One most important element in tea cultivation is the method adopted to impart a certain bloom, an artificial fragrance, which it does not possess in the natural state. This process of "scenting," as it is called, which is practised exclusively for the foreign market, is termed by the Chinese Hwa-hiang. The flowers which are used for imparting this fragrance, and the growth of which, like the invisible fields of odoriferous herbs near Cannes, in the South of France, forms a most important branch of cultivation near Canton, are chiefly Jasminum sambac, Jasminum paniculatum, Aglaia odorata, Olea fragrans, Sardenia florida, orange-blossom, and roses. The method of "scenting" consists simply in placing a definite quantity of the flower-blossoms, varying according to the strength or feebleness of the odour, in juxtaposition with about 100 lbs. of dried tea-leaves, where they are suffered to remain from 24
to 48 hours. Thus 40 lbs. of orange-blossom, 50 lbs. of Jasmin, 100 lbs. of Aglaia odorata, are reckoned the equivalent respectively of 100 lbs. of tea-leaves. The extraordinary costliness of these fragrant blossoms[171] has caused a very general suspicion to prevail, that the leaves thus "scented" are afterwards adulterated with large quantities of the common teas. And as it is an ascertained fact that 60 lbs. of such tea can impart a similar fragrance to 100 lbs. additional by merely mixing the two together, without any apparent diminution of fragrance, it seems more than probable that similar admixtures, very possibly in a still more profitable proportion, are being silently carried on every day in the warehouses of the tea districts.
Since the suppression of the East India Company's monopoly, and the opening of the Five Ports, tea has somewhat fallen in price, but has in consequence gained in far greater ratio in respect of quantity shipped. The value of a picul of tea is at present about 18 or 20 taels (£5 12s. 6d. to £6 5s.), so that the pound costs 1s. 1d. to 1s. 2d. Notwithstanding the unexampled cheapness of hand labour (60 to 70 cash, or 2 1⁄2d. to 3d., per diem), it is not possible to procure good tea below this limit, although the various descriptions vary extraordinarily in price according to their quality and the districts they come from. The lower classes in the tea districts purchase for themselves the raw unprepared leaves just as they
are plucked, for about 1d. per pound, and as it takes about 4 lbs. of the fresh leaves to make 1 lb. of dry leaves, it may be calculated that the tea, as drunk by this class, must cost from 4d. to 5d. per lb. Moreover, it is customary to add some of the less costly descriptions, more especially in districts at some little distance where the tea plant is cultivated.
The first historical document referring to the introduction into England of tea as a beverage, is an Act of Parliament in the year 1660 (the year of the Restoration). At that period China tea cost sixty shillings the pound, which of course limited its use to a very narrow circle. At present there are 30,000,000 lbs. imported into England[172] annually, or more than one half of the entire export from the Central Empire, the consumer in London paying about 3s. per pound on the average.
Of late years attempts have been made to cultivate the tea plant at the foot of the Himalayas, in Java, and in the United States. In Hindústan, whither only a few years ago that well-known and enlightened gentleman, Mr. Robert Fortune, dispatched 24,000 plants, selected from among the finest tea districts, the experiment has already proved successful, and even remunerative. The cost of growing is about 10 1⁄2d.
per lb. for one description, which fetches 2s. per lb. in the London market. That grown in Java has hitherto been viewed with disfavour in Europe, but in a few years more it must make its way. The result of the experiments in the United States we have yet to learn. Mr. Fortune, who was intrusted by the Patent Office at Washington with superintending the introduction of the tea cultivation into the Southern States, and who in virtue of many years' scientific researches in China may be regarded as an authority upon this subject, is of opinion that the possibility of cultivating tea in the United States does not admit of a doubt, since the plant not only successfully resists frosts, but even, in a measure, benefits by them, it being a well-known fact that it flourishes better in the northern than the southern climates of China. It is questionable, however, whether its cultivation can prove remunerative in a country where labour is still so exceptionally high. Will the tea plant repay the immense cost of cultivation, and compete successfully with the product of China? The next few years will settle this question, if it be not choked by this unholy fratricidal war, which is raging within the freest and most glorious confederacy of modern times.
We enjoyed the good "fortune" while at Shanghai of becoming personally acquainted with Mr. Fortune, and of gathering these valuable particulars from the very lips of that distinguished naturalist and traveller. While reserving for consideration elsewhere the subject of various little known, but most
important, articles of export from the vast Empire of China, we cannot refrain from indulging in a few remarks upon some useful products of that country, which seem to us of more than merely commercial importance. Among these we shall notice first one of the most valuable rewards bestowed by Nature on human industry, the so-called Chinese sugar-cane (Sorghum, or Holcus saccharatus), which deserves the earnest attention of all European proprietors of land, as it grows in its native country quite in the northern districts, in fact in latitudes where the ordinary cane (Saccharum officinale) no longer flourishes; because frost and cold are much more conducive to its growth than the opposite extreme, so that it would seem to be specially adapted for cultivation in Southern Europe.
The first attempt to cultivate this cane in Europe was made, if we are rightly informed, at the Hyères islands by Count David de Beauregard, from seeds which M. de Montigny had sent home to the Geographical Society of Paris, while other attempts were made at the same time in various parts of France by the Société d' Acclimatisation. The results surpassed the most sanguine expectations. From the stem there was obtained a juice from which sugar and alcohol, syrup and brandy, can be easily made. The abundant leaves, five or six feet long, furnished a considerable quantity of cattle with most nutritive food; the seeds were used as food for poultry, and were even substituted with advantage for barley in the provender supplied to horses, so that the experiment at once