallow coolers.

The following analysis by M. Edmond Robiquet of a specimen of Socotrine aloes, obtained from M. Chevallier, is given in the sixth volume of the "Pharmaceutical Journal," p. 277. The constituents in 100 parts were:--

Pure aloes (Aloetine) 85.00 Ulmate of potash 2.00 Sulphate of lime 2.00 Carbonate of potash } -------------lime } traces. Phosphate of lime } Gallic acid .25 Albumen 8.

The true Socotrine aloes is the produce of _A. Socotrina_, which grows abundantly in the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean. Lieutenant Wellstead says, the hills on the west side of the island are covered for an extent of miles with aloe plants. The aloe grows spontaneously on the limestone mountains of Socotra, from 500 to 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. The produce is brought to Tamarida and Colliseah, the principal town and harbor for exports. In 1833, the best quality sold for 2s. a pound, while for the more indifferent the price was 13d. The value is much impaired by the careless manner in which the aloes is gathered and packed. Aloes once formed the staple of its traffic, for which it was chiefly resorted to; but only small quantities are now exported. It was formerly shipped by the way of Smyrna and Alexandria, but is usually now brought by the way of Bombay; Melinda, on the Zanzibar coast, and Maccula on the Arabian shore, furnish the greater part of that sold in Europe as Socotrine aloes. It comes home in chests or packages of 150 to 200 lbs. wrapt in skins of the gazelle, sometimes in casks holding half a ton or more. It is somewhat transparent, of a garnet or yellowish red color. The smell is not very unpleasant, approaching to myrrh. Socotrine aloes, although long considered the best kind, is now below Barbados aloes in commercial value.

About two tons were imported from Socotra in 1833, but a much larger quantity could be obtained if required.

The price of Socotrine aloes in the Liverpool market, in the early part of 1853, was 30s. to £6 the cwt.; of Cape, 30s. to 32s.

_East Indian_, or _Hepatic aloes_.-- The real hepatic aloes, so called from its liver color, is believed to be the produce of _A. Arabica_, or _perfoliala_, which grows in Yemen in Arabia, from whence it is exported by the way of Bombay to Europe. According to Dr. Thomson and the "Materia Medica," it is duller in its color than the other kinds, is bitterer, and has a less pleasant aroma than the Socotrine aloes. It should not be liquid, which deteriorates the quality.

_A. Indica_--a species with reddish flowers, common in dry situations, in the north-west provinces of India, is that from which an inferior sort of the drug is produced. It is obtained in Guzerat, Salem, and Trichinopoly, and fetches a local price of 2d. to 3d. a pound. In the Bombay market, Socotrine aloes fetches wholesale 16s. to 20s. the Surat maund of 41 lbs., and Maccula aloes only 9s.

_Barbados aloes_, is the produce of _A. vulgaris_, or _A. barbadensis_, a native of the Cape colony, and is often passed off for the Hepatic. It is brought home in calabashes, or large gourd shells, containing from 60 to 70 lbs. each, or more. It is duskier in hue than the East Indian species, being a darkish brown or black, and the taste is more nauseous and intensely bitter.

In 1786 one hogshead and 409 gourds of aloes were exported from Barbados. In 1827, there were about 96,000 packages shipped from the island. In 1844, there were 4,600 packages exported. The exports have fallen off considerably, only about 850 gourds having been shipped in the season of 1849-50; but in 1851 it increased to 2,505 gourds.

_Caballine_, or _Horse-aloes_, is the coarsest species or refuse of the Barbados aloes, and from its rank fetid smell is only useful for veterinary medicine. It is also obtained from Spain and Senegal.

A very good description of the mode of cultivating and preparing the aloes in Barbados is given in the 8th vol. of the "London Medical Journal":--

The lands in the vicinity of the sea, that is from two to three miles, which are rather subject to drought than otherwise, and are so strong and shallow as not to admit of the planting of sugar-canes with any prospect of success, are generally found to answer best for the aloe-plant. The stones, at least the larger ones, are first picked up, and either packed in heaps upon the most shallow barren spots, or laid round the field as a dry wall. The land is then lightly ploughed and very carefully cleared of all noxious weeds, lined at one foot distance from row to row, and the young plants set like cabbages, at about five or six inches from each other. This regular mode of lining and setting the plants is practised only by the most exact planters, in order to facilitate the frequent weeding by hand; because if the ground be not kept perfectly clean and free from weeds, the produce will be very small. Aloes will bear being planted in any season of the year, even in the dryest, as they will live on the surface of the earth for many weeks without a drop of rain. The most general time of planting them, however, is from April to June.

In the March following, the laborers carry a parcel of tubs and jars into the field, and each takes a slip or breadth of it, and begins by laying hold of a bunch of the blades, as much as he can conveniently grasp with one hand, whilst with the other he cuts it just above the surface of the earth as quickly as possible (that the juice may not be wasted), and then places the branches in the tub bunch by bunch or handful by handful. When the first tub is thus packed quite full, a second is begun (each laborer having two); and by the time the second is filled, all the juice is generally drained out of the blades in the first tub. The blades are then lightly taken out and thrown over the land by way of manure, and the juice is poured out into a jar. The tub is then filled again with blades, and so alternately, till the laborer has produced his jar full, or about four gallons and a half of juice, which is often done in six or seven hours, and he has then the remainder of the day to himself, it being his employer's interest to get each day's operation as quickly done as possible. It may be observed that although aloes are often cut in nine, ten, or twelve months after being planted, they are not in perfection till the second or third year, and that they will be productive for a length of time, say ten or twelve years, or even for a longer time, if good dung or manure of any kind is stirred over the field once in three or four years, or oftener if convenient.

The aloe juice will keep for several weeks without injury. It is therefore not boiled till a sufficient quantity is procured to make it an object for the boiling house. In the large way, three boilers, or coppers are placed to one fire, though some have but two, and the small planters only one boiler. The boilers are filled with the juice, and as it ripens or becomes more inspissated by a constant but regular fire, it is ladled from boiler to boiler, and fresh juice is added to that farthest from the fire, till the juice in that nearest the fire (by much the smallest of the three) becomes of a proper consistency, to be skipped or ladled out into gourds or other small vessels used for its final reception. The proper time to skip or ladle it out of the last boiler is when it has arrived at what is termed a resin height, or when it cuts freely or in thin flakes from the edges of a small wooden slice that is dipped from time to time into the boiler for that purpose. A little lime water is used by some aloe boilers during the process, when the ebullition is too great.

CAPE ALOES is the produce chiefly of _A. spicata_, and _A. Commelini_, which are found growing wild in great abundance in the interior of the Cape Colony. It has not the dark opaque appearance of the other species. About fifty miles from Cape Town is a mountainous tract, almost entirely covered with numerous species and varieties of the plant, and some of the extensive arid plains in the interior of the colony are crowded with it. The settlers go forth and pitch their waggous and campa on these spots to obtain the produce. The shipments from Table Bay and the eastern port of Algoa Bay are very considerable. The odor of the Cape aloes is stronger and more disagreeable than that of the Socotrine or Barbados, and the color is more like gamboge. It is brought over in chests and skins, the latter being preferred.

Mr. George Dunsterville, surgeon of Algoa Bay, gives the following description of the manufacture of Cape aloes:--

A shallow pit is dug, in which is spread a bullock's hide or sheep's skin. The leaves of the aloe plants in the immediate vicinity of this pit are stripped off and piled up on the skin to variable heights. These are left for a few days. The juice exudes from the leaves, and is received by the skin beneath. The Hottentot then collects in a basket or other convenient article the produce of many heaps, which is then put into an iron pot capable of holding eighteen or twenty gallons. Fire is applied to effect evaporation, during which the contents of the pot are constantly stirred to prevent burning. The cooled liquor is then poured into wooden cases of about three feet square by one foot deep, or into goat or sheep skins, and thus is filled for the market. In the colony aloes realises about 2¼ d. to 3½ d. per pound. The Hottentots and Dutch boors employ indiscriminately different species of aloe in the preparation of the drug.

The Cape aloes, which _is_ usually prized the highest in the English market, is that made at the Missionary institution of Bethelsdorp (a small village about nine miles from Algoa Bay, and chiefly inhabited by Hottentots and their missionary teachers). Its superiority arises not from the employment of a particular species of aloe, for all species are used, but from the greater care and attention paid to what is technically called the cooking of the aloes; that is, the evaporation, and to the absence of all adulterating substances (fragments of limestone, sand, earth, &c.), often introduced by manufacturers.

Mr. Moodie, in his "Ten Years' Residence in Southern Africa," gives a somewhat similar account.

Mr. Bunbury states that, about the neighbourhood of Graham's Town, three large kinds of aloe are very abundant, which form striking and characteristic features of the scenery; they grow irregularly scattered over the parched and naked faces of the hills, but most abundantly among the low broken ledges and knolls of sandstone rock, and are often seen spiring up above the evergreen bushes in the ravines, and crowning the cliffs. One kind grows to the height of a man. They are plants of a strange, rigid, and ungraceful appearance, but with very handsome flowers, which form tall and dense spikes, of a fine coral-red color in two of the species _(A. arborescens_ and _lineata?_), and of an orange scarlet in the third _(A. glaucescens?_). When in blossom they are conspicuous at a great distance, and might easily be mistaken, when seen from far off, for soldiers in red uniforms.

The importance of this indigenous plant to the Cape Colony, may be estimated from the following figures:--

AMOUNT OF ALOES, THE PRODUCE OF THE COLONY, AND VALUE THEREOF, EXPORTED IN THE YEARS ENDING 5TH JANUARY 1841, 1842, AND 1846. lbs £ 1841 485,574 8,821 1842 602,620 11,877 1846 266,725 3,018

EXPORTS AND VALUE FROM THE EASTERN PROVINCE. lbs. £ 1835 68,042 474 1836 30,808 285 1837 13,400 115 1838 28,867 306 1839 75,500 918 1840 82,478 1,145 1841 220,214 4,271 1842 283,305 5,003 1844 318,035 3,225

EXPORTS AND VALUE FROM THE WESTERN PROVINCE. lbs. £ 1841 242,860 4,175 1842 379,315 6,874 1844 506,796 6,586

ASAFOETIDA.---This drug of commerce is procured from the milky juice of _Ferula asafoetida_, a plant recently described by Dr. Falconer, under the name of _Narthex asafoetida_. It is found in Persia, the mountains of Chorasan, the central table land of Affghanistan, and some seeds of it, sent to this country by Dr. Falconer, germinated in the Botanical Garden at Edinburgh, and are now vigorous thriving plants of six years growth. Its leaves have a resemblance to those of a pæony; the fruit is distinguished by divided and interrupted vittae, which form a network on the surface. The perennial roots grow to a very large size, and are seldom of any use until after four or five years' growth. The asafoetida is procured by taking successive slices off the top of the root and collecting the milky juice., which is allowed to concrete into masses of a fetid resinous gummy matter, with a sulphur oil, similar to that of garlic, which is probably its active ingredient.

An inferior sort is obtained from _F. persica_, another species with very much divided leaves, growing chiefly in the southern provinces of Persia. It comes over usually in casks and cases. The British consumption of the drug is about 10,000 lbs. a year. A little is procured from Scinde. In 1825 the quantity imported was 106,770 lbs., in 1839 only 24 cwts.

The wholesale price in the Liverpool market, in January 1853, was £1 to £3 10s. the cwt.

CAMPHOR.--The Camphor tree (_Camphora officinarum_, _Laurus Camphora_) is a native of China, Japan, and Cochin China, of the laurel tribe, with black and purple veins. Camphor is procured from all parts of the tree, but it is obtained principally from the wood by distillation, and subsequent sublimation.

Many plants, such as the cinnamon tree, supply a kind of camphor, but the common camphor of the shops is the produce chiefly of _C. officinarum._

Two kinds of unrefined camphor are known in commerce.--1. The Dutch, which is brought from Batavia, and is said to be the produce of Japan. This is imported in tubs covered by matting and each surrounded by a second tub, secured on the outside by hoops of twisted cane. Each tub contains about one cwt. Most of this goes to the continent. 2. Ordinary crude camphor is imported from Singapore and Bombay, in square chests lined with lead-foil, and containing 1¼ to 1½ cwts. It is chiefly produced in the island of Formosa, and is brought by the Chin Chew junks in very large quantities to Canton, whence foreign markets get supplied.--("Pereira's Materia Medica.")

In the southern part of Japan the tree grows in such abundance that, notwithstanding the great consumption of it in the country, large quantities are exported. Koempfer says, that the Japanese camphor is made by a simple decoction of the wood and roots, but bears no proportion in value to that of Borneo. There is also an imitation of camphor in Japan, but every body can distinguish it from the genuine.

The camphor of Sumatra is procured from the stem of a large tree, _Dryobalanops Camphora_, Colebrook; _D. aromatica_, Graertner. It is secreted in crystalline masses naturally into cavities of the wood. It supplies this camphor only after attaining a considerable age. In its young state it yields, however, by incision, a pale yellow liquid, called the liquid camphor of Borneo and Sumatra, which consists of resin and a volatile oil having a camphorated odor.

An account of this tree, and of the mode of procuring the peculiar and high-priced camphor which it yields, is given by Dr. Junghuhn, who has travelled lately in Sumatra, and Prof. De Vriese, of Leyden, in the "Nederlandsch Kruidkundig Archief" for 1851. An abstract of the memoir, translated into English by Miss De Vriese, is published in "Hooker's Journal of Botany " for February and March 1852:--

The Dryobalanops is a gigantic tree, rising for fifty or even a hundred feet above those which compose the chief mass of the forests where they grow, just as the steeples of the churches appear above the roofs of the houses in a town. The trunks of the full-grown trees are from 7 to 10 feet in diameter at the very base, and from 5 to 8 feet higher up; they rise to the height of 100 or 130 feet, and their ample crown is from 50 to 70 feet in diameter. The tree has a limited range, being confined to the seaward slope of the mountains of southwestern Sumatra, most abundant on the lower slopes and the outlying hills of the alluvial plain, and extending in latitude from 1deg. 10m. to 2deg. 20m. N., and perhaps further to the north. Camphor oil occurs in all the trees, and is most abundant in the younger branches and leaves. The solid camphor is found only on the trunks of older trees, especially in fissures of the wood, and in smaller quantity than is generally supposed. Colebrooke, and authors who have copied from him, assert that camphor is found in the heart of the tree in such a quantity as to fill a cavity of the thickness of a man's arm, and that a single tree yields about eleven pounds. The price of this camphor, which at Padang sells for about 340 dollars per hundred weight, suffices to show that the account is much exaggerated. The camphor occurs only in small fissures, from which the natives, having felled the trees and split up the wood, scrape it off with small splinters or with their nails. From the oldest and richest trees they rarely collect more than two ounces. After a long stay in the woods, frequently of three months, during which they may fell a hundred trees, a party of thirty persons rarely bring away more than 15 or 20 pounds of solid camphor, worth from 200 to 250 dollars. The variety and price of this costly substance are enhanced by a custom which has immemorially prevailed among the Battas, of delaying the burial of every person who during his life had a claim to the title of Rajah (of which each village has one) until some rice, sown on the day of his death, has sprung up, grown and borne fruit. The corpse, till then kept above ground among the living, is now, with these ears of rice, committed to the earth, like the grain six months before; and thus the hope is emblematically expressed that, as a new life arises from the seed, so another life shall begin for man after his death. During this time the corpse is kept in the house, enclosed in a coffin made of the hollowed trunk of a Durion, and the whole space between the coffin and the body is filled with pounded camphor, for the purchase of which the family of the deceased Rajah frequently impoverish themselves. The camphor oil is collected by incisions at the base of the trunk, from which the clear balsamic juice is very slowly discharged.

In Sumatra the best camphor is obtained in a district called Barus, and all good camphor bears that local name. It appears that the tree is cut down to obtain the gum and that not in one tenth of the trees is it found. Barus camphor is getting scarce, as the tree must be destroyed before it is ascertained whether it is productive or not. About 800 piculs are annually sent to China. The proportion between Malay and Chinese camphor is as eighteen to one; the former is more fragrant and not so pungent as the latter.

Nine hundred and eighty-three tubs of camphor were exported from Java in 1843; 625 bales were imported in 1843, the produce of the Japanese empire; and 559 piculs exported from Canton in 1844.

The price of unrefined camphor in the Liverpool market in July, 1853, was £4 to £4 10s. the cwt. There have been no imports there direct in the last two years.

Camphor (says Dr. Ure) is found in a great many plants and is secreted in parity by several laurels; it occurs combined with the essential oils of many of the _labiacæ_; but it is extracted for manufacturing purposes only from the _Laurus Camphora_, which abounds in China and Japan, as well as from a tree which grows in Sumatra and Borneo, called in the country _kapur barus_, from the name of the place where it is most common. The camphor exists, ready formed, in these vegetables between the wood and the bark; but it does not exude spontaneously. On cleaving the tree _Laurus Sumatrensis (Qy. Dryobalanops Camphora)_, masses of camphor are found in the pith. The wood of the Laurus is cut into small pieces and put, with plenty of water, into large iron boilers, which are covered with an earthen capital or dome, lined within with rice straw. As the water boils, the camphor rises with the steam, and attaches itself as a sublimate to the stalks, under the form of granulations of a grey color. In this state it is picked off the straw and packed up for exportation to Europe."--(" Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures.")

The price of camphor at Canton in July, 1850, was from fourteen to fifteen dollars per picul.

Cinchona.--Peruvian or Jesuit's Bark--One of the most valuable and powerful astringents and tonics used in medicine, is the produce of several species of cinchona, natives of the Andes, from 11 north latitude to 20 south latitude, at elevations varying from 1,200 to 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, and in a dry rocky soil. There are at least twelve trees which are supposed to furnish the barks of commerce, and great obscurity prevails as to the species whence the various kinds of cinchona bark are derived. The names of yellow, red, and pale bark have been very vaguely applied, and are by no means well defined. Dr. Lindley mentions twenty-six varieties; of which twenty-one are well known. The barks are met with either in thick, large, flat pieces, or in thinner pieces, which curl inwards during drying, and are called quilled.

Quinine is one of the most important of the vegetable alkaline bitters. It was first discovered by Vauquelin, in 1811, and its preparation on a large scale pointed out by Pelletier and Caventon in 1820. It is obtained by boiling the yellow bark (_Cinchona_) in water and sulphuric acid, and then treating it with lime and alcohol, when the quinine is precipitated in the form of a white powder. Upwards of 120,000 ounces are made annually in Paris.

Cinchona, or the Peruvian bark, was gathered to the amount of two million dollars in one year recently, and the demand is constantly increasing.

Peruvian bark is cut in the eastern Provinces of Bolivia, skirting the river Paraguay, and now conveyed an immense distance by mules over a mountainous region to El Puerto, the only port of Bolivia on the Pacific. It is thence brought by Cape Horn to the cities of the United States and Europe. Now that Government has been successful in opening the South American rivers, this important article of commerce will be furnished in market by the Paraguay and La Plata rivers, at a much reduced price.

A species of bark from Colombia, known as Malambo or Matias bark, has been frequently administered by Dr. Alexander Ure as a substitute for cinchona with good effect. It offers the useful combination of a tonic and aromatic. It is supposed to be the produce of a species of _Drimys_. It is stated that in New Granada, and other districts of Central America, where the tree is indigenous, incisions are made in the bark, and there exudes an aromatic oil which sinks in water.

Cinchona bark contains two alkaloids, cinchonia and quina, to which its active properties are due; the former is best obtained from gray bark, the latter from yellow bark. In combination with these there exists an acid called kinic acid.

The imports of cinchona bark to this country are from 225,000 to 556,000 lbs. annually, and about 120,000 lbs. are retained for home consumption. It comes over in chests and serons, or ox-hides, varying from 90 to 200 lbs. We imported from France, in 1850, 489 cwt. of Peruvian bark, of the value of £6,840; and in 1851, 1,128 cwt., of the value of £15,787; also the following quantities of sulphate of quinine, on which there is a duty of 6d. and 3-10ths per ounce.

oz. £ 1848 3,856 5,898 1849 1,114 1,560 1850 8,976 12,566 1851 7,605 10,647

The following is the arrangement of these barks adopted by Pereira, who has gone very fully into the subject:--

A. True cinchonas, with a brown epidermis.

I. Pale barks 1. Crown or Loxa bark. _C. Condaminea_. 2. Gray or silver or Huanuco bark. _C. micrantha_. 3. Ash or Jaen bark. _C. ovata_. 4. Rusty or Huamalies bark. _C. pubescens_.

II. Yellow barks. 5. Royal, yellow or Calisaya bark. _C. sp ?_

III. Red barks. 6. Red bark. _C. sp ?_

B. True cinchonas, with a white epidermis.

I. Pale barks. 7. White Loxa bark.

II. Yellow barks. 8. Hard Carthagena bark. _C. cordifolia_. 9. Fibrous ditto. Perhaps _C. cordifolia_. 10. Cuzco bark. _C. sp.?_ 11. Orange bark of Santa Fe. _C. lancifolia_.

III. Red barks. 12. Bed bark of Santa Fe. _C. oblongifolia_.

The genus Exostemma yields various kinds of false cinchona bark, which do not contain the cinchona alkalies. The following are some of the kinds noticed by Pereira:--

1. St. Lucia or Piton bark. _Exostemma floribundum_. 2. Jamaica bark. _E. caribaeum_. 3. Pitaya bark. _E. sp?_ 4. False Peruvian bark. _E. peruvianum_. 5. Brazilian bark. _E. souzianum_.

The mode adopted by the bark-peelers of obtaining cinchona varies somewhat in different districts. The Indians (says Mr. Stevenson, "Twenty Years' Residence in South America") discover from the eminences where a cluster of trees grow in the woods, for they are easily discernable by the rose-colored tinge of their leaves, which appear at a distance like bunches of flowers amid the deep-green foliage of other trees. They then hunt for the spot, and having found it out, cut down all the trees, and take the bark from the branches, and after they have stripped off the bark, they carry it in bundles out of the wood, for the purpose of drying it. The peelers commence their operation about May, when the dry season sets in. Some writers state that the trees are barked without felling.

In a letter published in one of the Calcutta papers not long ago, from the pen, I believe, of Mr. Piddington, he strongly urged the introduction of the cinchona tree into British India:--

There is (he observes) one tree, the introduction and the copious distribution of which within certain appropriate points of the sub-Himalayan range, "would confer a greater blessing on the great body of natives, than any effort the Government has made or can make, and that is the cinchona bark tree.

Without any reference to the greater or less force of medical theories as to the efficacy of cinchona bark, I now only take an experienced and practical view, well knowing that the sufferings of many millions of poor and rich natives, especially in the jungle districts, are yearly very great, and the mortality quite enormous from remittent and intermittent fevers, by far the greater part of which would be immensely relieved, or wholly cured, by the free use of cinchona bark.

If by abundance the price be once brought within the poor native's reach, he will readily take to it, having no objection whatever on account of caste to anything of the nature of the bark of a tree.

If the cinchona tree were once growing in abundance, quinine could be easily prepared in India, from the facility of procuring, and cheapness of spirits of wine used in the process of its elimination.

I take it that every hundred Sepahees sick of fevers remaining in hospital off duty for thirty days, drawing an average pay of eight rupees each, form a full monthly loss to Government of eight hundred rupees; while a free use of quinine and bark would cure them in ten days on the average, costing at present about forty rupees; thus by the twenty days' services gained, Government would save nearly five hundred rupees.

But the cinchona tree once glowing abundantly, quinine would of course become infinitely cheaper.

Under a proper system of culture, quill bark only need be taken without destroying the trees, and an earlier return be obtained.

There never yet has been a substitute found for cinchona bark and its salts, as an antiperiodic and tonic.

It yet remains for some one to find an equally efficacious substitute, and thus make a fortune. In the mean time the importance of the cinchona is paramount.

The cinchona tree, like the pimento, deteriorates under cultivation, and in moist, warm, rich valleys the bark becomes inert. The best bark is from trees growing on mountain tops or steep declivities.

From the full accounts of Condamine, Mutis, and Humboldt, a soil and climate like that of the north west sub-Himalayan range is admirably adapted to the planting and prospering of cinchona trees.

In Lord W. Bentinck's time, before there were steamers in or to India, seeing the immense benefit to be derived, I sent in a proposition to procure young cinchona plants from Vera Cruz, begging to be then permitted to proceed there on that account, and my proposition was civilly and even favorably received; but these were not the days to act on it.

Of about the twenty species of cinchona trees the following would of course be the best to bring--the _Cinchona bineifolia_, the _cinchona cordifolia_, the _cinchona oblongifolia_, the _cinchona micrantha_, and the _cinchona condaminea_.

The Calumba plant (_Cocculus palmatus_, Decandolle, or _Minispermum palmatum_) furnishes the medicinal Colombo root, which is one of the most useful stomachics and tonics in cases of dyspepsia. It is scarcely ever cultivated, the spontaneous produce of thick forests on the shores of Oibo and Mozambique and many miles inland on the eastern shores of Africa, Madagascar and Bombay, proving sufficient. The supplies principally go to Ceylon. The roots are perennial, and consist of several fasciculated, fusiform, branched, fleshy, curved and descending tubers, from one to two inches thick, with a brown warty epidermis; internally deep yellow, odorless, very bitter.

The main roots are dug up by the natives in March (the hot season). The offsets are cut in slices and hung up on cords to dry in the shade. It is deemed fit to ship when, on exposure to the sun, it breaks short, and of a bad quality when it is soft and black.--("Pereira's Materia Medica.")

It contains a bitter crystallizable principle called Calumbin.

The commercial parcels are often adulterated with the roots of _Costus indicus, C. speciosus_, and _C. Arabicus_ (Kusmus, Putckuk, &c.). It is imported into this country in bags and chests of from one to three cwt., and ranges in price from £1 to £2 the cwt. The imports in 1846 to London were 82 packages, and in 1850, 214 packages, but the stock held in London is always large, being nearly 2,500 packages.

Colocynth, furnished by _Cucumis colocynthis_ and _C. pseudocolocynthis_, is the dried medullary part of a wild species of gourd which is cultivated in Spain. It also grows wild in Japan, the sandy lands of Coromandel, Cape of Good Hope, Syria, Nubia, Egypt, Turkey, and the islands of the Grecian Archipelago. It may be obtained in the jungles of India in cart loads. The fruit, which is about the size of an orange, with a thin but solid rind, is gathered in autumn, when ripe and yellow, and in most countries is peeled and dried either in the sun or by stoves. It comes over from Cadiz, Trieste, Mogadore, &c., in cases, casks, &c., and duty was paid on about 11,000 lbs. in 1839.

CUBEBS.--The dried unripe fruit of _P. Cubebi_, or _Cubeba qfficinalia_, a climbing plant of the pepper tribe, native of Prince of Wales' Island, Java, and the Indian islands furnishes the medicinal cubebs, which is used extensively in arresting discharges from mucous membranes. In appearance cubebs resemble black pepper, except that they are higher colored and are each furnished with a stalk two or three lines long. Dr. Blume says, that the cubebs of the shops are the fruit of _P. caninum_. This species of pepper, when fresh and good, contains nearly 10 per cent. of essential oil.

In 1842 the quantity entered for home consumption was 67,093 lbs. The average imports are about 40 to 50 tons annually. 3 cases were imported into Liverpool in 1851. The price in the Liverpool market, in January 1853, was £3 10s. to £4 10s. the cwt.

GAMBOGE.--This resinous juice, which is a most important article of commerce, is furnished by some of the plants of Gambogia, natives principally of South America. It is a powerful irritant, and is employed medicinally as a drastic and hydragogue cathartic. From its bright yellow color it is also used as a pigment.

Gamboge fetches in the London market from £5 to £11 per cwt.

Some of the species of _Stalagmites_ (Murray), natives of Ceylon and the East, yield a similar yellow viscid juice, hardly distinguishable from gamboge, and used for the same purpose by painters. They are a genus of fine ornamental trees, thriving well in soils partaking of a mixture of loam and peat.

According to Koenig, the juice is collected by breaking off the leaves or young branches. From the fracture the gamboge exudes in drops, and is therefore called _gum gutta_. It is received on leaves, coco-nut shells, earthen pots, or in bamboos; it gradually hardens by age, and is then wrapped up in leaves prior to sale.

The common gamboge of Ceylon is produced by a plant which Dr. Graham was led to view as a species of a new genus under the name of _Hebradendron Gambogoides_. A very different species, the _Garcinia Gambogia_, of Roxburgh, once supposed to produce gamboge, and indeed actually confounded by Linnæus with the true gamboge tree of Ceylon, he has proved not to produce gamboge at all.

This substance is also obtained from several other plants, as the _Mangostana Gambogia_ (Gaertner), _Hypericwm bacciferum_ and _Cayanense_, natives of the East Indies, Siam and Ceylon, whence it is imported in small cakes and rolls or cylindrical twisted masses. Its composition is as follows: number 1 being an analysis by Professor Christison of a commercial specimen from Ceylon; number 2 of a fine sample of common ditto:--

1 2 Resin, or fatty acid 78.84 74.8 Coloring matter 4.03 3.5 Gum 12.59 16.5 Residue 4.54 5.2 ----- ----- 100. 100.

The average imports of gamboge into the port of London, during the past five or six years, have been from 400 to 500 chests of one to two cwt. each.

Gentian.--The yellow gentian root (_Gentiana lutea_) is the officinal species, and a native of the Alps of Austria and Switzerland.

The stems and roots of _G. amarella_ and _campestris_, British species, and _G. cruciata, purpurea, punctata_, &c., are similar in their effects, having tonic, stomachic, and febrifugal properties. So has _G. kurroo_ of the Himalayas. The root is generally taken up in autumn, when the plant is a year old. It is cut longitudinally into pieces of a foot or a foot and a half long. They are imported into this country in bales from Havre, Marseilles, &c., and a good deal comes from Germany. In 1839, 470 cwts. were entered for home consumption.

Chiretta is the herb and root of _Agathotes Chirayta_, Don; _Gentiana Chirayta_, Fleming; or _Ophelia chirayta_, a herbaceous plant, growing in the Himalaya mountains about Nepaul and the Morungs.

Ipecacuan.-- _Cephælis Ipecacuanhæ_, Richard, yields the ipecacuan of the shops. The plant is met with in the woods of several Brazilian provinces, as Pernambuco, Bahia and Rio Janeiro. It is found growing in moist shady situations, from 8 to 20 degs. south latitude. The roots, which are the officinal part, are contorted, knotty and annulated, and about the thickness of a goose quill.

Besides this brown or gray annulated ipecacuan, there are spurious kinds, such as the striated or black Peruvian, the produce of _Pyschotria elliptica_, and other species; and white or amylaceous ipecacuan, furnished by _Richardsonia scabra_, an herbaceous perennial, native of the provinces of Rio Janeiro and Minas Geraes. _Manettia glabra_ or _cordifolia_, also furnishes ipecacuan in Buenos Ayres. It is imported into this country from Rio in bales, barrels, bags, and serons, and the average annual imports in the eight years ending in 1841 were 10,000 lbs. In 1840, the shipments from Rio were as much as 20,000 lbs.

Castelnau states, that one expert hand can gather 15 lbs. of the ipecacuan root in a day, which will fetch in Rio one dollar per pound. He estimates that, from 1830 to 1837, not less than 800,000 lbs. of this drug were exported from the province of Matto Grosso to Rio.

Jalap.--This drug is obtained from the dried tubers or root-stock of _Ipomoea Jalapa_ or _Convolvulus Jalapa_, a perennial plant, native of America. Some suppose it takes its specific name from Xalapa, in Mexico, whence we chiefly import it. It grows in the woods near Chicanquiaco, at an altitude of 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. Large quantities might be gathered and exported in Jamaica. The root is of a roundish tuberous form, black externally, and of a deep, yellowish grey within, and varies in size from that of a walnut to that of a moderate sized turnip. It contains a resin in which its

## active properties reside. It is brought to this country in thin

transverse slices, and the amount entered for home consumption is about 45,000 lbs. a year. It is imported in bales, from Vera Cruz direct, or indirectly by way of New York, and other places.

Two sorts of jalap root occur in commerce. The one which was first introduced into the market, and which is even at the present day most frequently met with, is obtained from the _Ipomoea Schiedeana_ of Zuccarini, a plant growing on the eastern declivity of the Mexican Andes, and discovered by Von Schiedes. The root, as met with in commerce, consists of pieces varying from the size of a nut to that of the fist, sometimes whole, sometimes cut into disks, and at other times divided into two or three portions. The external surface is of a more or less dark gray brown color, corrugated and rough. It is very hard, presents a shining resinous even surface when broken, and is difficult to reduce to powder. The powder is of a brownish color, has a faint peculiar odor and irritant taste.

The second quality, which was introduced into commerce is great quantities a few years ago, by the name of stalk jalap, is now more scarce, and obtained from the _Ipomoea orazabensis_ of Pelletan, a plant growing without cultivation in the neighbourhood of the Mexican town of Orizaba. The root, as met with in the trade, consists of pieces varying from one to three inches in length, and 1½ to two inches in diameter. They are of a higher color than the first-named root, and of decidedly fibrous structure. The chief constituents of both varieties is a peculiar resin, of which they contain about 10 per cent.

Scammony.--The root of _Convolvulus Scammonia_, another plant of the same family, affords, when cut, a gummy resinous exudation or milky juice, which soon concretes and forms scammony. The plant grows abundantly in Greece, the Grecian Islands, and various parts of the Levant. It is imported from Aleppo in drums, weighing from 75 to 125 lbs. each, and from Smyrna in compact cakes like wax packed in chests. In 1839, the quantity on which duty (2s. 6d. per lb.) was paid amounted to 8,581 lbs. The duty received for scammony, in 1842, was £607. A spurious kind is prepared from _Calystegia (Convolvulus) sepium_, a native of Australia, and several plants of the Asclepiadacæ order.

Dr. Russell ("Med. Obs. and Inqui.") thus describes the mode of procuring scammony:--

Having cleared away the earth from the upper part of the root, the peasants cut off the top in an oblique direction, about two inches below where the stalks spring from it. Under the most depending part of the slope they affix a shell, or some other convenient receptacle, into which the milky juice flows. It is then left about twelve hours, which time is sufficient for the drawing off of the whole juice; this, however, is in small quantities, each root affording but a few drachms. This milky juice from the several roots is put together, often into the leg of an old boot, for want of some more proper vessel, when in a little time it grows hard, and is the genuine scammony. Various substances are often added to scammony while yet soft. Those with which it is most usually adulterated are wheat flour, ashes, or fine sand and chalk.

Liquorice.--The plant which yields the liquorice root of commerce is _Glycirrhiza glabra_ or _Liquiritia officinalis_. It is a native of Italy and the southern parts of Europe, but has been occasionally cultivated with success in Britain, especially at Pontefract, in Yorkshire, and at Mitcham, in Surrey. The plant is a perennial, with pale blue flowers. It grows well in a deep, light, sandy loam, and is readily increased by slips from the roots with eyes. The root, which is the only valuable part, is long, slender, fibrous, of a yellow color, and when grown in England is fit for use at the end of three years. The sweet, subacid, mucilaginous juice is much esteemed as a pectoral. It owes its sweetness to a peculiar principle called glycrin or glycirrhiza, which appears also to be present in the root and leaves of other papilionaceous plants, as _G. echinata_ and _glandulifera, Trifoliwm alpinum_, and the wild liquorice of the West Indies, _Abrus precatorius_, a pretty climber.

The greatest portion of our supplies of the extract, which amount to 7,000 or 8,000 cwts. a year, are obtained from Spain and Sicily. The juice, obtained by crushing the roots in a mill, and subjecting them to the press, is slowly boiled, till it becomes of a proper consistency, when it is formed into rolls of a considerable thickness, which are usually covered with bay leaves. It is afterwards usually re-dissolved, purified, and, when formed into small quills, is known as refined liquorice.

In 1839, 1,166 tons of liquorice paste were exported from Naples, valued at £45 per ton. Mr. Poole, in his Statistics of Commerce, states that the consumption of liquorice root and paste in this country averages 500 tons per annum. 110 cwt. of the juice and 100 cwt. of the root are annually brought into Hull from the continent.

Matico--the Peruvian styptic, a powerful vegetable astringent, was first made known to the medical profession of England by Dr. Jeffreys, of Liverpool, in the _Lancet_, as far back as January 5th, 1839. A paper on its history and power was published in May, 1843, in the "Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association," vol. 10. It is stated to be the _Piper angustifolium_ of Ruiz and Parsons. Dr. Martin believes it to be a species of _Phlomis_. The leaves are covered with a fine hair.

The powdered leaves of the _Eupatorium glutinosum_, under the name of Matico, are used about Quito for stanching blood and healing wounds. A good article on the pharmaceutical and chemical character of matico, by Dr. J.F. Hodges, appeared in the "Proceedings of the Chemical Society of London," in 1845. It is stated, by Dr. Martin, that, like the gunjah, which the East Indians prepare, from the _Cannabis Indica_, the leaves and flowers of the matico have been long employed by the sensual Indians of the interior of Peru to prepare a drink which they administer to produce a state of aphrodisia. The leaves and flowering tops of the plant are the parts imported and introduced to notice as a styptic, which property seems to depend on their structure and not on their chemical composition.

Quassia.--The quassia wood of the pharmacopoeia was originally the product of _Quassia amara_, a tall shrub, never above fifteen feet high, native of Guiana, but also inhabiting Surinam and Colombia. It is a very ornamental plant, and has remarkable pinnate leaves with winged petioles. This wood is well known as one of the most intense bitters, and is considered an effectual remedy in any disorder where pure bitters are required. Surinam quassia is not, however, to be met with now. That sold in the shops is the tough, fibrous, bitter bark of the root of _Simaruba (Quassia) excelsa_ and _officinalis_, very large forest trees, growing in Cayenne, Jamaica, and other parts of the West India Islands, where they bear the local name of bitter-wood. Its infusion is used as a tonic. 23 tons of bitter-wood were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 1851. Quassia acts as a narcotic poison on flies and other insects. Although prohibited by law, it is frequently employed by brewers as a substitute for hops. The duty of £8 17s. 6d. per cwt., levied on quassia, is intended to restrict its use for such a purpose.

Rhubarb.--This most important plant belongs to the genus Rheum. The officinal rhubarb is the root of an undetermined species. There are about thirteen different kinds which are said to yield rhubarb. Lindley enumerates fifteen. I however take Professor Balfour's classification:--

1. _Rheum palmatum_, native of Bucharia, which has perhaps the best title to be considered the true rhubarb-plant, grows spontaneously in the Mongolian empire on the confines of China.

2. _R. undulatum_, native of China, which yields much of the French rhubarb.

3. _R. compactum_, native of Tartary, another species yielding French rhubarb, and often cultivated in Britain for its acid petioles.

4. _R. Emodi_ (Wallich). This species yields a kind of Himalayan rhubarb. Its petioles are much used for their acid properties.

5. _R. Rhaponticum_, native of Asia. Used in France and Britain in the same way as the third species. It is much cultivated in the department of Morbihan.

6. _R. hybridum_ (Murr). Much cultivated in Germany for its root and in Britain for its stalks.

7. _R. Webbianum_ (Royle). 8. _R. Spiceformi_ (Royle). 9. _R. Moorcroftianum_ (Royle). Himalayan species or varieties.

10. _R. crassinervium_ (Fisch), a Russian species.

11. _R. leucorhizum_ (Pall), a Siberian and Altai species, said to yield imperial or white rhubarb. It has striped flowers, while all others are whitish green.

12. _R. Caspicum_ (Fisch), a Russian and Altai species.

13. _R. Ribes_, native of the Levant, but some say an Afghanistan or Persian species.

All these grow in the cold parts of the world, as on the Altai mountains, in Siberia, Thibet, North of China, and on the Himalayan range. The rhubarb procured from one or more of these species is known in commerce under the names of Russian or Turkey, Chinese or East Indian, and English rhubarb.

The plants all thrive well in a rich loamy soil, or light sandy soil, and are increased by divisions of the roots or by seed.

The extent of country from which rhubarb of one kind or another is actually collected, according to Christison, stretches from Ludall, in 77½ east longitude, to the Chinese province of Shen-si, 29 degrees further east, and from the Sue-chan mountains, in north latitude 26 degrees, nearly to the frontiers of Siberia, 24 degrees northward. The best rhubarb is said to come from the very heart of Thibet, within 95 degrees east longitude and 35 degrees north latitude, 500 or 600 miles north of Assam.

The Chinese rhubarb is inferior to that of Russia and Turkey. The price varies in China from 38 dollars per picul upwards, and about 1,500 piculs are annually exported, on an average at 50 dollars per picul. In 1844, 2,077 piculs were shipped from Canton for Great Britain; and of 95,701 lbs. imported in 1841, 43,640 lbs. were brought from China, 8,349 lbs. from the Philippines, 7,290 lbs. from the East Indies, and 33,710 lbs. from the United States; only 1,462 lbs. were brought from Russia. The imports from the East Indies have decreased more than 70 per cent. in the last twelve years, as compared with the preceding. The wholesale prices are, for round rhubarb, 8d. to 3s. per lb.; flat, 6d. to 3s. 3d. per lb.; Dutch trimmed, 6s. to 7s. per lb.; Russian, 13s. to 13s. 6d. per lb.

In 1831, we imported 133,462 lbs. from the East India Company's possessions, and 6,901 lbs. from Russia. In 1843, only 71,298 lbs. came from the East. From China we received, in 1843, 172,882 lbs.

The quantities of rhubarb on which duty of 1s. per lb. was paid in the six years ending 1840, were as follows;--

East Indian. Foreign. lbs. lbs. 1835 32,515 10,647 1836 36,836 7,752 1837 44,669 5,946 1838 37,026 7,402 1839 22,575 12,525 1840 16,745 22,203

The imports and consumption of rhubarb are thus stated in the _Pharmaceutical Journal_:--

Imports. Consumption. lbs. lbs. 1826 102,624 32,936 1831 140,395 40,124 1836 122,142 44,468 1841 95,701 67,877 1846 427,694 -- 1847 305,736 -- 1848 116,005 -- 1849 94,914 --

The rhubarb brought into Siberia grows wild in Chinese Tartary, especially in the province Gansun, on hills, heaths, and meadows, and is generally gathered in summer from plants of six years of age. "When the root is dug up, it is washed to free it from earthy particles; peeled, bored through the centre, strung on a thread, and dried in the sun. In autumn all the dried rhubarb collected in the province is brought in horsehair sacks, containing about 200 lbs., to Sinin (the residence of the dealers), loaded on camels, and sent over Mongolia to Kiachta, and the ports and capital of China.

Sarsaparilla.--The root of various species of _Smilax_ constitutes the sarsaparilla of the shops. It is an evergreen climbing undershrub, having whitish green flowers, and grows readily from suckers. It is a native of the temperate and tropical regions of Asia and America. The officinal part is the bark, which comes off from the rhizomes. They are mucilaginous, bitter, and slightly acid. Sarsaparilla is used in decoction and infusion as a tonic and alterative. The following are enumerated as sources whence sarsaparilla of various kinds is derived.

_Smilax China_ and _sagittæfolia_, yielding the Chinese root, are said to come from the province of Onansi in China.

_S. pseudo China, S. Sarsaparilla, S. rubens_, and _S. Watsoni,_ furnish the drug of North America.

The sarsaparilla distinguished in commerce as the Lisbon or Brazilian is the root of _S. papyracea_ of Poiret. It is an undershrub, the stem of which is compressed and angular below, and armed with prickles at the angles. The leaves are elliptic, acuminate, and marked with three longitudinal nerves. This species grows principally in the regions bordering the river Amazon, and on the banks of most of its tributary streams. It is generally brought from the provinces of Para and Maranham. It is in large cylindrical bundles, long and straight, and the flexible stem of the plant is bound round the bundles, so as to entirely cover them. Its fibres are very long, cylindrical, wrinkled longitudinally, and furnished with some lateral fibrils. Its color is of a fawn brown, or sometimes of a dark grey, approaching to black. The color internally is nearly white. Besides this species there are others indigenous, such as _S. officinalis_, which grows in the province of Mina; _S. syphilitica_, which grows in the northern regions, and three new species, _S. japicanga, S. Brasiliensis_, and _S_. _syringioides_. There is also met with in Brazil another plant, _Herreria sarsaparilla_, belonging to the same natural order, which abounds in the provinces of Rio, Bahia, and Mina, and the roots of which receive the name of wild sarsaparilla.

From Mexico, Honduras, and Angostura very good qualities are imported. _S. zeylanica, glabra_, and _perfoliata_ furnish sarsaparilla from Asia, and _S. excelsa_ and _aspera_ are used as substitutes for the officinal drug in Europe.

_Smilax officinalis_, found in woods near the Rio Magdalena in New Granada, furnishes the best in the market, which is commonly known as Jamaica Sarza. It differs from the other kinds in having a deep red cuticle of a close texture, and the color is more generally diffused through the ligneous part. It is shipped in bales, formed either of the spirally formed roots, as in the Jamaica and Lima varieties, or of unfolded parallel roots, as in the Brazilian varieties. The roots are usually several feet long, about the thickness of a quill, more or less wrinkled, and the whole quantity retained for home consumption, in 1840, was 143,000 lbs. In 1844, 184,748 lbs., and in 1845 111,775 lbs. were shipped from Honduras.

The prices in the London market, at the close of 1853, were --Brazil, 1s. 3d. per lb.; Honduras, 1s. 3d. to 1s. 8d. per lb.; Vera Cruz, 6d. to 11d. per lb.; Jamaica, 1s. 8d. to 3s. 4d. per lb. The duty received on sarsaparilla in 1842 was £1,536.

The average annual quantity of sarsaparilla obtained from Mexico and South America, exclusive of Brazil, and taken for home consumption, in the twelve years ending with 1843 was 37,826 lbs.

IMPORTS OF BRAZILIAN SARSAPARILLA. lbs. 1827 28,155 1828 49,280 1829 52,772 1830 19,842 1831 31,972 1832 91,238 1833 13,077 1834 28,803 1835 22,387 1836 1,718 1837 12,842 1838 -- 1839 9,484 1840 4,141 1841 1,399 1842 5,572

The total imports in 1849 were 118,934 lbs.

Sarsaparilla has been found growing in the Port Phillip district of Australia, and has been shipped thence in small quantities. It seems to be indigenous to the Bahamas, and is to be found on many of the out islands. Mr. Wm. Dalzell, of Abaco, collected some considerable quantity at a place called Marsh Harbor, which was found to be of a superior quality.

Some thousands of pounds of sarsaparilla were brought to Falmouth, Jamaica, last year, and bought by merchants for export. It came from the parish of St. Elizabeth, and there are whole forests covered with this weed, for such in reality it is. It is too the real black Jamaica sarsaparilla, that is so much valued in the European and American markets. It is also found in other parts of the island.

In 1798 3,674 lbs. of sarsaparilla were shipped from La Guayra; 2,394 lbs. in 1801 from Puerto Cabella, and 400 quintals from Costa Rica, in 1845, valued at eight dollars a quintal.

SENNA.--Several varieties of Cassia, natives of the East, are grown for the production of this drug. The dried leaves of C. _lanceolata_ or _orientalis_, grown in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, the true Mecca senna, are considered the best. In Egypt the leaves of _Cynanchum Arghel_ are used for adulterating senna, _Cassia obovata_ or _C. senna_, also a native of Egypt, cultivated in the East Indies, as well as in Spain, Italy, and Jamaica. It is a perennial herb, one or two feet high. In the East Indies there is a variety (_C. elongata_) common about Tinnivelly, Coimbatore, Bombay, and Agra, &c. Several of this species are common in the West India islands. The plants, which are for the most part evergreens, grow from two to fifteen feet high; they delight in a loamy soil, or mixture of loam or peat.

The seed is drilled in the ground, and the only attention required by the plant is loosening the ground and weeding two or three times when it is young.

The senna leaves imported from India are not generally so clean and free from rubbish as those from Alexandria. They are worth from 20s. to 27s. per cwt. in the Bombay market.

The prices are--Alexandria, l½d. to 6d. per lb.; East Indian, 2d. to 3d. per lb.; Tinnevelly, 7d. to 9½d. per lb.

Senna is collected in various parts of Africa by the Arabs, who make two crops annually; one, the most productive, after the rains in August and September, the other about the middle of March. It is brought to Boulack, the port of Cairo, by the caravans, &c., from Abyssinia, Nubia, and Sennaar, also by the way of Cossier, the Red Sea, and Suez. The different leaves are mixed, and adulterated with arghel leaves. The whole shipments from Boulack to Alexandria, whence it finds it way to Europe, is 14,000 to 15,500 quintals.

The quantities imported for home consumption were--

From the East Indies. Other places. Total. lbs. lbs. lbs. 1838 72,576 69,538 142,114 1839 110,409 63,766 174,175

In 1840, 211,400 lbs. paid duty, which is now only 1d. per lb.

In 1848, we imported 800,000 lbs. from India; in 1849, the total imports were 541,143 lbs. The imports into the United Kingdom were, in 1847, 246 tons; 1848, 402 tons; 1849, 240 tons.

Alexandrian senna (_Cassia acutifolia_). This species is said by some to constitute the bulk of the senna consumed for medical purposes in Europe. It is much adulterated with the leaves of _Cynanchum Arghel, Tiphrosia apollinea_, and _Coriaria myrtifolia_.

_C. lanceolata_ and _C. ethiopica_ furnish other species of the same article, the greater part of the produce of which find its way to India, through the Red Sea, Surat, Bombay and Calcutta, the imports into Calcutta, in 1849, having been 79,212 lbs. _C. obovata_ furnishes the Aleppo and Italian drug.

At least eight varieties of senna leaf are known in commerce in Europe--1. the Senna palthe; 2. Senna of Sennaar or Alexandria; 3. of Tripoli; 4. of Aleppo; 5. of Moka; 6. of Senegambia; 7. the false or Arghel; 8. the Tinnevelly.

In Egypt the senna harvest takes place twice annually, in April and September; the stalks are cut off with the leaves, dried before the sun, and then packed with date leaves. At Boulka, the drug is sorted, mixed, and adulterated, and passed into commerce through Alexandria.

Alexandrian senna, according to Mr. Jacob Bell ("Pharmaceutical Journal," vol. 2, p. 63), contains a mixture of two or more species of true senna. It consists principally of _Cassia obovata_ and _C. obtusata_, and according to some authorities it occasionally contains _C. acutifolia_. This mixture is unimportant, but the _Cynanchum Arghel_, which generally constitutes a fifth of the weight on an average, possesses properties differing in some respects from true senna, and which render it particularly objectionable. The Tinnevelly senna, that most esteemed by the profession, is known by the size of the leaflets, which are much larger than those of any other variety; they are also less brittle, thinner and larger, and are generally found in a very perfect state, while the other varieties, especially the Alexandrian, are more or less broken. The leaves of the Cynanchum are similar in form to those of the lanceolate senna, but they are thicker and stiffer, the veins are scarcely visible, they are not oblique at the base, their surface is rugose, and the color grey or greenish drab; their taste is bitter and disagreeable, and they are often spotted with a yellow, intensely bitter gummo-resinous incrustation. Being less fragile than the leaflets of the true senna, they are more often found entire, and are very easily distinguishable from the varieties which constitute true Alexandrian senna.

In their botanical character they are essentially different, being distinct leaves, not leaflets, which is the case with true senna.

The SUMBUL root, which has recently been introduced into the French market, is the root of an umbelliferous plant, which is characterised by a strong odor of musk. The pilgrims, on their return from Mecca, generally import to Salonika, Constantinople, &c., among other articles of trade, various plants with a musk-like odor. The preparation of these vegetable substances is said to be effected by smearing them over with musk-balsam.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Ure's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures.]

[Footnote 2: Fractional parts are not necessary to include.]

[Footnote 3: Dr. Lindley is in error as to the discriminating duties--British cacao pays 9s., and foreign 18s.]

[Footnote 4: According to Breen's History of St. Lucia up to 1844.]

[Footnote 5: Caffeine (the principle of coffee) and theobromine (the principle of cacao) are the most highly nitrogenised products in nature, as the following analysis will show:--

_Caffeine_, according to Pfaff and Liebig, contains--

Carbon 49.77 Hydrogen 5.33 _Nitrogen_ 28.78 Oxygen 16.12

_Theobromine_, according to Woskreseusky, contains--

Carbon 47.21 Hydrogen 4.53 _Nitrogen_ 35.38 Oxygen 12.80

Of the two, cacao contains the larger quantity of nitrogen; and this chemical fact explains why cacao should be so much more nutritive than tea, though the principle of tea (theine) is nearly identical with the principle of cacoa--tea containing in 100 parts 29.009 of nitrogen. On this subject Liebig has made an observation which I cannot avoid noticing. He says, "We shall never certainly be able to discover how men were led to the use of the hot infusion of the leaves of a certain shrub (tea), or of a decoction of certain roasted seeds (coffee). Some cause there must be, which would explain how the practice has become a necessary of life to whole nations. But it is surely still more remarkable that the beneficial effects of both plants on the health must be ascribed to one and the same substance, the presence of which in two vegetables, belonging to different natural families, and the produce of different quarters of the globe, could hardly have presented itself to the boldest imagination. Yet recent researches have shown, in such a manner as to exclude all doubt, that caffeine, the peculiar principle of coffee, and theine, that of tea, are in all respects identical."--_(Anim. Chem.,_ pp. 178-9.) We really can see nothing in all this but the manifestation of that instinct which, implanted in us by the Almighty, led the untutored Indian (as we are pleased to call him) to breathe into the nostril of the buffalo or the wild horse, and by that single act to subdue his angry rage, or that impelled the first discoverer of combustion to extract fire from the attrition of two pieces of wood. The American Indian, living entirely on flesh, "discovered for himself in tobacco smoke a means of retarding the change of matter in the tissues of the body, and thereby of making hunger more endurable."--(P. 179.) But the wonder ceases, when we reflect that man was endued with certain properties by his Maker which must have been at some remote period, of which we can form no idea, active and manifest the moment he breathed the breath of life. To inquire how he lost this property is not our business at present, but it is only by supposing the _quondam_ existence of such a property, active and manifest, that can in any way explain a first knowledge of the therapeutic, or threptic, qualities of plants and shrubs. With regard to the identity of theine, caffeine, theobromine, &c., it would be as well that the reader should keep in mind that it is so chemically _only_, for in appearance, taste, weight, odor, &c., no substances can differ more. Does the palate exert some peculiar

## action on the ingesta, so as to give to each a distinct sapor? Or

_vice versa_?]

[Footnote 6: In the West Indies, from my own experience, I have found this to be one of the worst descriptions of soil. _P.L.S._]

[Footnote 7: Correspondent of the Singapore _Free Press_, December, 1852.]

[Footnote 8: It is important, in considering what tea may be had from China, to consider the manner of its production. It is grown over an immense district, in small farms, or rather gardens, no farm producing more that 600 chests. "The tea merchant goes himself, or sends his agents to all the small towns, villages, and temples in the district, to purchase tea from the priests and small farmers; the large merchant, into whose hands the tea thus comes, _has to refire it and pack it for the foreign market."--(Fortune's Tea Districts.)_ This refiring is the only additional process of manufacture for our market. Mr. Fortune elsewhere, in his valuable work, giving an account of the cost of tea from the farmers, the conveyance to market, and the merchant's profit, states that " the small farmer and manipulator is not overpaid, but that the great profits are received by the middlemen." No doubt these men do their utmost to keep the farmers in complete ignorance of the state of the tea-market, that they may monopolise the advantages, but it is pretty certain that the news of a bold reduction of duty, and the promise of an immensely increased consumption, would reach even the Chinese farmers, and make them pick their trees more closely--a little of which amongst so many would make a vast difference in the total supply.]

[Footnote 9: See article Thea, by Dr. Royle, in "Penny Cyclopædia," vol xxiv., p. 286.]

[Footnote 10: Hooker's "Bot. Mag.," 1.3148. It is the Assam tea plant.]

[Footnote 11: Report on Tea Cultivation submitted to House of Commons. See Blue Book, 1839, p. 1-3.]

[Footnote 12: In a short time rain gauges will be established at Bheemtal, Huwalbaugh, Paoree, and Kaolagir, in order to measure the quantity of rain that falls annually, for the purpose of ascertaining how much the quantity and quality of the produce of tea is affected by the weather.]

[Footnote 13: In China this process, according to the statement of tea manufacturers, is carried on to a great extent.]

[Footnote 14: Dr. Jameson, in a late communication, remarks--"From the accounts I have received of that place (Darjeeling), I doubt not but that the plants there grown will yield tea of a superior description."]

[Footnote 15: The crops of this district, such as rice, mundooa, and other grains, are so plentiful and cheap as scarcely to pay the carriage to the nearest market town, much less to the plains. In Almorah a maund of rice or mundooa sells for something less than a rupee; barley for eight annas; and wheat for a rupee.]

[Footnote 16: There is frequently a discrepancy in the figures in the Parliamentary papers, which will account for a want of agreement in some of these returns.]

[Footnote 17: See the "Pharmaceutical Journal" for June, 1849, p. 15, et seq.]

[Footnote 18: Reports of Dr. Roxburgh, Mr. Touchet of Radanagore, and Mr. Cardin of Mirzapore, Cutna. Papers on East India Sugar, page 258.]

[Footnote 19: Many are of opinion, that although the juice of this cane is larger in quantity, yet that it contains less sugar. There is some sense in the reason they assign, which is, that in the Mauritius and elsewhere it has the full time of twelve or fourteen months allowed for its coming to maturity--whereas the agriculture of India, and especially in Bengal, only allows it eight or nine months, which, though ample to mature the smaller country canes, is not sufficient for the Otaheite.]

[Footnote 20: Roxburgh on the Culture of Sugar and Jaggary in the Rajahmundry Circar; Third Ap. to Report on East India Sugar, p. 2.]

[Footnote 21: L'Exploitation de Sucreries. Porter on the Sugar Cane, 53,321.]

[Footnote 22: That the above application would be beneficial, is rendered still more worthy of credit from the following experience:--In the Dhoon, the white ant is a most formidable enemy to the sugar planter, owing to the destruction it causes to the sets when first planted. Mr. G.H. Smith says, that there is a wood very common there, called by the natives _Butch_, through, which, they say, if the irrigating waters are passed in its progress to the beds, the white ants are driven away. (Trans. Agri-Hort. Soc. of India, v. 65.)]

[Footnote 23: Fitzmaurice on the Culture of the Sugar Cane.]

[Footnote 24: The kilogramme is equal to 2 lb, 3 oz. avoirdupois.]

[Footnote 25: A lecture on the nutritive value of different articles of food, by C. Daubeny, M.D., "Gardener's Chronicle" (London), January 20th, 1849, p. 37.]

[Footnote 26: Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society, 1849, p. 646.]

[Footnote 27: A lecture "On the Geographical Distribution of Corn Plants," by the Rev. E. Sidney--Proceedings of the Royal Institution (London), May 18th, 1849.]

[Footnote 28: Boussingault's Rural Economy, American edition, pp. 85 and 86.]

[Footnote 29: Zenas Coffin, one of the oldest whalemen in Nantucket, states that corn meal in tight rum puncheons when sent to the Went Indies will keep sweet, while in common flour barrels it will spoil. Report of the Commissioner of Patents for 1847, p. 133.]

[Footnote 30: From remarks of Col. Skinner, and others, at a meeting of the American Institute, held in April 1846. Transactions of American Institute, 1846, p. 509 _et seq._]

[Footnote 31: Comptes Rendus des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences, February 5th, 1819.]

[Footnote 32: A Treatise on Diet and Regimen, by Wm. Henry Robertson, M.D., vol. i. p. 153.]

[Footnote 33: The Plant: a Biography; by M.H. Schleiden, M.D., Professor of Botany in the University of Jena. English translation, p. 54.]

[Footnote 34: Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1847, p. 190. In this communication, Mr. Bentz does not describe the process which he adopts, but enumerates some of its supposed advantages.]

[Footnote 35: Quoted by Boussingault, Rural Economy, Amer. edition, p. 410.]

[Footnote 36: A Treatise on Diet and Regimen, by Wm. Henry Robertson, M.D., Vol. i. p. 140.]

[Footnote 37: Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals, &c., by R.D. Thomson, M.D., p. 156.]

[Footnote 38: Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal Physiology, translated by Prof. J.F.W. Johnston, p. 684.]

[Footnote 39: See Dr. R.D. Thomson's Experimental Researches on the Food of Animals, &c.]

[Footnote 40: Mulder's Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal Physiology; English Translation, p. 816.]

[Footnote 41: I have had no opportunity of analysing samples of flour from the South-Western States, and therefore cannot extend this comparison to them.]

[Footnote 42: Transactions of "Agri.-Hort. Society, of Calcutta," vol. iv. p. 125.]

[Footnote 43: Dict. of Arts and Manufacture.]

[Footnote 44: Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. 3, p. 138.]

[Footnote 45: The glasses used were all of the sort described in Griffin's catalogue under the name of Clark's test-glasses. They were all, as nearly as possible, of the same size and shape.]

[Footnote 46: I have determined the amount of nitrogen contained in the meal made from the whole maize, the growth of the colony, as also from plantain meal; I have also ascertained its amount in cassava meal, prepared in the manner mentioned in the text, and in meal prepared from the cassava sliced, dried, and ground without expressing the juice. Assuming Liebig's formula of Proteine, namely, C-48 N-6 H-36 0-4 the results stand thus:--

Nitrogen. Proteine compounds. Per cent. Per cent. Maize meal (unhusked) 1.73 10.72 Plantain meal .88 5.45 Cassava meal (juice expressed) .36 2.23 Ditto from the sliced and dried roots .78 4.83 ]

[Footnote 47: Les Moyens de prévenir la Maladie des Pommes de Terre. Expériences et Conclusions de A.N.C. Bollman, Conseiller d'état, Professeur, &c. 8vo, St. Petersburg, 1853.]

[Footnote 48: If cinnamon seeds after washing be exposed to the sun, even for twenty minutes, the shells will crack in two, and this prevents the seeds from growing.]

[Footnote 49: No export duties exist in the Straits Settlements.]

[Footnote 50: Since these remarks were written, the duty has been wholly abolished.]

[Footnote 51: Although this was the amount of produce for 1842, it must be remarked that that crop was a complete failure, and the average crop for some years past has been 46,666 pounds.]

[Footnote 52: Ure's Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures.]

[Footnote 53: The vernacular name for stale or putrid urine.]

[Footnote 54: "Lit" was the name applied to the plant, from which the dye was to be prepared, and "pig" is the Scotch synonym for any kind of earthenware vessel---in which the maceration was generally carried on.]

[Footnote 55: Pitkins' Statistics of the United States.]

[Footnote 56: A great portion of the crop I grew had leaves measuring two feet nine inches in length and eighteen inches wide, being larger than I ever knew to have been grown in America. The average weight I obtained per acre, was 25 cwt.; whereas I see by the public returns, the average of what is grown here is only 17 1-7th cwt.]

INDEX.

_Albrus precatorius_, 643

Acacia bark, 493 _Catechu_, 495, 577 _dealbata_, 505

_Acer saccharinum_, 205

Acre, coffee trees to the, 69

Achira plant, 355

Achote, a name for arnotto, 447

_Acrocomia fusiformis_, 519

_Adeps Myristica_, 402

_Adme cyperus_, 626

_Adenanthera Pavonina_, 378

_Adansonia digitata_, 378

African arrowroot, 353 lard, 525 purple millet, 307

Africa, pepper grown in, 422 tobacco culture in, 615

Agar-Agar moss, 378, 379

Agi or Guinea pepper, 429

Agave Americana--a substitute for soap, 574

Agaiti oil, 520

Agricultural wealth of tropical regions, 2

Aipi, 376

Akyab, exports of rice from, 297

_Aleurites triloba_, 521, 538

Alexandrian senna, 648

Algaroba beans, 313 bark, 503

Algiers, tobacco culture in, 615

Alizaine, 478

Alkanet root, 442

Allspice, the common name for pimento, 430

Almond oil, 510, 533

Aloes, statistics of exports from the Cape, 632 varieties of, 628

_Alpinia Galanga_, 419 _Cardamomum_, 419 _racemosa_, 414

_Alstræmeria pallida_, 330

_Althea rosea_, 442

_Amaranthus gangiticus_, 434

American arrowroot, 352 flour, countries to which, shipped, 223

Americans consume most coffee, 40

Amboyna wood, 439

_Amomum_, species of, 419 _Zingiber_, 414

_Anacardium occidentale_, 495, 521

Analyses, various, of tobacco, 592-93

Analysis of the coffee plant, 49 ashes of the coffee tree, 43 of catechu, 579 of Havana tobacco, 591, 615 of other varieties, 615 of oil cake, 546 of soils, 617 of soils, not so requisite abroad, 7 of the sugar cane, by Dr. Evans, 154 of sugar soils in the East, 172

_Anethum graveolens_, 376 _Sowa_, seeds of, 434

Angola weed, 486

Aniseed, 437

Antigua arrowroot, statistics of, 353 cost of cultivating sugar, 189

Ants, remedy for, 181

_Anchusa tinctoria_, 442

Andropogon, species of, 572

_Anileria_, a manufactory for indigo, 460

Apricot oil, 511, 536

Apios, 355, 371

Aquilaria, species of, 439

Arghel leaves, 647

_Arachis hypogoea_, 513

_Arenga saccharifera_, the _gomutus saccharifera_ of Rumphius, 136, 314

Areometer, an instrument for testing oil, 532

_Arbor alba_, 566

Areca nuts, value of the exports from Ceylon, 579 palm, 577

_Argemone Mexicana_, 511, 521, 626

Arnotto, 447

Arpent, a French land measure, about one-seventh less than an acre, 251

Arracan, exports of rice from, 297

_Arracacha esculenta_, 355, 375

Arrack, 556 used to flavor tobacco, 621

Arroba, a Spanish weight of 25 lbs., the fourth part of a quintal.

Arrowroot, Benzon's analysis of, 348 culture and commerce of, 345 made from the Palmyra shoots, 376 starch of, 331, 334-35, 337

Arsenic for steeping grain, poisonous effects from, 233

_Artocarpus incisa_, 318, 330

_Arum colocasia_, 364 _esculentum_, 364 _Rumphii_, 365

Asafoetida, 633

_Asclepias curassavica_, 625 _gigantea_, 494 _tingens_, 442

Assamee, an Indian name for the ryot or cultivator, 467

Assam, introduction of tea culture, 94 tea sales, 98 Company, origin of, 98 manufacture of tea in, 126

Assaroo, rain sowing, 468

_Astoria theiformis_, used as tea at Santa Fe, 80

Attap leaf for thatching, 405, 559

Attar of roses, 570

Aucklandia, 438

_Auracaria Bidwillii_, 377

Australia, consumption of tea in, 87, 88 sugar cultivation recommended, 139

Austria production of beet-root sugar in, 197, 200

_Avicenna tomentosa_, 444

Avocado seed yields a dye stuff, 444

Awl tree, 443

Babool wood, 493

Bahu, a land measure in Java, equal to 71 acres.

Bajree, the Indian name for _Holcus Spicatus_, 306

Bales of Cuba tobacco, size of, 613

Balfour (Prof.) on the starch in potatoes, 330 on species of rhubarb, 647

Ball's account of the cultivation, &c., of tea, 103

Banana, starch in, 331 used as a shade for the cacao, 15

_Baptista tinctoria_, 453

Barbacue, a platform for coffee drying, 69

_Baphia nitida_, 447

Barbados arrowroot, 337, 353 culture of aloes in, 630 cost of cultivating sugar, 189 ginger, 415 sugar crops of, 149 yam, 334, 335, 337, 338, 362

Barcelona, exports of cacao from, 13

Bark of the larch, its utility, 376

Barks for tanning, 492

Barley, history and consumption of, 255 imported, 218 meal imported, 218 produce of in England and Wales, 248, 256 average prices of, 256

Barrel of rice weighs 600 lbs. net, 291

Barus camphor, 634

Barwood, 445, 447

Basket of rice, a measure equal to 55½ lbs., English,

_Bassia butyracea_, 136, 512 _longifolia_, 511 oil seeds of, 537

_Batatas edulis_, 330, 331, 357

_Bauhinia variegata_, 492

Bayley (Mr.), on consumption of tea in the manufacturing districts

Bay rush or tapioca, 376

Beans, analysis of, 264 and peas, quantities imported, 313 imported, 218

Bearing time of different plants, 9

Beck (Prof.) on various wheats, 222 on the American breadstuffs, 226

Beet root sugar produced on the Continent, 144 cost of producing, 189, 204

Beet, varieties of the root, 191

Belgians, large consumers of coffee, 40

Belgium, production of beet root sugar in, 200

Benares, production of indigo in, 475

Ben, oil of, 523

Bencoolen, pepper grown in, 423 spice culture in, 412

Bengal, cost of cultivating sugar in, 189 indigo, 464 introduction of the coffee tree into, 40 production of indigo in, 475 production of opium in, 580 rice, 296

Bennet on Ceylon, 316

Bennett (Dr.), description of gambier, 500

Berar, edible root of, 377

Berberry, a dye stuff, 442

Berbice, exports of coffee from, 73

Bergamot, essence of, 566

Berger's process of making rice starch, 344

Bermuda arrowroot, statistics of, 353 mode of cultivating arrowroot, 346

Berry wax, 540

Betel leaf, 577

Bhoe Moong, the Indian name for the ground nut, 515

Bhull rice lands, 293

Biggah, distinction between this land measure, 471

_Bignonia Chica_, 444

Bihai, 320

Bitter cassava, 331

_Bixa orellana_, 447

Black ginger, 415 pepper, statistics of, 428 tea, imports of the last fifteen years, 82 mode of manufacturing, 112

Blood tree, 625

Bollman (Prof.), on the potato rot, 359

Bolitus used as food, 377

Bonynge (Mr. F.) promotes tea culture in America, 97

_Borassus gomutus_, 315

Borneo, pepper produced in, 422

Bourbon, cacao grown in, 36 produce of rice in, 293

Bousa, an African beer, 308

Boussingault's analysis of wheat, 244

Boyams, food plant, 377

Bran, analysis of, 231

_Brassica oleracea_, oil from the seed, 539

Brazilian arrowroot, 330, 367, 369

Brazil, exports of coffee to America, 63 cost of producing sugar in, 189 culture of ginger, 418 production of coffee in, 40, 41, 63 introduction of the tea plant, 128 statistics of sugar production, 182 tobacco export from, 594 wood, 485

Bread fruit, 318, 330 made from millet, 306 nut of Jamaica, 319 stuffs of commerce, 217

Brick tea of Thibet, 92

British Guiana, coffee produced in, 73 West Indies, decline of coffee culture in, 40, 63, 67 exports of coffee from, 73

Brood-boon, 319

Bromelia Pinguin, fruit of, used for soap, 574

Broom corn, 307, 308 sedge, 308

_Brosimum Alicastrum_, edible nuts of, 319

_Broussonitia tinctoria_, 485

Brown bread, its wholesomeness, 230

Bruce, (Mr. C.A.) on the manufacture of tea in Assam, 126

_Buchanania latifolia_, 494, 521

Buckwheat, average weight of crop in New Brunswick, 253 oil from, 510 culture of, 259 analysis of, 260

Buck yam, 333, 335, 362

Bullhoof, yields a narcotic, 589

Bunbury (Mr.) on Cape aloes, 632

Butch wood, used to keep off ants, 181

_Butea frondosa_, 507 varieties of, 442 tannin from, 494

Butter of cacao, 11, 12 obtained from the dolichos bean, 313

_Cabacinha_, the Portuguese name for a purgative plant, 626

Caballine aloes, 630

Cacao beans or seeds, analysis of, 12 age at which may be transplanted, 6 expenses of a plantation, 33 information respecting, 9 plantation, enormous returns formerly obtained from, 34 quantity consumed in the United Kingdom, 11 total imports into the United Kingdom, 35 total imports from America and the West Indies, 35 trees, where indigenous, 33 oppressive duties levied on, 34

Cacomite, a species of Tigridia, 374

Cacoon, oil from, 511

Cadet's analysis of barks, 495

_Cæsalpinia_, species of, 446 _Brasiliensis_, 485

_Cæsalpinia Coriari_, 493 _oleospermum_, 511

Caffeine, analysis of, 80

Cajeput oil, 566

_Caladium costatium_, 377 _esculentum_, 331 _sagittifolium_, 334

Calambak wood, 439

_Calandra oryza_, 279

Calcutta, exports of castor oil, 545

Calidad, the best kind of Cuba tobacco, 613

California, tea proposed to be cultivated in, 97

_Callistemon ellipticum_, 505

_Calophyllum Inophyllum_, 513

Calumba plant, 638

Calumbin, 638

_Calystegia sepium_, 642

_Camassia esculenta_, 376

Camata, a variety of valonia, 508

_Camelina sativa_, 509, 511, 564

Camotes, a Spanish name for the sweet potato, 375

_Camæladia ilicifolia_, 628

Campbell (Dr. A.), on the tea culture at Darjeeling, 116

Camphor, on the collection of, 633 obtained from the roots of the cinnamon, 389

_Cannabis indica_, 643

Camwood, 447

Canada, production of maple sugar in, 206 West, grain exports of, 251

Canadian yellow root, 626

Canary Isles, millet exported from, 306 moss, 486 seed, 311

Candleberry myrtle, 540

Candlewood, 539

Candles made of cinnamon suet, 390

Candle tree, 521, 538

Cane sugar, composition of, 136, 155, 157

_Canella alba_, 396

Canna, species of, 355

_Canothus Americanus_, used as tea, 80

Caoutchouc, 539

Capa, a term in Cuba for good tobacco, 614

Cape aloes, manufacture of, 631 weed, 486

Capsicum, 428

_Carapa_, species yielding oil, 518 oil, 441, 519 _guianensis_, 512

Caracas, large produce of cacao in, 13

Caraveru, a red pigment, 444

Carraway seed oil, 437, 566

Cardomoms, bastard, 419 plants furnishing, 419

_Carduus Virginianus_, 376

Carob bean, 312, 313

Carolina rice, shipments of, 285

Carrageen, 379

Carrots, average weight per bushel in New Brunswick, 253

_Carthamus tinctoria_, 450 oil from, 512

Caruto, a name for the Lana dye, 444

Carver's treatise on tobacco culture, 607

_Carum carui_, 566

_Caryophyllus aromaticus_, 397

_Caryota urens_, 314

Cascarilla bark, 396

Cashew bark, 495 nut oil, 512

Cassareep, an antiseptic, 339, 343, 369

Cassava cakes, 342 culture of, 367 fecula of, 330 flour exports from St. Lucia, 369 meal, 341 roots, information respecting, 9 starch, yield per acre, 370

Cassia, a rival to cinnamon, 391 _auriculata_, 494 bark of China, superiority of, 393, 394 buds, 396 _lignea_, 394, 396 statistics of imports and consumption of, 394

Castor oil, 510, 511, 527, 536, 542, 563

Catechu or Cutch, 579 tannin in, 495

Cattle, consumption of Indian corn by, 271

Catty, a Chinese weight, 400

Cayenne, nutmeg introduced, 412 pepper grown in, 427 pepper, 429 pottage, 429

_Celastrus paniculatus_, 521

Celebes, coffee grown in, 62 production of coffee in, 41 rice culture in, 302 tobacco, 621

Centrifugal machine for sugar, 140

_Cephælis Ipecacuanhæ_, 641

_Ceratonia siliqua_, 312, 313

Cereal grasses, 216

_Ceroxyion andicola_, 541

_Cersium virginianum_, 376

_Cetraria islandica_, 343, 379

Ceylon arrowroot, 353 cardamoms, 419, 421 coco-nut culture in, 556 culture of rice in, 295

Ceylon, exports of castor oil from, 545 adapted for indigo culture, 475 gamboge, 639 the great seat of cinnamon culture, 383 pepper exported from, 426 imports of _Terra Japonica_, 502 moss, 379 produce of tobacco in, 619 production of coffee in, 41 tea plant introduced, 95 Value of the betel nuts exported, 579

Chay-root, 449, 478

_Chamarops Palmetto_, 495

Chandu, the prepared extract of the opium, 585

_Chenopodium quinon_, 310

Cherrots, Manilla, 619

Chesnuts, consumed in France, 361

Chest of opium, about 140 lbs., 58

Chick pea, 312 the inspissated juice of the poppy, 582

Chicory, extensive consumption of, 37

Chillies, growth of, 428

Chimo, powdered potatoes, 361

China, population of, 86 shipments of tea from, 84

Chinese arrowroot, 352

_Chironia sapinda_, 521

_Chloranthus_, flowers used to flavor tea, 85

Chocolate nuts, 11 imported, 35 paste, as prepared by the Marienna, 18

Christison (Prof.), analysis of gamboge, 640

Chiretta, 641

Chrysoptranic acid, 488

_Cibotium Billardieri_, 380

Cigars, consumption of, 596 duty received on, 597 large consumption of in New York, 599 profit on manufacture of, 612 number exported from Cuba, 614 exported from Siam, 619

Cinchona bark, 635

Cinnamon, 382 export duty on, 391 oil, 565 properties of good, 387 statistics of export from Ceylon, 390, 391 suet, 522 varieties of the tree, 386

Citronella oil, 565, 573

Clagett and Co.'s (Messrs.) tobacco circulars, 601

Clarifying cane juice, 155

Clark, (Mr.) on a new variety of tobacco, 613

Classification and arrangement adopted in the work, 5

_Claytonia acutiflora_, 371

Clerihew's coffee apparatus, 52

Climate suited for various plants, 9

Clove bark, 383

Cloves, 397 oil, 390, 398 statistics of, 411 varieties of the tree, 398 where grown, 402

Cobres a first quality of indigo, 456

Coca plant, 576

_Cocculus indicus_, 576 _palmatus_, 638

Cochin China, coco nut oil exported from, 556 culture of rice, 298 exports of cinnamon, 393 tea considered inferior, 94

Cochineal, value of the dye stuff, 440

Cocoa, see Cacao, 9 fat, 519 nut butter, 560 information respecting, 9 oil, 527 palm, 547

_Cocos nucifera_, 547 _fusiformis_, 519 or eddoes, 364

Cocum oil, 521

Coffee, adulteration of, and substitutes for, 37 consumption of, 39, 596 cultivation in Ceylon, 46 in Africa, 77 in India, 44 information respecting, 9 manures suited for, 50 tree, description of, 43 production in various countries, 41 produce per tree and per acre, 69, 481 leaf, suited for making a beverage by infusion, 78 Dr. Hooker's opinion thereon, 79 plantation, beauty of, 67 prices of, in London, 47 signs of its being properly cured, 71 trade, progress of, 36

Coimbatore, culture of tobacco in, 618.

Coir, Coco nut, 551, 552, 555, 556.

Colman (Mr.), on grain production, 219 on sugar, 204

_Colocasia_, varieties of cultivated, 364

_Colocynth_, 638 oil, 511

Colombo root, 638 shipments of coffee from, 48

Coloring principles of the lichens, 487 teas in China, 104

Colza oil, 510, 513, 539

_Conium Arracacha_, 375

Connecticut, culture of tobacco in, 606

Consumption of rhubarb, 645

_Convolvulus Jalapa_, 641 _Scammonia_, 642

Conquin tay, plantain meal, 324

Constantinople opium, 585

Consumption of arrowroot, 354 of arnotto, 449 cacoa in the United Kingdom, 36 cassia bark, 394 castor oil, 544 coco nut oil, 562 coffee, 36, 64, 596 coffee in various countries, 41 cinnamon, 391 cloves, 401 ginger, 418 indigo, 477 mace, 414 nutmegs, 414 opium, 580 palm oil, 527 pepper, 428 pimento, 431 sago in the United Kingdom, 318 sugar in India, 140 Great Britain, 139 tea, statistics of, 82, 596 tobacco, 596, 595

_Convolvulus batatas_, 333, 334, 356

Coolies employed in Mauritius, 150

Copey, a Cuba dye wood, 485

Copperah, 536, 549, 556, 560, 661

Corakan flour, 304

Coriander seed, 437

_Coriaria myrtifolia_, 493

Cork tree bark, 504

Corn, the common name for maize in America, 270

Cortes, a description of indigo, 456

_Corypha umbraculifera_, 316

_Costus Arabicus_, 438 _indicus_, &c., 638

Costa Rica, production of coffee in, 41, 64

Cotton, information respecting, 9 seed oil, 564 cake, 564

Courida bark, 495

Cow-itch, 625

Crane potato, 372

Crawfurd (Mr. J.), estimate of pepper produce, 422

_Croix lachryma_, 304

Crop hogshead of tobacco, weight of, 605

_Croton Cascarilla_, 396 _Eleuteria_, 397 _gossypifolia_, 625 oil, 522 _Tiglium_, 522

Cuba, coffee plantations in, 77 culture of tobacco in, 613 exports of coffee to America, 63 cost of producing sugar in, 147, 189 exports of coffee from, 73 progress of sugar cultivation in, 148 production of coffee in, 41 rice grown in, 292 statistics of coffee exported, 76 tobacco plantations in, 614

Cubebs, medicinal, 639

Cucumber seed oil, 512

_Cucumis Colocynthus_, 638

Cudbear, imports of, 486 452

Culilaban bark, 383

_Curcuma longa_, 419 species of, 434 varieties of, yielding E.I. arrowroot, 351

Curry stuff, imports into Ceylon, 434

Cush, an Indian name for millet, 306

Cutch, the Indian name for catechu, or gambier, 600 exported from Pinang, 503 imports of, 502

Cuyupa, an Indian tuber, 374

_Cycas circinalis_, 314

_Cynamchum_ leaves, 649

_Cynosurus corocanus_, 306

_Cytisus Cajan_, 304

_Dacrydium cupressinum_, 505

Dadap, a prop for the pepper, 425, 42 a name given in Java to the _Erythrina_, 55, 58

_Datisca cannabina_, 442

Davis' (Dr.), analysis of maize, 265

Day's analysis of barks, 495

Demerara, exports of coffee from, 73 rice grown in, 292

Dholl, the Indian name for varieties of _Cajanus_, 312

Dhak tree, bark of, 507

Dhurra, the Egyptian name for millet, 306

_Dicypellium caryophyllatum_, 384

_Didynamia gymosperma_, 520

Dietetic articles used for the preparation of popular beverages, 11

Dillock, a preparation with cayenne, 429

_Dioscorea aculeata_, 334, 362

_Diospyros glutinosa_, 494

_Dipterix odorata_, 434

_Dipterocarpus_, oil from, 511

Divi-divi, 503

Division of seasons in the tropics, 6

Dodder cake, 564

Dogwood, bark of, 627

_Dolichos biflorus_, varieties of, 312 _bulbosus_, roots used as food, 377 oil, 521

Domba oil, 513

Dominica, exports of coffee from, 73 introduction of the clove tree, 399

_Dracæna terminalis_, 355

Drimys bark, 636

Dryobalanops, species furnishing camphor, 634

Dubranfaut's process of sugar making, 197, 201

Dunsterville (Mr.), on Cape aloes, 631

Duquesne (M.), process of making sugar from beet, 202

Duration of various plants, 9

Dutch pound, lighter than the English avoirdupoise pound; 100 Dutch pounds equal to 101 and 1-5th lbs.

Dutch West Indies, production of coffee in, 41

Duty, large, levied on tobacco, 598

Dye stuffs, various, 440 from British plants, 452 furnished by the cacao bean, 12

Dye woods, 445, 447

Eagle wood, 439

Earth mouse, 374

Earth-nut oil, 513

East India ginger, 416, 418 sugar, 139 cultivation in, 152

East Indies, imports of indigo from, 477 rhubarb, 645

Eddoes or cocos, 364

Edward's preserved potatoes, 361

Egyptian corn, 307 opium, 585

Elais, species furnishing palm oil, 524

_Elate sylvestris_ fruit, a masticatory, 579

_Elettaria Cardomomum_, 421

_Eleusine corocana_, 304

_Encephalartos cafer_, 319

English opium, 586

Eno bark, a black dye, 444

_Epidendrum_, species of, 431

_Ervum lens_, 312

Erythric acid, 489

Erythrina, a shade tree for the cacao, 15

_Erysimum perfoliatum_, oil from, 512

Essences, 565

Essential oils, 565

Ethiopian pepper, 421

_Eucalyptus_, bark of, for tanning, 494 _resinifera_, 506

_Eugenia caryophyllata_, 397 _Pimento_, 430

_Eulophia virens_, 354

_Eupatorium glutinosum_, 643

_Euphorbia Lathyris_, 510

_Euterpe montana_, 549

Evans' (Dr.) Sugar Planter's Manual, 140

_Evernia vulpina_, 488

_Evodia triphylla_, used as a perfume, 550

Factory maund, about 70 pounds, 471

_Fagara piperita_, 421

Fanega, a Spanish measure, the fifth part of an English quarter, equal to 12 quarrees, or 62 and 2-5ths acres, 13, 327

Fanegada, a Spanish land measure, 9

Farinaceous plants, 216

Fennel flower, 421

_Ferula asafoetida_, 633

Fern roots as food, 377, 380

_Fevillea scandens_, 511

Finlayson's description of gambier manufacture, 500

Fish oils consumed, 509 poison, 627

Fitzmaurice on the sugar cane, 180

Fixed oils, 510

Flax seed oil, 509, 501

Flores, a commercial classification of indigo, 456

Florida, tobacco culture in, 609

Flour, damaged, shipped from America, 227 and meal, our imports of, 218 obtained from spurry seed, 377

Flowering of the sugar cane, 182

Food plants of commerce, 217 nutritious properties of various kinds, 232

Foo-foo, the dough of the plantain, 324

Fortune (Mr. R.) on the tea districts, 89 engaged by the East India Company, 100 report on the Indian tea plantations, 106, 117

Fortune's (Mr. R.) wanderings in China, 103

Fownes (Mr.) on clarifying cane juice, 164

France, production of beet sugar in, 194, 200 rice cultivated in, 292

Frazla, the Arabian name for a bale of variable weight, in Mocha about 16 lbs. avoirdupoise,

Free trade policy, effects of, 2

French berries for dyeing, 443 Slave Colonies, cost of producing sugar in, 189 West Indies, production of coffee in, 41

_Fucus amylaceus_, 380 _tenax_, furnishes glue, 378 as food for cattle, 379

Fundi or Fundungi, an African grain, 310

Fustic, 445, 447, 485

Gallipoli oil, 531

Gallo tannic acid, 492

_Galidupa arborea_, 521

Garancine, quantity and value of, 483, 484

Gambier plant, 496

Gamboge, 451 plants furnishing, 639

_Garcinea elliptica_, 451

Garbelled, a term for sorted or picked

Gabilla, a finger or hank of tobacco, 613

Galangale root, 351, 418

_Garcinea Gambogia_, 640

Garnett (Mr. A.) on the culture of the plantain, 320

Galam butter, 538

_Gastrodia sesamoides_, 375

Gesner (Dr.), plants recommended by, for cultivation, 371

_Genipa Americana_, 444

_Genista tinctorea_, 453 _tomentosa_, 486

Gentian, plants furnishing it, 640

Ghee, 538

Ginger, culture of, 414

Gin, made from rye in Holland, 258

_Gigartina Iichenoides_, 379

Gingelie seed oil, 511, 533 oil, used to adulterate almond oil, 534

Ginseng, 436

Glen (Mr. J.), his experiments on Cassava starch, 370

Gloves made from bark, 376

Gluten contained in various grain crops, 264 definition of, 234

Gluten, composition of, 221

Glycirrhiza, 643

_Glyrine Apios_, 371 _subterranea_, 371

Glycerine, 643

_Glycirrhiza glabra_, 642

_Gnizotia oleifera_, 535

Gohyan, an Indian name for upland rice, 282

Gold of pleasure oil, 509 cake of, 564

Gomuti palm sugar, 136 315

_Gomatus saccharifer_, 314

Goor, the Indian name for half-made sugar, 308

Gorham's (Prof.) analysis of maize, 264

Gourds used for packing aloes, 630

_Gracelaria lichenoides_, 379

Graham (Dr.), on gamboge, 639

Gram, the Indian name for the _Ervum lens_, and _Cicer arietinum_, 312

Grain crops, 217 produce per acre in England, 219 of Paradise, 419, 420 average prices of in New Brunswick, 254

Grape sugar, properties of, 136 sugar, analysis of, 155

Grater for rasping arrowroot, 338

Grenada, cost of cultivating sugar in, 189

Great Exhibition, results of, 2

Green tea, mode of manufacturing, 113 tea, imports of the last 15 years, 82

Griffith (Dr.) on tea plants in Assam, 111

Groundnut oil, 511

Guano, not much required in tropical countries, 7

Guayaquil, large exports of cocoa from, 13

_Guazuma ulmifolia_, 164

Guillemen's (M.) report on the tea plantations of Brazil, 128

Guiana, cost of cultivating sugar in, 189

Guinea pepper, 429 grains, 420 yam, 331, 334, 335, 337, 362 corn, 306

Gums used by the dyers, 453

Gum tree of Australia, 494

Gun stock tree, 164

_Gunnera scabra_, 495

Gunny bags, rough canvas bags, 392

Guntang, an Indian dry measure of rather more than 15 pounds, 297

Guaco, or snake plant, 627 as a fertilizer, 278

_Gynerium saccharoides_, 136

_Gyrophora murina_, 486

_Hamatoxylon campechianum_, 484

Hamilton (Dr.), on oil of ben, 523 notices by, 617

Havana tobacco, classification of, 613 exports of tobacco from, 614 shipments of sugar from, 147

Hayti, exports of tobacco, 615 exports of ginger, 418 coffee from, 67 indigo from, 460

Hazel nut, oil from, 510

_Hebradendron Cambogoides_, 451, 639

Heather, dye from, 453

Hectare, a French land measure, equal to about 2½ acres, 204

Hectolitre, a French measure 192¼ bushel's

Helot's lichen test, 452

Herreria sarsaparilla, 646

_Heliconia humilis_, 320

Hemlock tree, bark of, 494

Hemp seed oil, 509

Henna, a dye stuff, 486

Hepatic aloes, 630

Herring's palm kernel oil, 525

Hernandez (Mr.) on Cuba tobacco, 608

_Heuchera Americana_, 494

_Hibiscus rosa sinensis_, 494

Hingalee, the best Bengal tobacco, 617

Hino bark, 606

Hogs, large consumption of maize by, 271

Holcomb (Mr.) on the wheat crop of America, 245

_Holcus avenaceus_, 307 _spicatus_, 366 _saccharatum_, 306

Holland, tea sent to, 86

Honduras, export of indigo from, 460

Hooker (Dr.) on brick tea, 92

Hops, cascarilla bark used to adulterate, 397

Horse gram, 312

Hungary, production of beet sugar in, 197

_Hura crepitans_, 512, 626

Husking rice, 290

Hydraulic press for coco nut oil, 557 press, 329

_Hydrastica canadensis_, 625

_Hymenoea Courbaril_, 313

_Hyperanthera Moringa_, 523

Hypericum, species of, furnishes gamboge, 454, 640

Iceland moss, 343, 379

Illepe oil, 537, 511

_Ilex Paraguayensis_, indigenous to Brazil, 130 description of, 133

_Illicum anisatum_, 438

Impey (Dr.) on Malwa opium, 587 on Indian drugs, 626

Implements of colonial agriculture few and simple, 6 requisite for manufacturing tea, 115

Imports of arrowroot, 351, 354 arnotto, 449 cacao, from America and the West Indies, 35 cloves, 401 cinchona bark, 636 tea into Great Britain, 82 tobacco, 597 coco-nut oil, 562 palm oil, 525, 527 pimento, 431 opium, 580 nutmegs, 414 pepper, 428 castor oil, 544 sago, 318 indigo, 477 coffee, 37

Import commerce, our principal, articles furnished by the Vegetable Kingdom, 4

Incense wood, 439

Indigo, details of, 453 plants yielding, 442 information respecting, 10 mode of manufacturing, 457 production of in India, 474 in Natal, 463

_Indigofera_, species of, 453

India, tea culture in, 98 culture of indigo in, 463

Indiana, tobacco culture in, 607

Indian aloes, 630 berries, 576 corn, imports of, 263 information respecting, 9 analysis of, 264 sources of supply, 262, 263 starch, 343 meal imported, 218 yield per acre, 356 compared with Guinea corn, 307 meal, composition of, 307 opium, 586 root, 625 shot, 345

Indian corn, weight of, 280 madder, 484

Intoxicating liquors made from Cassava, 369

Iodine, 378

Ipecacuan, bastard, 653 641

_Ipomoea batatas_, 365 _brachypodo_, 522 _Jalapa_, 641

Ireland, tobacco consumed in, 596 cost of producing beet root sugar in, 193

Irish rock moss, 379

Iron, quantity of, in tobacco, 617 bark tree, 506

Irrigation for the tea plant never practised in China, 122

_Isatis Indigotica_,104 _tinctoria_, 452

Jaggery sugar, 555

Japanese camphor, 633 tobacco, 620

Japan, tea culture, 94

_Jatropha curcas_, oil from, 512

Jacobson's (Mr.) work on tea culture in Java, 102

Jalap, 641

Jamaica, cost of cultivating sugar in, 189 culture of coffee in, 67 culture of Guinea corn, 306 decline of sugar production, 148, 149 exports of coffee from, 73 ginger, 415, 417 sarsa, 646, 47

Jameson (Dr.) on the culture of tea in India, 106

Java, cinnamon cultivated in, 383, 392 clove does not succeed there, 399 coffee exported to the United States, 63 coco-nut oil exported from, 556 cost of producing sugar in, 189 culture of coffee in, 53 culture of rice in, 299 cultivation of indigo in, 476 gambier grown in, 502 nutmegs exported from, 413 pepper grown in, 422-23 production of coffee in, 41 statistics of, 300 statistics of indigo exported, 476 statistics of tea culture in, 102 sugar culture in, 152 tea plantations, 94 tobacco, 621

Jack fruit tree, 319

Janipha, starch in, 331 _Manihot_, 315

Jasmine oil, 570, 574

_Jatropha gossypyfolia_, 625 _cureas_, oil from, 523

Jellies, clearness of, 337

Jesuit's bark, 635

Joar, the Indian name of the _Sorghum vulgare_ or millet, 304, 306

Job's tears, 304

Johnson (Dr.) on manufacture of rose water, 570 (Mr.) on indigo culture, 466 (Prof.) analyses of grain crops, 264 (Prof.) on grain crops of New Brunswick, 253

Jones's process for making rice starch, 344

Jumowah, irrigated sowings, 468

Juniperus, oil of, 565

Kafir bread, 319

Kamas root, an edible, 376

Kanari kernels made into cakes, 547 oil, 546

Katjang oil, produce of the ground nut, 515, 299

Kawan, the Java tallow tree, 511

Kashmir, culture of rice in, 295

Kemmayes, an Arabian truffle, 381

Kew Gardens, tea plant grows in, 101

Kekune oil, 539

Kentucky tobacco, statistics of, 598, 600

Keora oil, 565

Khoonte, the Indian name for a second cutting, 471

Kiln-drying madder, 481 of bread stuffs, 221, 229

Kilogramme, a French weight, equal to 21bs. 3oz. avoird., 194

Kino, Australian, 506 East India, 507

_Knowltonia vessicatoria_, 626

Koster's Travels in Brazil, 186

Kous-kous, 311

Kooyah plant, 376

Kukui oil, 539

Kumaon, tea plantations in, 117

Laudanum, 584

_Lawsonia inermis_, 486

_Laminaria saccharina_, 379

_Lathyrus tuberosus_,374

Larch bark edible, 376

_Laurus camphora_, 633, 35

La Guayra, cacao from, 13 production of coffee in, 41 exports of coffee from, 62

Lana dye, 444

_Lecythis Tabucajo_, 512

Lemon grass oil, 672

Legumes, varieties of, 312

Lecanora, species of, 432

Lentils, 312

Leaf tobacco shipped from the Havana, 614

Liberia, suitability for coffee culture, 77

Lichen tribe as food, 378

Lichens, 486

Lichenin, 343

_Licospermun racemosum_, 605

Lindley (Dr.) on the cinchonas, 635

Litmus, 452

Lignum aloes, 439

Litre, a French measure, equal to 1¾ English pint nearly, 202

Lime, its influence on cane juice, 161

Lindley (Prof.) on the wheat of South Australia, 221

Lindley's classification of the plantain tribe, 322

Liptospermum, oil of, 565

_Lilium Pomponium_, 356

Lindley (Dr.) on the lichens, 486

Linseed, 535 oil, 509, 537 imported, 563 cake imported, 564

Little (Mr.) on opium, 587

Libra, a Spanish kind of tobacco, 613

Liquorice, 642 paste, 643

Logwood, 445, 447, 484

Lotus seeds, used as food, 356

Locust tree, 313 pods, 503

Louisiana, cost of producing sugar in, 189 production of sugar in, 146

Loxa bark, 636

Luffas, properties of, 626

Luggie, a measuring rod, 471

Lucca oil, 531

Macfarlane (Mr. A.) on the tea plant,117

Madder, culture of, 478 Indian, 484 statistics of imports, 484

_Madia sativa_ oil, 520 _sativa_, 444

Mahowa oil, 537

_Maclura tinctoria_, 485

Mauritius weed, 486

Mangrove bark, for tanning, 493

Mac Micking (Mr.) on making cigars, 620

Margose oil, 537

Macaw tree, 519

Maxwell (Dr.) on Neem oil, 537

Marc of olives, 531

Mango, kernel of, for bread, 378

Marmala water, 574

Malabar cardamoms, 419

Manila, exports of indigo from, 476 exports of sugar from, 153 cigar making, 620 hemp, whence obtained, 321

Mattrasses, stuffed with blades of Indian corn, 281

Macculloch's (Mr.) estimate of indigo, 478

Maize, number of varieties cultivated, 278 analysis of, 264 imported, 218 meal, imported, 218 on the culture of, 260 sugar, 215 information respecting, 9 Dr. Phillip's analysis of, 307 starch of, 334, 335, 337, 343 system of culture in America, 273 culture in the East Indies, 282 immense produce per acre, 281 varieties grown in, Peru, 281 statistics of production in America, 269 statistics of exports from the United States, 272

Malphigia bark, for tanning, 495

Maslin, quantity grown in France, 250

Mace, imports of, 414 false color of, 409 proportion of, to nutmegs, 408

Malt, quantity made, 255

Mahoe, furnishes a dye stuff, 444

Mauritius, exports of pepper, 426 nutmeg introduced in, 412 pepper grown in, 422 cost of sugar cultivation in, 187, 189 tea culture in, 94 progress of sugar culture in, 150 clove culture of, 398, 401 black beans, 304

Mangrove bark, 450, 506

Madagascar cardamoms, 419

_Mangostana Gambogia_, 451, 640

Maple sugar, 205

_Manettia glabra_, 641

Madeira, introduction of the tea plant, 94

Madras, tea culture suitable for, 101 exports of indigo from, 464 cost of producing sugar in, 189

Marah (Mr.) prize essay on coffee culture, 69

Malambo bark, 636

Machinery for sugar, 140 for coffee, 51 for arrowrot, 350, 348 required for the plantain, 324 required for sago, 318

Magdalena river, cacao indigenous on its shores, 14

_Magnolia fuseata_, used to flavor tea, 85

Majoon, an opium confection, 585

Malabar, production of coffee in, 41 cassia, 394 ginger, 415 pepper produced in, 422

Malwa opium, 580

Manure, a special for tobacco, 592

Manures, suited to the coffee tree, 50 for the nutmeg, 406 suited for arrowroot, 347 scarcely required in tropical countries, 6 suited for the sugar cane, 172 suited to maize 278

Manioc, see Cassava

Manihot, species of, 367 _utilissima_, 315

Mansana, a land measure of 100 square yards, or nearly two British statute acres, 455

Manyroot, 625

_Maranta arundinacea_, juice of an antidote to poisons, 627

_Marattia alata_, 380

Maryland tobacco, statistics of, 598, 600

Mate, a name for the Paraguay tea, 133

Matico, 643

Matias bark, 636

Maund of Surat, 39¼ lbs. an Indian weight of varable quantity

_Melaleuca minor_, 566

_Metrosideros tomentosa_, 505

_Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum_, 494

_Menispermum coceulus_, 576 _palmatum_, 638

Megass, a name given to the dried cane stems, or trash used for fuel, 168

Meleguetta pepper, 420

Melsen's process of sugar boiling, 203

_Mespilus Bengalensis_, 443

Mendo, a wild sweet potato of North America, 372

Menomine, an Indian edible root, 372

Mexican thistle, 626

Mexico, imports of indigo from, 477

_Metroxylon sagus_, 314

Millet, varieties of, cultivated, 304 the great Indian, 306

Miller on tobacco culture, 608

Mill, rude one, used in Siam for hulling paddy, 302 for crushing plantain stems, 327

Mills for cleaning rice, 286, 288

Minot, a Canadian grain measure about one-eighth less than a bushel, 251

Milloco, a tuberous plant, 374

Mint, culture of, 567

Mimosa bark, 504

Mico or mijo, a vegetable butter made in Java, 313, 512

Monkey bread, 378 pot seed oil, 512

Morinda, species of, 443, 449

Morewood (Mr. E.), his exertions in Natal, 140 experiments in sugar culture, 187

Mocha, production of coffee in, 41 cultivation of coffee in,' 43

Mother cloves, definition of, 397

Moussache, the fecula of the manioc, 315

Mountain rice, 285, 290, 296

Morphia, proportion in opium, 584, 585

_Mora excelsa_, 495

_Morinda citrifolia_, 478

Moringa oil, 523 species of, 523

Musa, species of, 319

Musquash root of the Micmacs, 371

Mustard seed, 437

Muscovado sugar, cost of producing, 189

_Mucuna pruriens_, 625 _utilis_, 304

_Muchowa_ oil, 511

_Musa textilis_, 321

Mustard oil, 510, 511 seed, 509, 535

Munjeet, 449

_Munjestha_, 484

_Muracuja ocellata_, a narcotic, 489

_Myrica cerifera_, 494, 540 _macrocarpa_, 542

_Myrtus carophyllata_, 284 _Pimenta_, 430

_Myristica_, varieties of the tree, 401 _sebifera_, 512

Myrobolans, 506

Myrtle wax, 540

Mysore, production of coffee in, 41

_Napoota_ oil, 620

_Nauclea Gambir_, 496

Namur oil, 572

Natal Agricultural Society, its endeavours to promote sugar cultivation, 139 indigo culture in, 463 sugar culture in, 186

_Narthex asafoetida_, 633

_Nelumbium_, seed of, as food, 378 _speciosum_, the source of Chinese arrowroot, 352

New South Wales, suited for madder, 482 tobacco culture in, 621

Negrohead tobacco, 601

New Orleans, capabilities for rice culture, 287 exports of castor oil from, 545

_Nerium_, 453 _oleander_, 495

Neem tree oil, 511, 537

Nicaragua wood, 445, 447

_Nipa fruticana_, 136

Nipah, leaf for thatching, 559

Nicotine, 590

_Nicotium_, species of the plant, 590

Nitrogen, in grain, 307 in the starch plants, 342 234, 310 in the plantain, 323

Nigella, species of, 421

North West Provinces, tea culture in, 117

_Nostoe edulis_, 378

Northern Australia, directions for growing tobacco, 623

Nut oil, price of, 517

Nutgall, tannin in, 492, 495

Nut pine, 377

Nutmeg tree, 401 curing of, 409 wild, 412

_Nux vomica_, 577

_Nyctanthes arbortristes_, 494

_Nymphæa lotus_, starch obtained from, 352

Oats, proportion of oil in, 564 production of in the United Kingdom, 257 imported, 218

Oatmeal, imported 218

Oats and beans, produce of in England, 248

Oak bark, tannin in, 492

Ocas, a tuberous plant, 374

Ocoes or taniers, 331

_Ocymum tuberosum_, 356, 367

Ohio tobacco, statistics of, 598, 600

Oil of aniseed, 438

Oil, proportions of in various crops, 264 obtained from the Cacao seeds 11, 12

Oil of cubebs, 639 of camphor, 634 of cassia, 396

Oil of cloves, 398 of mace, 402 of cinnamon, 389, 390 spikenard, 565 of Ben, 523 cake, 513, 531 mills of India, 535 cakes of the castor seed, 545 cake from coco-nut, 552, 563 coco-nut, 551, 556, 561, 562 from maize, 564 of sandal wood, 565 cake imported, 564 cake, American, 565

Oilcake as a manure, 50 used in China, 313

Oil palm, 525

Oils, burning properties of various, 508

_Oldenlandia umbellata_, 449

Oleaginous plants, 509

_Olea fragrans_, 528 _Europea_, 527

Olives, mode of preserving the fruit, 530

Olive oil, prices of, 531 509, 527 sources of supply, 563

Omen-e-chah, the Indian name for a wild bean, 372

Onions, planted with arrow root, 347

_Ophelia chitrata_, 641

Opium, history and trade of, 580

Orceine, 488

Orchilla weed, 452 weed, imports of, 486

Orchids furnishing salep, 354 an edible species of, 375 roots of some used as food, 377

Orituco cacao, superior quality of, 14

Oryza, varieties of, 284

Orlong, a land measure in the East, equal to 1-1/3 acre, 297

O'Shaughnessy's analysis of Ceylon moss, 380 on opium, 584

Oswego starch factory, 343

Otto of khuskhus, 573

Otaheite cane, 153

Oude, production of indigo in, 464, 475

Oxalic acid, used for vinegar, 312

Oxley (Dr.) on nutmeg culture, 402

Paddy, a name for rice in the husk, 297

Patchouly, 537

Pannam kilingoes, 376

Parchment coffee, 60

_Pao Crava_, one of the spice barks, 384

_Pachyrrhizus angulatus_, 377

Palm oil, imports of, 527 sources of supply, 563

Palm oil, 509, 524 wine, 314 sugar, 136

Palma Christi, 542

Palmetto palm, 495

Palmyra nut, first shoot of, edible, 376

Pan, a masticatory, 577

Pancratium, species of, 625

Pandanus, fruit of eaten as food, 377 _odoratissimus_, 565

Panicum, various species of, 304 _spicatum_, of Roxburgh, 308

_Panax quinquefolium_, 436

_Palos de Velas_, 521

Paper made from plantain fibre, 335

_Papsalum exile_, 310

_Papaver somniferum_, 580

Paraguay tea plant common in Brazil. 130 description of, 133 extent of the trade, 133

Parietinic acid, 488

_Parmenteira cerifera_, 521

Parmelia, species of lichens, 486 a dye-stuff, 488

Peas, analysis of, 264

Peeling coffee, 51, 60 cinnamon, 316

Peligot (Mr.) on the composition of wheat, 230

Pepper, black, 421 pot, a West Indian dish, 369 prices of, 413 duty on, 424

Peppermint oil, 566

Peon, the Spanish term for a laborer, 135

_Persea gratissima_, 444

Perfumed oils, 569

Persian berries, 443

Peas imported, 218

Pessaloo, an Indian name for the _Phaseolus mungo_

Pereira's classification of the cinchonas, 636

Peruvian bark, 635

Pearl sago, 318 of Persia, 316

_Piper angustifolium_, 643

Petty rice, 310

_Pekea_, species of, yielding oil, 512

Pea-nut, 516

Persian tobacco, 615

Phaseolus, varieties of, 312

_Phaseolus Mungo max_, 171

_Phalaris caniesis_, 314

Phlomis, 643

Philippines, cassia brought from, 394

Philippine Islands, sugar cultivation in, 153 production of coffee in, 41 varieties of rice grown in, 302

Philippines, export of indigo from, 476 cigars made in, 620

Phillip's (Dr.) analyses of Guinea corn, 307

_Phyllodadus trichomanoides_, 505

Physic nut, 512, 625

Picul, a Dutch weight of 133-1/3 English pounds, 36

Piddington's (Mr.) analyses of tobacco, 617

Pigeon-pea, 304

Pignons, use of as food, 377

_Pimpinella Anisitm_, 437

Pimento, 430

Pinang, nutmegs in, 412 tea culture attempted, 95 clove culture in, 399, 400 pepper culture in, 425

Piper Betel, 577 _Cubebi_, 639 species of, 421

_Pinus Pinea_, seeds of the cones used for food, 377

Piney tallow, 512

Plantation sugar, imports, 139

Plantado passado, 323

Plantain, dye stuffs obtained from, 444 juice recommended for clarifying sugar, 162 information respecting, 9 starch in, 331 blight, 321 319 leaves, bags made of, 316 meal, 324, 341

Planche, his memoir on the sagos, 315

_Plumeria_, essences of, 524

_Plectranthus graveolens_, 573

Plough used in Brazil, 184

_Polygonum fagopyrum_, 260

_Poa Abyssinica_, 308

Pomegranates, for dyeing, 440

Potash an important element in maize, 267 large quantity in maize, 264

Potatoes, mode of keeping in Peru, 361 average weight per bushel in New Brunswick, 253 composition of, 227 imported, 218 composition of, 264 analysis of varieties, 362 yield per acre, 356

Potato, information respecting, 10 meal, syrup made from, 197 the wild, of North America, 372 starch in, 330 starch, used to adulterate arrowroot, 349 test for detecting, 349 starch, 334, 335, 337, 362 crop of the United States, 361 disease, 358 proposed cure for, 359, 60 crop in Ireland, 358 varieties of, 358 imports of, 359 crop in France, 361

Poisons, 627

_Pomme des Prairies_, of the Canadians, 373

Pounding coffee, 61

Population of Great Britain, &c., 87 of China, 86, 91, 298

Porto Rico, exports of coffee, 77 cost of producing sugar in, 189 production of coffee in, 41 exports of tobacco, 615

Poonac, as manure, 50 549, 552, 561

Pomegranate bark, 493, 495

Poonay oil, 511-13

_Polygonum tinctorium_, 453

_Pongamia glabra_, 521

_Pogostemon patchouly_, 573

Poppy, culture of, 581 oil, used to adulterate olive, 532 509-10-11-18

_Polypodium crassifolium_, used as a perfume, 550

Preserved Plantains, 323

Prices, average of sugar, 145

Prickly poppy, 626

Princeza snuff, 594

Prince of Wales Island, clove culture in, 399

_Prosopis pallida_, 313

Protein compounds, 307, 310, 342

Produce of various plants, 9

Production, average of various plants, 9

Provence oil, 531

Province Wellesley, clove culture in, 400

Prussia, tobacco consumed by, 596 production of beet sugar in, 197-98

Pruning coffee tree, 69

Psoralia, varieties of, 372

_Pteris esculenta_, 380

_Pterocarpus marsupium_, 493 _santalinus_, 445 species of, 507

Pulping mill for coffee, 51

Purging nut, 625

Pulse, culture of, 312

Putchuk or Costus, 438 638

Punjaub, proposed culture of tea in, 101

_Pustulatus_ moss, 486

Qually, an iron vessel for drying sago, 317

Quarree, a Spanish land measure, about 5¾ English acres, 326

Quassia wood, 643

Quas, a fermented Russian beverage, 308

Quercitron, 443 485

_Quercus tinctoria_, 443, 485 _suber_, 504

Quintal, the Spanish cwt., equal to 101¾ lbs. English,

Quinine, imports of, 636 manufacture of, 635

Quillai, bark of, used for soap, 574

Quinoa, 310 species of, 507

Railways, large consumption of oil for, 513

Ramos (Mr.) his dessicating agent for sugar, 140, 162

_Ramalina fufuracea_, 486

Ram-til, 535

Ramsay (Mr. C. J.) on beet sugar manufacture, 200

Ranunculus, properties of, 626

Rape oil, 609

Rape seed, quantity imported, 563 oil, 513 cake, 564

_Raphis fabelliformis_, 314

Red pepper, 429 Sanders wood, 445 Sandal wood, 378

_Reseda lutea_, 452

Revenue from sugar, 143

Rhamnus, varieties of, 442 leaves of, used for tea in China, 105

_Rhizaphora mangle_, 493, 506

Rhubarb, 644

Rhus, species of, 450

_Ricinus communis_, 542

Rial, a Spanish coin worth 6d., 135

Rice starch, 344 imports of, 303 produce per acre, 356 meal for feeding pigs, 383

Rice imported, 218 starch, Jones's process, 303 consumption per head in the East 297 price of in China, 298 time it may be kept, 292 threshing mill for, 288 grown in Demerara, 292 history of, 283 American crop of, 285 returns of produce in Carolina, 291 weight per bushel, 290

_Richardsonia scabra_, 641

Rimu, or red pine, 505

Robertson (Mr.) on the collection of Paraguay tea, 133

Robiquet (E.) analysis of aloes, 629

Rocella dye, 452 species of lichens, 486

Room, an Indian dye stuff, 443

Roucou, a name for arnotto, 447

Rotation of crops, 243

Root crops, 355 prices of in New Brunswick, 254

Rollers, proportionate advantages of those with 3 & 4, 168

Roxburgh on the sugar cane, 179

Roses, cultivation of, 570

_Rottlera tinctoria_, 442

Royle's (Prof.) productive resources of India, 103

_Rubia cordifolia_, 484 _tinctorium_, 478

_Ruellia tuberosa_, 625

Ruellia, a dye stuff, 443

Rupee, an Indian coin worth about, 2s

Russia, production of beet sugar in, 199 consumption of tea in, 92 tea sent to, 87

Rye, analysis of, 258 imported, 218 meal, imported, 218

Sappan wood, 445, 446, 447

Salisbury (Dr.), analysis of maize, 265

Saxony, beet sugar manufacture in, 199

Salt, recommended as a fertiliser, 172

_Santalum album_, 565

Saa-ga-ban root of the Indians, 371

Saga, the Java name for bread, 314 imported, 218 flour, exports of, 318 palms, 314 millet used for, 306

_Saccharum sinensis_ of Roxburgh, 136, 169 _violacum_, 136

Safflower, 450

Salangore sugar cane, an excellent variety, 154

Sandwich Islands, arrowroot made in, 352

Sandbox, seeds of, emetic, 626 tree, 512

Saul tree, wood useful for tea boxes, 114

Sarsaparilla, 645

_Saguerus Rumphii_, 314, 316 _inermis_, 314 _lævis_, 314 _farinifera_, 316

Salep, 354

Samshing, a refuse produce of opium, 585

Sandoway in Arracan produces superior tobacco, 616

Saponaceous plants, 674

Sapindus, varieties of, 574

_Salvadora persica_, 521

_Sapindus marginatus_, 521

Saouari oil, 512

_Sanguinaria canadensis_, 511

Scammony, 642

Scharling's (Dr.) test for adulterated arrowroot, 349

Schomburgk (Sir R.), arrowroot forwarded by, 352 discovers a new tuberous plant, 374 discovers wild plantains, 320

Scotland, produce of grain in, 249 Seed leaf tobacco, 606 wheat in France, 219

Senna, varieties of, 647

Sesame oil, 511, 533

_Setaria italica_, 305 _germanica_, 304

Shanghae oil, 511

Sheet lead, manufacture of for tea cases, 114

_Shorea robusta_, 114, 521

Shier (Dr.), his opinion on cassava starch, 370 analysis of the plantain, 323 on the starch producing plants, 331

Shea butter, 538

Shiraz tobacco, 613

Sicily oil, 531

Siam gamboge, 639 pepper produced in, 422 indigo found wild in, 476 exports of cardamoms, 419

_Sidu lanceolata_, 574

Sugar, obtained from the palm tree, 314 made from millet, 306

_Simaruba amara_, 643

Singapore, produce of gambier in, 501 exports of sago, 318 nutmeg trade of, 413 pepper grown in, 423, 424, 427 nutmeg trees in, 400 produce of mace, 414 extent of clove culture in, 399

Sinapis, species of, yielding oil, 512

Silica, essential for wheat soils, 240

Singhara nuts, 378

Sinde, culture of rice in, 293

Smith (Dr.), his experiments in tea culture in America, 95

Snuff, duty received on, 597

_Sorghum officinarum_, 136 _saccharatum_, 136 _avenaceum_, 307 _vulgare_, 304, 306

Soap, made from coco-nut oil, 559, 562 worts, 575

Soil suited to coffee, 68 for the nutmeg, 403 for cinnamon, analysis of, 384 best suited for wheat, 247 a due consideration and knowledge of, requisite to the planter, 7 suited for tobacco, 586, 587, 607 suited for indigo, 468

Solly (Prof.) on the want of a hand-hook for the cultivator, 1 on barks for tanning, 493

Society of Arts, premiums offered by, 2

Soconusco, the finest cacao, 13

Socotrine aloes, analysis of, 629

_Soja hispida_, 313

Soy, mode of making, 313

Sohrinjee oil, 478, 523

South Australia, tobacco culture in, 624

South Carolina, exports of rice from, 285

Sooranjee, 478, 523

_Spergula sativa_, flour from the seed, 377

_Sphoeroccus crispus_, 379

Spanish moss, 380 tobacco, on the mannagement of, 612 oil, 531

Spices, plants which furnish, 382

Spikenard oil, 572

_Spondius lutea_, 495

_Spergula sativa_, 512

_Stalagmites cambogoides_, 451 _gambogoides_, 63

Star anise, 438

Starch producing plants, 329

Starch contained in various grain crops, 264 made from maize, 265 plants, comparative yield per acre, 339 process of manufacture, 342 large proportion of in rice, 303 proportion of in potatoes, 362

_Statice coriaria_, 444 _Caroliniana_, 494

Stenhouse (Dr.) on the lichens, 490

_Stillingia sebifera_, 512

St. John's bread, 312-13

St. Lucia, cost of cultivating sugar, in, 189 exports of coffee from, 73 shipment of cassava flour, 369

St. Kitt's, cost of cultivating sugar in, 189

St. Domingo, exports of coffee to the United States, 63

St. Vincent, introduction of the clove to, 399 production of arrowroot in, 347 production of coffee in, 41 cost of cultivating sugar in, 189 arrowroot shipped from, 351

Straits settlements, nutmeg culture in, 407 cinnamon culture recommended, 387

Sumbul root, 649

Surat maund, 39¼ lbs., 401

Sumach, 450 tannin in, 495

Sunflower oil, 509-10-36

Sullivan (Mr.) on cost of beet root sugar, 191

Sugar, cost of producing in different countries, 189

Sugar cane, varieties of, 137, 153, 168 mills, relative advantages of different ones, 168 supply, demand and production, 141 plants from which it is obtained, 136, 216

Sugar, information respecting, 10

Sugar maple, 205

Sumatra, production of coffee in, 41

Sumatra, production of pepper in, 422

Sweet cassava, 331

Sweet potato, 330-31-37-65

Swift (Mr.) on the culture of madder, 480

Swamp potato, 373

_Sxygium carophyllæum_, 384

_Sylvanus surinamensis_, 279

Symplocos, varieties of, 442

Tacca plant, species of, 354

Tahiti arrowroot, 354

Talipot palm, furnishes sago, 316

Tallicoonah oil, 518

Tallow tree of China, 512 tree of Java, 511 burning properties of, 509

Tanping, a Chinese oil cake, 312

Tannin of nutgalls, 492

Tannia, 334-35-36-37

Tanahaka bark, 505

Tapioca sago, 315 369

_Tasmannia aromatica_, 421

Taro, 364

Tartareous moss, 486

Taniers, or ocoes, 331

Taurine, Leibig on, 80

Tea, total outlay for by the British public, 86 extent to which the consumption might be pushed, 89 local consumption of in China, 86, 91 tannin in, 495 consumption of, 596 oil, 518 range of prices, 83 consumption of in the British empire, 84 in all other countries, 84 Mr. Montgomery Martin's statistics of, 84 quantity that might be used free of duty, 84 value of the exports from China, high priced, used in the China market, 85 various Chinese names for, 105 immense trade in, 80 names of the green, 81 black, 81 original cost in China, 85 duty received on, 83

Teel or Til oil, 511, 533

Teff, an African bread, 308

Teinsing, a Chinese vegetable dye, 104

Temperature requisite for various plants, 8, 9

Tempering cane juice, 158

Tenacity of starches, 336

_Terminalia angustifolia_, 494 species of, 506

Terra Japonica, a misnomer, 490 statistics of imports, 502

Teuss, a Chinese legume, 312 oil, 215

Texas, production of sugar in, 147

_Thespesia populnea_, 444

_Thea viridis_, 103, 110 Bohea, 103, 110

Theine, analysis of, 80

Thistle oil, 511, 103, 110, 626 roots as food, 376

Theobromine, 11

_Theobroma_, description of the tree, 11

Tikoor, a local name for Indian arrowroot, 351

Til oil, 511

Tip-sin-ah, a wild prairie turnip of North America, 372

Tinnevelly senna, 648

Ti plant, 355

Tirhoot, production of indigo in, 475

Tobacco, memorial of American Chamber of Commerce, 595 culture of in the East, 615 duty paid on, 594 leaf, Prof. Johnston's analysis, 592 plant, 589 sources of supply, 601 fly, cure for, 607 statistics of American exports, 600 prohibited to be grown in England, 598 method of curing, 605 manufacture increasing in the United States, 599 number of persons engaged in the culture in America, 599 worm, 610 stems, trade in, 598 information respecting, 9 seed oil, 510-18 prices in London, 602 root, a wild edible plant, 376 cost of cultivating sugar in, 189

Tonquin beans, 434

Tous-les-mois, starch of, 330-33-35-37-40

Topinam bar, 365-76

Topping the coffee tree, 68

Towai bark, 505

Toddy, 555

Travers (Mr. J.I.) on consumption of tea, 87

Trinidad, exports of coffee from, 73 indigo in, 460 culture of coffee in, 72 cost of cultivating sugar, 189

_Tropæolum tuberosum_, 536

Tripa, a name for damaged tobacco leaves, 611

_Tripolium alpinum_, 643

Truffle, 381

Tuberous plants, new, recommended, 370

_Tuber cibarium_, 381

Turkey berries, 442 opium, 585

Turmeric, 419, 434, 442 used for coloring tea, 436

Turnips, average weight of crop in New Brunswick, 253

Turpentine, spirits of, 565

Typha bread, 380

Tye, a preparation of opium, 585

_Unearia Gambier_, 496

United States, production of sugar in, 145 supplies of coffee to, 63 imports of tea and value, 92 value of its agricultural produce, 222 former culture of indigo, 461 production of maple sugar in, 215 tea plant introduced, 95

Upland rice, 302 grown in Texas, 285

Ure (Dr.), on arrowroot manufacture, 347 on manioc starch, 368 on tannin in barks, 495 on indigo manufacture, 472

_Urania guianensis_, 444

_Valenaria edulis_, 376

Valonia, 507

Van Diemen's Land, culture of oats in, 258

Vanilla, 431 plant, grows in Brazil, 130

Vara, a Spanish land measure, 9

_Variolaris_, species of lichens, 486

Varzeas, a Portuguese name for low and marshy ground, 183

_Vateria indica_, 512

Vegetable butter, 538 wax, 540 soap, 574

Velvet moss, 486

Venezuela, coffee culture in, 62

_Verbesena sativa_, 535

_Vernonia anthelmentica_, 521

Vinegar, made from millet, 306

Virginian tobacco, statistics of, 598, 600 method of culture, 604

_Virola sebifera_, 401, 512

Voandzou, 371

Voelcker (Dr.), analysis of quinoa, 310

Volatile or essential oils, 565

_Vuelta abajo_, the best class of Cuba tobacco, 613 _arribo_, the inferior kind of ditto, 613

Vulpinic acid, 488

Wabessepin, a wild American potato, 372

Wages paid in the Mauritius, 150

Walnut, oil from, 510

Wangle, oil seed, 533

Watappinee, an Indian edible root, 372

Water, proportion of in different kinds of wheat, 221 quantity in potatoes, 227 for making starch, 341

Wax berries, 546 palm, 541

_Weinmaunia_, bark of, 499 _racemosa_, 505

Weight per bushel of crops in New Brunswick, 253 of coffee per bushel, 47

Wellstead (Lt.) on Socotro aloes, 629

Westring (Dr.) on the Swedish lichens, 489-90

West India ginger, 418

Wheat, weight of, as an index of value, 236 imported, 218 flour do., 218 culture, statistics of, 220 annual produce of, 219 analysis of, by Boussingault, 244 average price of, 249 best soil for, 247 consumption of in England, 248 produce of in England and Wales, 248 information respecting, 10 starch of, 331-35-36-37, 343 composition of the ash of, 241 yield per acre, 240 flour, various analyses of, 237

White pepper, statistics of, 428

Whisky, quantity of maize used for, 271

Wilcockes on Paraguay tea trade, 135

Williams's Middle Kingdom, extract from, 105

_Willoughbeia edulis_, 378

Wilson (Mr. T.) on the cost of producing sugar, 189

Wilson's rice-cleaning machine, 290

Winnowing coffee, 51 machine for tea, 116

Woad, 452

Wood dyes, 449 oil, 511 (Mr.) on indigo culture, Wool manufacture, oil consumed in, 510

Wray's practical sugar planter, 140

_Wrightia tinctoria_, 463

_Xanthoxylum piperitum_, 421 _ochroxylon_, 460

_Xiguilite_, the indigo shrub, 460

_Xylocarpus granatum_, 519

_Xylopia aromatica_, 421

Yam, back, 333, 335, 337-38-39, 362

Yams, varieties of cultivated, 362

Yampah root, 376

Yellow berries, 443

Yerba, Spanish and native name for the Paraguay tea tree, 133

_Yucca amarga_, 331

Yucca, the Peruvian name for cassava, 367, 375

Zamia, arrowroot obtained from, 319, 352 _pumila_, 330

Zanzibar, clove plantations in, 400

_Zea Mays_, description of, 260

_Zingiber officinale_, 414

_Zizania aquatica_, 284

Zones, Meyen's division of, 25

Zollverein, production of beet root sugar in, 198