By Francis Leggett & Co....

The casual reader in many a nook and corner of this extended land will perhaps ask—"Who are the publishers of this book, and what is their purpose?" We anticipate any such enquiry, and reply that Francis H. Leggett & Co. are Importing and Manufacturing Grocers; that our object in publishing this and other books is to bring ourselves and our goods into closer relations with consumers at a distance from New York; and incidentally, to provide readers with interesting information respecting

Until a quite recent period botanists believed that the tea plant was a native of China, and that its growth was confined to China and Japan. But it is now definitely known that the tea plant is a native of India, where the wild plant attains a size and perfection which concealed its true character from botanical experts, as well as from ordinary observers, for many years after it had become familiar to them as a native of Indian forests. How early in the history of the Chinese that people disco

HISTORICAL — Continued. The same year that Pepys so intrepidly drank his first cup of tea in London, a tax was imposed by the English Parliament of 8 pence (16 cents) upon every gallon of tea made and sold as a beverage in England. A like tax was levied on liquid chocolate and sherbet as articles of sale. Officers visited the Coffee Houses daily to measure the quantities and secure the revenue. In 1710 the best Bohea tea sold in London for 30 shillings or $7.00 a pound, inclusive of a government

Characteristics Of The Tea Plant. Chinese tea plants are usually divided into two classes, and distinguished a Thea Bohea and Thea Viridis, the former being most suitable for black teas, and the latter for green teas; and black and green teas have been indiscriminately made from the leaves of either. A tea shrub of Chinese origin now before us, growing among a host of common American plants, displays no special characteristics which would attract attention to itself. It resembles an orange plant

Tea Picking And Yield. Chinese tea grown among the mountains and hillsides was in Mr. Fortune's time distinguished as "Hill tea," while both large and diminutive plantations on the lowlands or the plains were all called "tea gardens," a term which is now applied by the English to the extensive plantations of Ceylon and India. Some of the largest tea plantations in China turned out, say, 500 chests, or 30,000 pounds, of tea per annum, at the same period. In both China and the East Indies a common

Tea Manufacture. The tedious, long-drawn-out details of tea manufacture, of the repeated, meaningless, tossing back and forth and Chinese juggling with the abused tea leaves, are but too familiar to students of the subject: and too disappointing also, when we are moved to ask—Why all this manipulation? What is the nature of the chemical changes which take place? So far as we can ascertain by diligent inquiry and reading, no competent authority has answered these questions satisfactorily. We have

Chemistry and Physiological Aspects of Tea. If the reader desires an example of imperfect and arrested knowledge in some of the common affairs of life, let him collate the statements of scientific experts concerning the physiological effects upon mankind, of tea. He will then admit that "in a multitude of counsellors there is confusion." Without pretending to more than the rudiments of chemical or physiological science, we shall attempt to examine the nature of tea, and its effects upon the huma

Meanwhile Hanna the housemaid had closed and fastened the shutters, Spread the cloth, and lighted the lamp on the table, and placed there Plates and cups from the dresser, the brown rye loaf and the butter Fresh from the dairy, and then, protecting her hand with a holder, Took from the crane in the chimney the steaming and simmering kettle, Poised it aloft in the air, and filled the earthen teapot, Made in delft, and adorned with quaint and wonderful figures....

Many besides those who live principally by the labor of their brains, will subscribe to the sentiment expressed by Thomas De Quincey, in his Confessions of an English Opium Eater, when he said that—"Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally of coarse nerves, or are become so from wine drinking, and are not susceptible of influence from so refined a stimulant, will always be the favorite beverage of the intellectual; and for my part, I would have joined Dr. Johnson in a bellum internecinum

   "The willow-pattern that we knew     In childhood. with its bridge of blue,     Leading to unknown thoroughfares."        ——Keramos, Longfellow. Peradventure some who read these rambling paragraphs may be the fortunate possessor of a few pieces of that willow-pattern, blue or pink china table ware which was but too lightly esteemed when it was a common heritage of English and American families. If not, a vivid remembrance of the ware and of the fancies which it inspired, must be little less p

   "The east wind fans a gentle breeze,     The streams and trees glory in the brightness of the spring.     The bright sun illuminates the green shrubs,     And the falling flowers are scattered and fly away,     The solitary cloud retreats to the hollow hill;     The birds return to their leafy haunts:     Every being has a refuge whither he may turn;     I alone have nothing to which to cling.     So, seated opposite the moon shining o'er the cliff,     I drink and sing to the fragrant blosso

American Tea Culture. During a period of at least 40 years, tea plants have been cultivated by a few experimenters in the southern United states, and American tea, grown South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, has satisfactorily supplied the family needs of a hundred or more persons, at a cost not exceeding the retail price of good foreign tea. When Mr. Wm. G. Le Duc, Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, seriously recommended systematic tea culture in the southern States, p

How Shall We Make Tea? How shall tea be drawn or infused? Is there but one standard method for all teas, or all persons? Certainly not. A method which will suit very many delicate tastes may be briefly stated: Use water as free as possible from impurities, from earthly matters like lime. If water is boiled too long its contained air is expelled and the tea will have a "flat" taste. Use an earthen teapot by preference; one which is never applied to any other purpose. A preliminary warming of the

by Charles J. Everett This homely can of painted tin Is casket precious in my eyes; Its withered fragrant leaves within, Beyond all costly gems I prize. For for those crumpled leaves of tea, The sunbeams of long summer days, The song of bird, the hum of bee, The cricket's evening hymn of praise, The gorgeous colors of sunrise, The joy that greets each new-born day; The glowing tints of sunset's skies, The calm that comes with evening grey; The chatter of contented toil, The merry laugh of childi