porting teas, in an order to their agents for teas of the best kind "to the amount of £100." There was received the next year 4,713 lbs., which seems to have glutted the market. The recorded import by the company for 6 years afterward was only 410 lbs.; but some tea appears to have been introduced through other means. About the close of the century the average importation amounted to about 20,000 lbs. a year; in 1703 to over 100,000 lbs., at an average value of about 168.; and in 1721 it reached 1,000,000 lbs. Thus the tea trade rapidly grew to great importance, and the article being regarded as one of luxury rather than of necessity, it was made the subject of enormous duties, which, while they added largely in the 18th century to the revenues of the kingdom, led to an extensive system of smuggling, and also to adulteration of genuine and fabrication of counterfeit teas. The East India company had the monopoly of the trade until it was thrown open on April 22, 1834, with low duties, ranging from 1s. 6d. to 38. a pound. The importations of 1833 amounted to 32,057,852 lbs., and those of 1835 to 44,360,550 lbs. In 1859 the receipts were 83,500,000 lbs., which, at the present duty of 18. 5d. per pound, yielded a revenue of £5,914,000. The extent of the trade in the United States will be noticed at the close of this article.-The range and cultivation of the tea plant is over a large portion of China between lat. 20° and 40° N., extending east over the Japan islands, and stretching west about the 30th parallel to Nepaul and the Himalaya. The most important district in China is near the coast from about lat. 25° to 32°, or to Shanghai. The productive districts in China are Fo-kien and Canton for black tea, and Kiang-nan, Kiang-si, and Che-kiang for green. The most important of these are Fokien and Kiang-nan. Robert Fortune, the botanical collector to the horticultural society of London, observed that both the black and green teas of the northern districts are obtained from the T. viridis, while those of both sorts shipped from Canton are produced from the T. bohea. Tea is also an important product in Japan, Tonquin, and Cochin China. The plant is also cultivated in the mountainous parts of Ava. In the mountains which separate China from the Burmese territories the tea plant is indigenous, and abounds especially in Upper Assam, bordering on the province of Turman. Its culture has been encouraged by the government of British India in the N. W. provinces and the Punjaub. In Nepaul, lat. 27° 42' N., the plant is cultivated at an elevation of 4,784 feet above the bay of Bengal. The tea from these districts sometimes brings in India from $1.50 to $1.75 per pound. The Dutch have introduced the culture with considerable success upon the hills of the island of Java. The plant has been introduced into Brazil, and, with the assistance of Chinese laborers, some tea has been produced near Rio Janeiro. The cultivation of tea in the United

States was attempted at Greenville, in the mountainous parts of South Carolina, by the late Dr. Junius Smith, from 1848 to 1852. He imported plants of 5 to 7 years' growth from China, and stocked a small plantation with them in that region, where they were exposed without injury to severe frosts during the winters, and to snow which covered the ground 8 or 9 inches deep. From his experiments it would appear that the climate and soil are very well adapted to the cultivation of the plant; but the want of experienced labor, and the abundance of other more profitable employments, will probably long prevent the culture from attaining any importance in this country. It may perhaps soonest succeed in California, where Chinese laborers can conduct the manipulations, and the processes may be simplified and economized by the introduction of improved apparatus and machinery. But although the high cost of transportation from the interior districts of China to the coast, and the long sea voyage to the United States, are important points in favor of introducing the culture into the United States, there are on the other hand to be considered the extremely low cost of labor in China, which is worth only from $3 to $4 per month, and that this is the chief item of expense in the production of tea. Ordinary congou tea in the tea-producing districts is rated at from 6 to 8 taels per picul, or from 8 to 9 cts. per pound. The packing and transportation add to this about 3 cts., and the export duties and charges about 3 cts. more, making the cost to the shippers about 15 cts. So it appears that even with a high protective duty there is little probability that the culture could be made profitable. The districts of southern China are mostly of a mountainous character, and too rocky to be much cultivated. It is not until passing the sterile granitic regions that the more fertile districts devoted to the tea culture are met with further north, near the river Min, in the provinces of Fo-kien and Chekiang. The lands here spread out into broad plains, some of which are at a lower level than the surface of the rivers and canals which pass through them, but the soil of these is usually a stiff clay, more unproductive than the soil of plains elevated a few feet above the level of the rivers and canals, as is the case with much of the cultivated lands of Shanghai. The tea carefully cultivated upon these plains is known as "garden tea," while that grown upon the more elevated lands is called "hill tea." In several of the provinces very good tea is produced upon hills where the soil is rich. The geological formations in some of the districts are granitic, and in some they consist of silurian slates with red calcareous sandstone, and in the bohea tea lands of Woo-e-shan of clay slate, associated with beds of quartz cut through by dikes and veins of black granite, and overlaid by sandstones and conglomerates composed of quartzose grains and pebbles held together by a calcareous paste. The hillsides in

this region often present nothing green excepting the tea shrubs.-The soil best adapted for the growth of the tea plant is a light loam more or less stony, containing considerable vegetable matter, and which, while retentive of moisture, is at the same time well drained, and sufficiently porous to be permeable to the delicate fibres of the roots. The seeds, gathered in October, are kept in sand till the next spring, when they are sown either in the rows in which they are to grow, or in a bed from which they are afterward transplanted to the tea fields. The seeds are planted 6 or 8 together in holes ranged in rows about 4 feet apart, and as the plants germinate, if the season is dry, they are watered with water in which rice has been washed, and sometimes treated with liquid manure or the dung of silkworms. Water lodging about the roots is apt to destroy the plants, and manure is thought to impair the flavor of the tea. In the winters, if the cold is severe, the young tender shrubs are often protected by a wrapping of straw around them. The first gathering of the leaves does not take place until the second or third year. The young leaf buds are sometimes gathered early in April, for the kind of tea known as pekoe, which is the choicest of black teas. The plants might be seriously injured by the loss of the young buds, but for the copious rains which fall about this season. New leaves soon appear, and these, gathered the last of April or early in May, constitute the most important crop. The third gathering, early in July, furnishes leaves of inferior quality. In some parts of the country a fourth crop is gathered in August or September, of large and old leaves of little value. The duration of the plants is 10 or 12 years, when they are dug up, and replaced by seedlings. The leaves are stripped off rapidly without much care, into baskets of split bamboo, and are carried to the building where, after being sorted, they are subjected to the drying process. The buildings used for this purpose appear to be low sheds more or less open at the sides, and furnished within with rows of pans in stacks of brickwork. The drying is variously conducted according to the quality of the tea, some kinds being exposed to the open air in shallow pans, some being tossed up in the air, and some, too choice for handling, are whirled round in sieves. They are then exposed in the pans to sufficient heat to dispel their moisture without impairing the aroma of the tea, and this is effected by a person tending each pan and keeping the leaves constantly in motion with his hands. A brisk fire of dry wood is kept up under the pans during this roasting process. In a few minutes the leaves become soft and pliable and moist upon the surface. They are then thrown upon a table of split bamboo, and a number of workmen around take them up in their hands and roll them, by which they acquire the curled form common to the commercial tea. As soon as this is done, the leaves are exposed upon a

bamboo screen to the action of the air, when they are again roasted with less heat over a charcoal instead of a wood fire. They are again rolled, and sometimes the processes are again repeated. The final drying is commonly in the pans, of the finest sorts at a very gentle heat over a charcoal fire. The difference between green and black teas is owing to the longer exposure of the latter to the air before the drying, and during the different stages of the drying process. Instead of the leaves being taken directly to the drying pans, they are left, if intended for black tea, spread out sometimes a whole night on bamboo mats, and are afterward tossed about and exposed to the air. The heating and rolling processes may also be repeated as many as 4 times; and the final drying is slowly conducted, a workman opening and stirring the leaves with his hands to afford free passage to the vapors. The effect of this is to induce a partial fermentation and oxidation of the leaves, accompanied with a change of color to black. By rapid drying, with the least exposure to the air, the leaves not only remain green, but they retain more of the active properties of the plant, as appears from the greater effect of green teas upon the nervous system. It is also stated that the difference between green and black teas is owing in part at least to difference of soil, climate, and age of the leaves, the plants furnishing the black teas being grown in hilly and mountainous places, and the green tea shrubs being cultivated on level lands, in soils enriched with manure. Some of the varieties of green tea are produced by sorting a single kind by sifting through sieves of different sizes, and the finer kinds thus separated are sometimes roasted after this 3 or 4 times. Since the great demand for green teas for the United States in 1832 and 1833, the Chinese have been in the habit of artificially coloring inferior or damaged black teas, so as to make them pass for the higher priced green teas, and by similar methods of improving the color of the poorer sorts of green tea. As witnessed by Sir John Davis, the method of coloring consists in first stirring among the leaves, while heated in the pans, a little pulverized yellow turmeric, and then adding a mixture of finely pulverized Prussian blue and gypsum. Indigo and porcelain clay are also used for this purpose. To such an extent is this adopted, that it is believed that all green teas exported from China are glazed or colored; and according to Dr. Hassall, when they are, not colored there is little to distinguish green from black tea, the chief difference in color being that the former is sometimes inclined to olive. Some varieties of black teas, as the scented caper or black gunpowder and orange pekoe, are also made to present a peculiarly smooth and glossy appearance by rolling the leaves with pulverized graphite or black lead. None of these fine varieties are ever found in England otherwise than adulterated, but the souchong and congous are generally free from this deception.

The Chinese also employ other methods of adulteration, as intermixing other kinds of leaves with those of the tea plant, such as leaves of the ash, plum, &c. This too is practised chiefly with the green teas; and they even manufacture a spurious article, which they call themselves lie tea, and so brand the chest containing it, made up of the dust of tea and other leaves, and sand, which by means of starch or gum they cause to cohere in little masses; these they paint and color with great skill to imitate either black or green gunpowder tea. Lie tea is also mixed with other teas of low quality, the proportion being certified to by the Chinese merchant who disposes of them. It may be detected by the leaves not unfolding when steeped in boiling water. It was stated in evidence before the parliamentary committee in 1856, that the importations of lie tea into England amounted to £400,000 or £500,000. From other evidence presented to this committee, it would appear that the English vie with the Chinese in the variety and ingenuity of their adulterations of tea. They employ a greater number of foreign leaves and of coloring matters, some of which are much more dangerous from their poisonous qualities than those used by the Chinese. Some of these falsifications may be readily detected by washing away the soluble matters from a sample of the tea exposed to a gentle stream of cold water, and also by burning another sample and comparing the weight of its ash with that of teas of undoubted character. While the ash of genuine teas amounts to from 5 to 6 per cent., that of adulterated teas has been found of various weights up to 45.5 per cent. Another fraudulent practice is to cause teas which have been once used and exhausted of their virtue, to assume again the appearance of fresh tea. This has been carried on in England by collecting the exhausted leaves from hotels and coffee houses, and redrying them, treated with gum water, in establishments devoted to this business. The leaves are then sold to be intermixed with genuine teas, or they are artificially colored and glazed to be sold as green tea. In order to communicate an agreeable scent to tea, the Chinese mix with some kinds the leaves of sweet-scented flowers, such as chloranthus inconspicuus, olea fragrans, and others. The flowers are dried, powdered, and sprinkled over the tea, or the fresh flowers are arranged in alternate layers with the tea leaves, when both are roasted till the flowers become crisp. In either case they are finally removed by sifting. The tea farms in China seldom produce more than 600 chests of tea each. The crops are bought up by tea merchants, who collect together from different farms enough for 620 or 630 chests, which they mix together, roast again, and then pack in chests for transportation. The next merchant who buys the tea puts upon the chests some mark that is in good repute, and sends them forward to the shipping ports, toward which the transportation through some of the

districts is by men who carry the chests slung one at each end of a bamboo, which rests across the shoulder. But if the tea is of superior quality, a single chest is fastened at the ends of two bamboos, and is thus carried upon the back of a man; the other ends of the bamboos project in front, and are tied together. By placing these ends upon the ground and raising them to a perpendicular position, the cooly is relieved of the weight of the chest as he stops to rest in ascending the steep mountain passes; and wherever he stops he sets the chest in this manner against the wall, never allowing it to be defaced nor the tea injured by the chest touching the ground. From the bohea countries to Canton the transportation is effected by a number of portages alternating with shipments in boats, occupying altogether from 6 weeks to 2 months. From the same region to Shanghai by similar means the distance of 620 miles is accomplished in about 28 days.-The soluble constituents of tea contained in its infusion consist of gum, grape sugar, a large proportion of tannin, a volatile oil, and a peculiar nitrogenized principle called theine, which is the same as that found in coffee and in the Paraguay tea or maté, or holly, of which an account has been given in the article CAFFEINE. The theine forms but a very small proportion of its substance, the largest quantity that has been separated not exceeding 6 per cent. Stenhouse rated its proportion in the teas of commerce at about 2 per cent. In the analyses of G. J. Mulder its proportion is doubtless underrated; these are as follows:

The aroma and flavor and some of the effects of tea upon the nervous system are mainly due to the volatile oil. This is developed in the roasting and drying, and its effects are most strongly .exhibited in new teas. Those persons whose business it is to inspect teas, which they do by tasting, and are known as tea tasters, are subject to frequent attacks of headache and giddiness, and paralysis is a common complaint with those employed in packing and unpacking chests of tea. Theine is regarded as lessening the waste of tissue, and consequently taking the place of other food. Tannin imparts to the tea its astringent taste and property, and causes it to exert a slightly constipating effect upon the bowels. When fully

extracted by long continued steeping, it is then very perceptible by the bitter taste which it imparts to the tea. The glutinous matters are lost with the leaves unless these are consumed with the infusion after the practice of the Japanese, who reduce the leaves to powder. An addition of soda would cause more gluten to appear in the infusion.-The virtues of tea have been highly extolled from the time of its earliest use as a beverage. Lo Yu, a learned Chinese who lived in the dynasty of Tang, A. D. 618 to 906, says of it: "It tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind; dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue; awakens thought and prevents drowsiness; lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the perceptive faculties." These effects are true of tea taken in moderate quantity, and its soothing influence is such that it is frequently beneficial in inflammatory diseases, and a strong infusion of tea relieves nervous headache. But when taken in excess it acts as a narcotic upon some constitutions, producing nervous tremblings; and in inferior animals it has been known to produce paralysis. Green tea is much more objectionable in this respect than black.-The principal black teas imported into the United States during the last 10 years, in the order of their relative quantities, are oolong and ningyong, souchong and congou, pouchong, orange pekoe, and pekoe. The green are young hyson, gunpowder, imperial, hyson, twankey, and hyson skin. The average net weight of a chest of tea is about 64 lbs., which is the weight of congou tea; pekoe and hyson weigh usually 49 lbs., and bohea 138 lbs. The twankey, which is of the lowest quality, is largely used for mixing with better teas, and is said to constitute of all the green teas imported into Great Britain. Hyson skin is the refuse of the finer hyson, and is largely purchased by American merchants. Gunpowder is so named from the granular appearance of the leaves, which are rolled with particular care; the Chinese name for it means pearl tea. Young hyson is so named from the early season in which its leaves are gathered; as very inferior teas have been passed off for this, its reputation is

now lost.-The exportation of tea from China is from 3 ports only, Shanghai, Foochow, and Canton; and the principal portion of the exports to the United States is from the first named, the most northern of the 3 places. The countries which take nearly the whole of this product are Great Britain, the United States, Russia, and Holland. In 1852 the exportations were as follows: Great Britain, 65,137,200 lbs.; the United States, 34,334,000; Australia, 8,829,000; Holland, 3,000,000; India, 500,000; other places, 2,200,000. It is supposed that from 14,000,000 to 15,000,000 lbs. are annually sent overland to Russia. The trade with the United States first attained any importance in 1790, and up to the close of the year 1800 the imports averaged 2,500,000 lbs. per annum; for the next 12 years 3,350,000 Ibs.; and to the end of 1820 there was but little variation from this. From that time to the end of 1833 the consumption, ascertained by deducting the exports from the imports, averaged about 7,000,000 lbs.; from that time to the close of 1841 the average annual consumption was 12,752,163 lbs. The consumption has been chiefly in the N. E. portion of the United States, tea being used exclusively in some of the most northern portions, the use of coffee gradually increasing toward the south, till in some parts of the southern states tea is entirely unknown. At the west also tea is less used than coffee. The following table presents the exports from China to the United States for the years named, as prepared by United States merchants in China, reckoning to July 1 of each year:

botanical gardens, N. W. Provinces, India, in the "Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India" (vol. vi., Calcutta, 1848). TEA, PARAGUAY. See HOLLY. TEACHERS' INSTITUTE, in the United States, an assemblage of the teachers of the public schools of a county or part of a county, for a period of from 2 to 4 weeks, usually in the spring or autumn, for the purpose of receiving instruction in the art and methods of teaching, by lectures, conferences, and class drills, from experienced practical teachers. The instruction is free, and the families of the town or village where the institute is held usually receive those who attend as guests during its session. The first teachers' institute was organized by the Boston academy of music, in Aug. 1834, for "instruction in the methods of teaching music." The first application of it to the instruction of teachers of public schools was made by Mr. Henry Barnard at Hartford, Conn., where in the autumn of 1839 a class of 26 young men, and in the spring of 1840 a class of 16 young women, were taught. Institutes have assembled in New York since 1842 or 1843, and an appropriation was made for their support from the state treasury in 1847; in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Ohio since 1845; in Pennsylvania since 1851; and they were commenced about the same time in Indiana, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, and the other northern states, where legislative provision is generally made for defraying their expenses. The instruction in these temporary training schools is necessarily almost wholly oral; and as there is neither time nor occasion for lessons in the studies to be taught in the public schools, it is confined to an explanation and illustration of the best methods of teaching and governing schools. Those who conduct the institutes have usually had large experience in teaching, being often the principals or professors in the normal schools. The lectures are practical, and usually on some particular educational topic, such as physiology, grammar, physical geography, modes of discipline, &c. Conferences are held, in which the teachers relate their own experience of particular methods of instruction and discipline.

TEAK WOOD, a variety of timber much used in ship building and house carpentry in the East. It is the product of the tectona grandis and other species of large forest trees of the mountainous districts of the Malabar coast, of Burmah, and of various islands in the Indian seas. The tree of the common species grows to an immense size, the leaves from 12 to 24 inches long and from 8 to 16 inches broad, and furnishes single sticks of timber sometimes 50 feet long and 2 feet square. Of all the timber obtained in the East, this is esteemed most valuable. The wood is of light brown color, and works easily, although, containing much silicious matter, it is somewhat destructive to tools. Its weight to the cubic foot, when moderately seasoned, is from 45 to

52 lbs., as obtained from Malabar; but some inferior sorts from other places weigh only about 42 lbs. While the timber possesses the strength of oak, it is much more durable. It seasons quickly, shrinking very little, and is not liable to dry or wet rot, even if used directly from the forest. It contains a resinous oil, which protects it alike from decay and from the attacks of insects. The Burmans extract this oil by tapping the trees, and use it chiefly for protecting their pagodas from the weather; but the timber thus exhausted of its oil is injured as respects its durability. Teak is largely exported to Calcutta and Madras from Maulmain, obtained from the extensive forests in its vicinity, and much is consumed in ship building in that locality. The teak of Malabar, which is esteemed the best, is extensively used in the ship yards at Bombay. At the great exhibition of 1851 in London, the naval department of the East India company contributed specimens of more than 70 species of teak. -The timber known as African teak, brought from the W. coast of Africa, belongs to an entirely different genus of trees, and is greatly inferior to the East Indian teak. It has been supposed to be a vitex, and by some to belong to the euphorbiacea.

TEAL, the common name of the small river ducks of the genera nettion (Kaup) and querquedula (Stephens), called sarcelles by the French. In the genus nettion the bill is as long as the head, straight, unusually narrow, with sides parallel, high as broad at the base, the depressed tip with a very narrow nail; wings moderate and pointed, 2d quill the longest, and the secondaries lengthened and pointed; tail moderate and wedge-shaped; toes united by a full web, the hind one short and slightly lobed. There are about 20 species, distributed all over the globe, though most numerous in the northern hemisphere; they are migratory, commencing their rapid flights in small flocks soon after sunset, resting by day on the surface of fresh water or the reedy shores of rivers and lakes, and feeding principally at night on aquatic insects and worms, seeds, and grains; the nest is made of a large mass of decayed vegetable matter lined with down, and the eggs are 8 to 10; they are highly esteemed as game. The European teal was domesticated by the Romans, and might be by the moderns with proper attention to its food and habits, making a very handsome and profitable addition to the poultry yard. The greenwinged teal (N. Carolinensis, Baird) is 14 inches long, 22 to 24 in alar extent, and the bill 1; the head and neck are chestnut, the chin black, and the forehead dusky; around the eyes and on the sides of the head is a broad rich green stripe, passing into a bluish black patch on the nape; below white, with rounded black spots on throat; lower neck, sides, and scapulars finely banded with black and grayish white; speculum on wings broad and rich green; & white crescent in front of bend of wings; under