But the profit is incomparably greater when Ginseng roots, perfectly ripe, and carefully gathered at the proper time, are brought to Macao or China. The Americans begin to be more sensible of this advantage, in proportion as the intercourse with China becomes more active. They have made themselves better acquainted with the nature of the plant, and the taste of the Chinese; employ greater care in gathering, and acquire more skill in digging it. One man can gather about eight or nine pounds daily. Hence the quantity of this article exported from the United States increases at the same time that its quality improves; and the trade with Ginseng roots in the Chinese markets continues to become more and more profitable to America. The exportation already amounts to at least 500 cwt. annually.
In China they understand the art of preparing the Ginseng, in such a manner, that it appears semi-transparent: in this case a much higher value is set upon it. In America they have also learnt this art, and the process employed is very simple.—The merchants in the American commercial towns, purchase the roots so prepared, and rendered partly transparent, at six or seven piasters apiece; and sell them in China, according to the quality, at from fifty to a hundred piasters apiece. Even in Louisiana and Kentucky, they carry on this extremely profitable export trade to China.
EDUCATION.
The Easton, (Md.) Gazette, in treating of the importance of Education, and the advantages, under a republican government, of close application to study, concludes with the following characteristic allusions:
Who was Mr. Wirt, the present Attorney General of the U. States? A poor boy of our state; of the village of Bladensburgh.—What has given him one of the first stations in the country, with a handsome income? Good education, laborious study and application, and consequent knowledge.
Who was William Pinkney? A poor boy of Annapolis. What has learning made him? The first lawyer; the most celebrated advocate of our country.
Who was James Monroe? The son of a bricklayer in the town of Cambridge, in Dorset. Who is James Monroe? The President of these United States.
Education is the solid granite pedestal of the column of his fame, supporting a shaft of the most towering attitude, whose Corinthian capital is high above the clouds. How emphatically, in this instance, has wisdom, founded on good education, and matured by intense study and application, proved herself to be power, with station, and honours, and wealth, following in her train. Why then should not a son of one of our bricklayers, or hatters, or tailors, or cabinet makers, become a future President of the United States?—The same path is open to them: true, it winds up the sides of a steep and rugged mountain; and the elevated pinnacle is not to be gained without setting out aright, with the earliest and best discipline of good schools, and the severest and most immense mental labour—but the prize is well worth the boldest, the highest exertion.