It is too early yet to speak with certainty as to the extent of the North China Silk Crop, as so much depends on the quality and out-turn of the cocoons produced; it is, however, well known that the year's crop has been reared under rather disadvantage ouscircumstancesas regards weather. The hatching of the eggs of the silkworm takes place about the 20th April, and according to Chinese accounts the rearing should be accomplished, if the weather is warm, say 69° to TH, in 23 to 24 days. The books read thus':
"Tf the meals of mulberry leaves be given frequently the worms will advance rapidly to maturity; and if seldom the; will be long im arriving at the mature age. If this stage be arrived at in 25 days itis calculated that each hurdle of worms will produce 25 ounces of silk; if in 28 days then each hurdle will produce only 20 ounces; but if the worms are a month or 40 days in coming to maturity then each hurdle will only give ten or a dozen ounces; when the silkworms fall into and awake from their torpor at irregular intorvale the auk will be deficient in quantity. Mier the great (fourth) torpor, alle: worms only require fifteen or sixteen meals Dofore they arrive at maturity." And these meals must be very large ones, as may be judged from thefollowingremark: When the worms are aroused from thole third torpor, put a pound of them in one basket, from which you will afterward: i eight pounds" weight of cocoon "The silkworm as a rule objects to damp moist weather, sudden changes of tomporature, and clouds charged with electricity when these occur in the fifth age, or after the ortorpor, the mortality becomes the worms are attacked with a wrwasting away, they refuse to eat, It is only necessary to refer to the meteorological tables published from the Siccawei Observatory to discover what would probably be the weather in th districts at the critical ages of the silk worm and as they live 23 days before at the Sth ago, it follows that on the 13th May the worms hatched on the 20th April would be in their critical period and the vicissitudes of the weather Would have their worst effects. reference to the weather tables of the 121h to 15th May, we find that t gly wet and boister damp mists and mugey weather the rule, Father Mare Dechevre: ined that it was caused by the debris of a typhoon, and referred to the weather of the past month as deplorable. Father Dechovrons also aya that since the vernal equinox no fewer than thirty whirlwinds have been observed atSiccawel, That considerable damage has been done can be inferred from the Chinese statements, which have the probability, or rather the certainty, of being correct, and if any further testimony be needed it may be found in the low price of mulberry leaves, which tends to show that in their most voracious aye there are not worms enough to consume the supply of leaves, of the possibility of the culture of the tea plant in the open air is practically solved, and the only thing that remains to be done is to ameliorate the methods of such cultivation.
The establishment of tea plantations is equally feasible in other parts of the Caucasus region; for example, in the western part of Trans-Caucasia, especially in the valley of Alazan, where the climate resembles that of China, Everything depends now on the method of preparing leaves of the tea-plant, and as yot this is not well known in the Caucasus, The Agricultural Sycietyof the Caucasus has therefore solicited thata specialist in the cul tivation of tea may be sent to that district. It is surprising that no serious effort has yet been made to cultivate the tea-plant in Southern Russia, principally in Caucasia, After the English and the Americans no people consume as much tea as the Russians, for they import annually to the extent of sixty millions of roubles worth of cle, and yet they neglect to develope mn. of ten in their own counts Ohina has no longer the monopoly of t production of tea, Japan provides the United States with a large quantity, and India souds enormousquantitiesto Bugland. The Indian produce which was commenced in the last century has groutly developed, especially in the district of Assam, during the past thirty years. Indian ten ce: groat deal more in England than Chinese tea, the consumption of which is diminishing' yearly. Generally speaking forty per cent. of the tea consumed in Europe is from other countries than China. Even the Java toa is used in spite of its ity. That of Ceylon, which is excelluut, is getting into vogue. The. production of tea lias been also introduced into Borneo, the Phillipines, Brazil, and the South of California, Why should not Caucasia follow the example of all these countries?) Even admitting that the quality of tea produced there wore of inferior quality at the beginning, there is no reason why it should not be used for making brick tea, of which the consumption is considerable. This inferior' quality of tea costs us annually five millions of roubles, which we now pay to China.
The Nouveau Temps proposes to attract an emigration of Chinese to Caucasia 20 introduce the proper cultivation of plant and the fabrication of tea there.
Our Consuls at Hankow and Foochow can make contracts to bring those specialists from China who thoroughly understand the whole tea process, and without having recouraoto the proprietors the Russo-Chinese tea-plantations in China, whose interests might suffer from the eventual development of the cultivation of the tea-plant in Russia itself.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.