which is 2,000 more than last year. The total decrease of land under crops in 1862 is 138,841 acres.

Of this area Mr. DONNELLY says 117,832 would seem to have merged into grass, 1,066 were returned as under woods and plantations, and 870 went to increase the fallow, leaving 19,000 acres of pasture land unstocked. The quantity which is returned as "bog and waste" is confined entirely to Connaught. The distress which prevailed in some districts last spring prevented the small holders in many instances from putting in their crops as usual. The dearness of labor has probably operated in other districts in lessening the quantity of tillage.

The same unfavorable influences have tended to diminish the number of live stock. The small farmers were obliged to sell their horses, cows, sheep, and pigs in order to get food. The falling off is the result of a temporary pressure, which caused the cultivators of the soil to live upon their capital. Since last year horses have diminished by 9,787, cattle by 221,292, sheep by 100,169; pigs have increased by 49,743. The total number of live stock in Ireland is worth £1,849,153, and is less valuable than the total number last year to the amount of £1,564,710, consequently the farmers are so much the poorer. Stock to the amount of a million and-a-half sterling have gone since last year to pay their rents and support their families. In this estimate horses are valued at £8 each; cattle, £6 10s.; sheep, 22s.; pigs, 25s.

TEA IN CHINA.

There are few subjects connected with the vegetable kingdom which have attracted such a large share of public notice as the tea-plant of China. Its cultivation on the Chinese hills, the particular species or variety which produces the black and green teas of commerce, and the method of preparing the leaves have always been objects of peculiar interest. The jealousy of the Chinese Government, in former times, prevented foreigners from visiting any of the districts where tea is cultivated; and the information derived from the Chinese merchants, even scanty as it was, was not to be depended upon. And hence we find our English authors contradicting each other; some asserting that the black and green teas are produced by the same variety, and that the difference in color is the result of a different mode of preparation; while others say that the black teas are produced from the plant calld by botanists Thea Bohsa, and the green from Thea veridis, both of which we have had for many years in our gardens in England. During my travels in China since the last war, I have had frequent opportunities of inspecting some extensive tea districts in the black and green tea countries of Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang: the result of these observations is now laid before the reader. It will prove that even those who have had the best means of judging have been deceived, and that the greater part of the black and green teas which are brought yearly from China to Europe and America are obtained from the same species or variety, namely from the Thea veridis. Dried specimens of this plant were prepared in the districts I named, by and are now in the harbarium of the Horticultural Society of myself London, so that there can be no longer any doubt upon the subject. In the various parts of the Canton provinces where I had an opportunity of see

ing tea cultivated, the species proved to be the Thea Bohea, or what is commonly called the black tea plant. In the green tea districts of the north-I allude more particularly to the province of Chekiang-I never met with a single plant of this species which is so common in the fields and gardens near Canton. All the plants in the green tea country near Ningpo, on the islands of the Chusan Archipelago, and in every part of the province which I have had an opportunity of visiting, proved, without exception, to be the Thea viridis. Two hundred miles further to the northwest, in the province of King-nan, and only a short distance from the tea hills in that quarter, I also found in gardens this species of tea. Thus far my actual observations exactly verified the opinions I had formed on the subject before I left England, viz., that the black teas were prepared from the Thea Bohea, and the green from Thea viridis. When I left the north, on my way to the city of Foochow, on the river Min, in the province of Fokien, I had no doubt that I should find the tea hills there covered with the other species, Thea Bohea, from which we generally suppose the black teas are made; and this was the more likely to be the case as this species actually derives its specific name from the Bohea hills in this province. Great was my surprise to find all the plants on the tea hills near Foochow exactly the same as those in the green tea districts of the North. Here were, then, green tea plantations on the black tea hills, and not a single plant of the Thea Bohea to be seen. Moreover, at the time of my visit, the natives were busily employed in the manufacture of black teas. Although the specific differences of the tea-plant were well known to me, I was so much surprised, and may say amused, at this discovery, that I procured a set of specimens for the herbarium, and also dug up a living plant, which I took northward to Chekiang. On comparing it with those which grow on the green tea hills, no difference whatever was observed. It appears, therefore, that the black and green teas of the Northern districts of China (those districts in which the greater part of the teas for the foreign markets are made) are both produced from the same variety, and that that variety is the Thea viridis, or what is commonly called the green teaplant. On the other hand, those black and green teas which are manufactured in considerable quantities in the vicinity of Canton, are obtained from the Thea Bohca, or black tea.

In the green tea districts of Chikiang, near Ningpo, the first crop of leaves is generally gathered about the middle of April. This consists of the young leaf buds just as they begin to unfold, and forms a fine and delicate kind of young hyson, which is held in high estimation by the natives, and is generally sent about in small quantities as presents to their friends. It is a scarce and expensive article, and the picking off the leaves in such a young state does considerable injury to the tea plantation. The summer rains, however, which fall copiously about this season, moisten the earth and air; and if the plants are young and vigorous, they soon push out fresh leaves. In a fortnight or three weeks from the time of the first picking, the shrubs are again covered with fresh leaves, and are ready for the second gathering, which is the most important of the season. The third and last gathering, which takes place as soon as new leaves are formed, produces a very inferior kind of tea, which is rarely sent out of the district. The mode of gathering and preparing the leaves of the tea-plant is very simple. We have been so long accus

tomed to magnify and mystify everything relating to the Chinese, that in all their arts and manufactures, we expect to find some peculiar practice, when the fact is, that many operations in China are more simple in their character than in most other parts of the world. To rightly understand the process of rolling and drying the leaves, which I am about to describe, it must be borne in mind that the grand object is to expel the moisture, and at the same time to retain as much as possible of the aromatic and other desirable secretions of the species. The system adopted to attain this end is as simple as it is efficacious. In the harvest seasons the natives are seen in little family groups on the side of every hill, when the weather is dry, engaged in gathering the tea leaves. They do not seem so particular as I imagined they would have been in this operation, but strip the leaves off rapidly and promiscuously, and throw them all into round baskets, made for the purpose out of split bamboo or ratan. In the beginning of May, when the principal gathering takes place, the young seed-vessels are about as large as peas. These are also stripped off and mixed with the leaves; it is these seed-vessels which we often see in our tea, and which has some slight resemblance to young capers. When a sufficient quantity of leaves are gathered, they are carried home to the cottage or barn, where the operation of drying is performed.

This is minutely described, and the author continues:

I have stated that the plants grown in the district of Chekiang produce green teas, but it must not be supposed that they are the green teas which are exported to England. The leaf has a much more natural color, and has little or none of what we call the "beautiful bloom" upon it, which is so much admired in Europe and America. There is now no doubt that all these "blooming" green teas which are manufactured at Canton are dyed with Prussian blue and gypsom, to suit the taste of the foreign "barbarians;" indeed, the process may be seen any day during the season, by those who give themselves the trouble to seek after it. It is very likely that the same ingredients are also used in dying the northern green teas for the foreign market; of this, however, I am not quite certain. There is a vegetable dye obtained from Isatis indigotica much used in the northern districts, and called Teinseng; and it is not unlikely that it may be the substance which is employed. The Chinese never use these dyed teas themselves, and I certainly think their taste in this respect is more correct than ours. It is not to be supposed that the dye used can produce any very bad effects upon the consumer, for, had this been the case, it would have been discovered before now; but if entirely harmless or inert, its being so must be ascribed to the very small quantity which is employed in the manufacture.

In short, the black and green teas which are generally exported to England and the United States from the northern provinces of China, are made from the same species; and the difference of color, flavor, &c., is solely the result of the different modes of preparation.-FORTune's Wanderings in China.

WHEAT GROWING IN CANADA.

The Montreal Witness says: "An analysis of our recent census returns shows that every county in Upper Canada, with but one exception, raises

more wheat than is required for the consumption of its own population, assuming that each man, woman, and child consumes on an average five bushels of wheat, or about a barrel of flour per annum. The county of Prescott alone, on the extreme eastern boundary of the Upper Province, fails to exceed the growth of five bushels per head of the population.

"The amount of wheat in Upper Canada, in 1860, was-of fall wheat, 7,537,651 bushels; of spring, 17,082,774 bushels; total, 24,620,425 bushels. The total production in 1851 of both varieties, according to the census of 1852, was 12,682,550 bushels. While the population had increased 46 per cent, the production of wheat had increased nearly 100 per cent.

"The county of Huron occupies the first place as regards the actual quantity of wheat produced. But the first place, as a wheat-growing county, belongs to Peel, if we take the amount raised in proportion to the population, which is the fairest method of determining what districts have been contributing most to the wealth of Canada, so far as the production of this, its grand agricultural staple, is concerned. We have made calculations from the census returns of the quantity of wheat raised by each county in 1860, in proportion to its population, and the following are the results: The county of Peel raised 934,139 bushels, or 344 bushels per head of its population; the county of Huron raised almost 34 per head; Perth, 32: Victoria, 31; Simcoe, 30; Waterloo, 29; Durham, Ontario, each 28; Wellington, 27; Halton, 26; Brant, 24; Bruce, 23; Oxford, 23; Middlesex, 23 (if the population of London be included, 19;) York, 23 (if the population of Toronto be included, 13;) Grey, 20; Northumberland, 17; Wentworth, 17 (if the population of Hamilton be included, 11); Norfolk, 16; Carlton, 15, (if the population of Ottawa be included, 10 ;) Haldimand, Peterborough, each 15; Lambton, 14; Dundas, Leeds, each 13; Frontenac, 12 (if the population of Kingston be included, 8); Elgin, Lennox and Addington, Lanark, each 12; Grenville, 11; Prince Edward, Renfrew, Stormont, each 10; Kent, 9; Hastings, Welland, each 8; Glengary, Lincoln, each 7; Essex, Russell, each 6; and Prescott, only 4 bushels per head of its population."

COMPOSITION OF MILK AT DIFFERENT TIMES OF DAY.

The Edinburgh Medical Journal says that Prof. BOEDECKER has analyzed the milk of a healthy cow, at various times of the day, with the view of determining the changes in the relative amount of its constituents. He found that the solids of the evening's milk (13 per cent) exceeded those of the morning's milk, (10 per cent,) while the water contained in the fluid was diminished from 89 per cent to 86 per cent. The fatty matters gradually increase as the day progresses. In the morning they amount to 2.17 per cent, at noon 2.63 per cent, and in the evening 5.42 per cent. This fact is important in a practical point of view-for while 16 ounces of morning's milk will yield nearly half an ounce of butter, about double this quantity can be obtained from the evening's milk. The casein is also increased in the evening's milk from 2. 24 to 2.70 per cent, but the albumen is diminished from 0.44 per cent to 0.31 per cent. Sugar is least abundant at midnight (4.19 per cent) and most plenty at noon (4.72 per

cent.

JOURNAL OF MINING, MANUFACTURES, AND ART.

1. THE GOLD MINES OF NOVA SCOTIA. CLOTH MADE OF INDIAN CORN HUSKS.

2. THE PREPARATION OF IRON PLATES. 3. PAPER AND

THE GOLD MINES OF NOVA SCOTIA.

THE Boston Commercial Advertiser gives the following extract:

From a letter written by a gentleman at Goldenville, Sherbrook, St. Mary's, N. S., September, 1862, the writer states that he endeavors to give his own observations and experience of the Nova Scotia gold fields, how they have been worked, and how they may be worked to better advantage, with some other information:

"The gold found in Nova Scotia is in the 'ore' (or quartz rock) laying in strata with the whin and slate as they were originally formed, with the other primary rocks, and occupy (or are found along) the whole extent of the southern side of Nova Scotia, from Yarmouth to Canseau, and in many places in the interior. The strata of rock dips nearly perpendicular the strike; from East and West to E. S. E. and W. S. W.; there are detached pieces or parts lying in different directions or positions, such as at Country Harbor diggings, where the strike is nearly north and south. "The principal washings are from fractured portions of the rock and quartz that have decayed or dissolved (forming earth) where they fell at the time of the eruption, that gave them all their present position, when thrown bodily from the interior of the earth, and are (as all boulders' or detatched pieces of the different rock, such as granite, whin, slate, and quartz are also found here) south of their main body or ledge. The quartz lay in veins through those different rocks in all directions, most of them, particularly the largest, are parallel with its strata, and are from a vertical to horizontal position, many at right angles.

"The principal gold bearing loads or leads are each from one-fourth of an inch to a foot or more in thickness, of an undulated form commonly called barrel formation,' and yield from one pennyweight to twelve ounces per ton; parts of some leads are eight to ten feet thick, as the gold lays in veins or branches through the quartz, and also in 'invisible' particles, it is very uncertain what lead or part of it is gold bearing, and many good leads may be condemned by the return from the crusher or not being fairly tested. Quartz are raised from one shaft yielding five to seven ounces, and an adjoining shaft or at a greater or less depth in the same one that will not pay for crushing.

"The work has, as yet, been carried on by parties inexperienced in quartz mining, in companies of from four to sixteen, with but small capital. Shares in some of these companies have been sold at all prices up to $600 per share; one three-fourth acre lot was disposed of for $8,000, principally for the rich earth washing on the surface. The large number of those claims are prospected by trenching for leads which may be missed, or, if found, do not realise as much as pay for crushing, many