(From the Foochow Echo of 5th December.) planting Poppies in the place of tea in the Two tea growers are, we understand,
wer ranges of their tea plantations, If they meet with success, others will follow their example, and give up tea ultogether-'The Imperial government with its heavy export duty and the local government with their likin and other squeezes, have, between them, effectually killed the once flourishing tea trade of this province.
We hear that all farmers farming their own paddy fields will leave the ground fallow until the spring, rest being considered necessary after the heavy secund crop of tice which has Intely been gathered in. But it is not a0 with those who are working Teased farm if impoverished soil never entering their economic calculations; for, by a curious agreement existing between landlord and tenant, although half of the rice crop goes to' the former as rent, the latter reaps the full eum crops that can be that we already see s0 many of the paddy fields in this neighbourhood already planted with wheat, cabbages, ete.
Te is now some months ago that ai attention was called to a new industry th had sprung up here, and although we have been watching its progress from time to time since, we are quite surprised, at this date, to learn of the rapid strides it has been making. It is the manufacture of a cloth closely resembling grey shirtings, The machine used is so simple in ite working that in three or four days an ordinary hand acquires a perfect knowledge of it. tis constructed entirely of wood and costs 85 complete. The cloth when Guished is 15 inches in breadth and 22 feet in length. The natives prefer it to grey shirtings, not only on account of its cheapness (400 exch piece) but because it is more durable. The demand is so great for this new article, that the manufacturers have difficulty keeping pace with it, Many thousanda of hands wre employed, and the work com asa great boon to many who were almost destitute through the decay of the tea trade, by which they previously made their
as well as men, As much as 90 to 200 Women are engaged for the work cash a day can be earned, according to the ability of the worker. The maker of the machines lets them wut on the to those who are too poor to p ut once. It is said that, alread; as ten thousand of these machi use all over the country, th hands, in most cases, working ut the in their own houses. So far, no kind of likin or other tax has been. imposed on this article, but, if the production goes on increasing at the rate it has dene lately, we scarcely think it will long enjoy its present immunity from 'a squeeze of some sort, TIENTSIN,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.