The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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When the leaves have been thus twisted and rolled, they are replaced
in the great iron pan, and the temperature raised till the hand can
no longer bear the heat at the bottom. For upwards of an hour the
negroes are then constantly employed in separating, shaking, and
throwing the foliage up and down, in order to facilitate the
dessication, and much neatness and quickness of hand were requisite,
that the manipulators might neither burn themselves nor allow the
masses of leaves to adhere to the hot bottom of the pan. It is easy
to see that, if the pan was placed within another pan filled with
boiling water, and the leaves were stirred with an iron spatula,
much trouble might be obviated. Still, the rolling and drying of the
leaves were successfully performed; they became more and more crisp,
and preserved their twisted shape, except some few which seemed too
old and coriaceous to submit to be rolled up. The tea was then
placed on a sieve, with wide apertures of regular sizes, and formed
of flat strips of bamboo. The best rolled leaves, produced from the
tips of the buds and the tenderest leaves, passed through this
sieve, and were subsequently fanned, in order to separate any
unrolled fragments which might have passed through them; this
produce was called _Imperial_, or _Uchim Tea_. It was again laid in
the pan till it acquired the leaden grey tint, which proved its
perfect dryness, and any defective leaf which had escaped the
winnowing and sifting was picked out by hand. The residue, which was
left from the first fanning, was submitted to all the operations of
winnowing, sifting, and scorching, and it then afforded the _Fine
Hyson Tea_ of commerce; while the same operations performed on the
residuum of it yielded the _Common Hyson_; and the refuse of the
third quality again afforded the _Coarse Hyson_.--Finally, the
broken and unrolled foliage, which were rejected in the last
sittings, furnish what is called _Family Tea_, and the better kind
of which is called _Chato_, and the inferior _Chuto_. The latter
sort is never sold, but kept for consumption in the families of the
growers.

Such is the mode of preparation pursued at Rio Janeiro, though I
must add that the process employed at the Botanic Garden being most
carefully performed in order to serve as a model for private
cultivators of tea, the produce is superior to the generality, so
that we dare not judge of all Brazilian tea by what is raised at the
garden of Rio. I was also assured, that at Saint Paul each grower
had his own peculiar method, influencing materially the quality of
the tea, which decided me to visit that province, where I hoped to
gain valuable information respecting the culture and fabrication of
tea, especially considered as an article of commerce.

In the interim, the month of December proving excessively hot and
rainy, so as to forbid any distant excursions, I turned my attention
to the important object of procuring _tea plants_ in number and
state fit for exportation; and, observing that almost all the shrubs
I saw were too large for this purpose, I applied to M. de Brandao
for his help and advice. This gentleman, in the most courteous
manner, offered me either seeds or slips from his own tea shrubs.
The striking of the latter was, he owned, a hazardous and uncertain
affair, though it had the probable advantage of securing a finer
kind of plant than could with certainty be raised from seed. I,
however, began by asking him for newly gathered seeds, in order to
set them in my little nursery garden at Santa Theresa, and he
obligingly gave me a thousand of the seeds, perfectly ripe and
sound, which is easily known by the purplish-brown color of their
integument. M. Houlet immediately set about preparing the soil in
which to plant these seeds, and the earth being excessively
argillaceous and hard, much digging, manuring, and dressing were
needful; in a word, we neglected no precautions which could
contribute to the growth of our seeds. In the interim I allowed not
a single dry day to elapse without visiting the country house near
Rio, in all of which I saw something more or less interesting,
either in the culture of tea, or other vegetable productions of
commercial value.

* * * * *

I detected, growing not unfrequently in the environs of Rio, the
_Ilex Paraguayensis_ of M. Auguste de St. Hilaire, perfectly
identical with the tree which the Jesuits planted in the missions of
Paraguay, and whose foliage is an article of great importance
throughout Spanish America, and vended under the name of _Paraguay
Tea_. A living plant of this shrub was brought home by me, and
placed in the Royal Garden at Paris, as well as a species of
Vanilla, and many other rare and interesting plants. I also made a
valuable collection of woods employed for dyeing, building, and
cabinet work, with samples of their flowers, fruits, and leaves, to
facilitate botanical determination.

Early in January, 1839, M. Houlet began anew sowing tea, not only in
the open ground in our little garden, but also in pans, in order to
facilitate the lifting of the young plants, and putting them into
the cases that I had brought for the purpose. The heat being
excessive, we purchased mats, that we might shelter them from the
sun, and we gave them water far more frequently. Many of the seeds
that we had sown a month previously, were already appearing above
the ground, but the soil being of too compact a nature, some did not
come up, which warned us to make choice in future of a lighter kind
of soil.

The period now arrived when I was to visit the tea plantations in
the province of St. Paul; and hoping that the cultivators would give
me some of the young shrubs, I took M. Houlet with me, leaving the
charge of our collections and seedlings to M. Pissis, a French
geologist and engineer, with whom I had formed an intimate
acquaintance, and who most obligingly offered to attend to them
during my absence. Many were the influential persons at Rio Janeiro,
who gave me introductory letters to the proprietors and tea growers
of St. Paul.

We started on the 15th January, by steam-boat, and in two days
reached Santos, the principal port in the province of St. Paul;
thence crossing the great chain of mountains, named the Serra do
Mar, in caravans drawn by mules, we reached the city of St. Paul on
the 20th January, where I experienced the warmest reception from the
governor, two ex-governors, and some other gentlemen.

* * * * *

Accompanied by M.J. Gomez and a M. Barandier, an historical painter,
whom the desire to visit a new country, and to see its inhabitants,
had induced to become _my compagnon de voyage_, we visited almost
immediately a M. Feigo, ex-Regent of the Empire, and now President
of the Provincial Senate. We found this venerable ecclesiastic at
his country-house, two leagues distant from the city, and here we
saw all the process pursued on the tea leaf, commencing by the
bruising, drying, and scorching of a large quantity of foliage
picked the preceding evening. The chief difference that struck me in
the mode here adopted, was, that the tender, flexible, and not
brittle leaves, were gathered with the petiole and tip extremity of
every bud, and that some water was put with them into the iron pan,
in which the negresses twisted, squeezed, broke and shook the masses
of foliage. The operation was, on the whole, more neatly performed
than at Rio. When the tea was perfectly dry and removed from the
pan, it was placed aside in a box, shaded from the air and light,
and was considered ready for present use, on the spot; but M. Feigo
informed me, that when sent to a distance, the cases were
hermetically closed, and the tea underwent an extra dessication over
the fire.

The plantations belonging to M. Feigo, and surrounding his chagara,
are extensive, containing about 20,000 tea shrubs, of fine growth
and high vigor, most of them six or eight years old, set in regular
lines, a metre asunder from each other, and the lines with a metre
and a half between them. The soil is excellent,
argillaceo-ferruginous, as is generally the case near St. Paul.

In the Botanic Garden at St. Paul, some squares are devoted to the
growth of tea; but I am not aware that the leaves are ever subject
to preparation.

M. da Luz had invited us to inspect his tea-grounds near Nossa
Senhora da Penha, and I went thither, accompanied by Messrs.
Barandier and Houlet. The cultivation is admirable, the soil
excellent, and the tea-plants peculiarly vigorous. Each shrub was so
placed that a man can easily go all round it, and _young plants,
self-sown, were springing up below every old one_; of these offsets,
I was made welcome to as many as I could take away, and should have
had a great stock, but that the ground had been very recently
cleared. M. da Luz showed me his magazines of prepared tea, which
were extensive and well stocked.

Hence I went to the property of a lady, Donna Gertrude Gedioze
Larceda, situated at the foot of Jarigur, a mountain famed for its
gold mines, and passed two days in exploring this celebrated
locality, and then visited the Colonel Anastosio on my way back to
St. Paul. These plantations are in the most prosperous condition,
situated on a sloping and well-manured tract behind the habitations.
The shrubs are generally kept low, and frequently cut, so as to,
make them branching, by which the process of picking the leaves is
rendered easier. There may be 60,000 or 70,000 plants, but a third
of them were only set a year before. Every arrangement is
excellently conducted here; the pans kept very clean, though perhaps
rather thin from long use and the fierceness of the fires. But the
general good order that prevails, speaks much in favor of the tea
produced in this neighbourhood. The colonel showed me his warehouse,
where the tea is stored in iron jars, narrow-necked and closed by a
tight fitting stopper. I ventured to put some questions to Colonel
Anastosio respecting the sale of the produce. He gave me to
understand that he was by no means eager to sell; but, confident of
the good quality, he waited till application was made to him for it,
as the tea is thought to improve by time, and the price is kept up
by there being a small supply. With respect to the cost of its
production in Brazil, he said, this was so great that, to make it
answer to the grower, a price of not less than 2,000 reis, about six
francs (5s.), must be got for each pound. The whole labor in Brazil
is done by slaves, who certainly do not cost much to keep, but who,
on the other hand, work as little as they can help, having no
interest in the occupation. The slaves, too, bear a high price, and
the chances of mortality, with the exorbitant value of money in
Brazil, augment their selling value.

The Major da Luz kindly presented me with 300 young tea-plants,
which he had caused his negroes to pull up for me; and in an
adjoining farm, where an immense tract planted with tea is now
allowed to run to waste, being no object of value to the proprietor,
I was permitted to take all I could carry away; and in a single
day's time, M. Houlet and I, aided by some slaves, succeeded in
possessing ourselves of 3,000 young plants, which we carefully
arranged in bamboo baskets (here called cestos). To diminish the
weight, M. Houlet removed as little soil as possible; but carefully
wetted the roots before closing the baskets, and covered them with
banana leaves. In one garden, the largest I have seen devoted to the
growth of tea, but which is not particularly well kept, I saw that
the spaces between the shrubs were planted with _maize_, and the
bordering of the squares which intersect this vast plantation, and
the whole of which is inclosed with valleys of _Araucaria
Brasiliensis_, is formed of little dwarf tea-plants, which are kept
low by cutting their main shoots down to the level of the soil.

On the 8th of February I again embarked in the steam-boat to return
to Rio Janeiro, and when we came in sight of St. Sebastian, I left
M. Houlet to proceed to the city alone, charging him to take the
very greatest care of our package of tea-plants, as well as of the
nursery-ground at St. Theresa, while I should visit the flourishing
colony of Ubatuba, inhabited by French families, who cultivate most
successfully _coffee_, and other useful vegetables. After a
delightful sail through an archipelago of enchanting islands, I
landed at Pontagrossa, where I was most kindly received, and spent a
week, obtaining much and varied information, both respecting
cultivated plants and the kinds of trees which grow spontaneously in
the virgin forests of this lovely land, and afford valuable woods
for building, cabinet work, and dyeing. Finally, I visited the tea
plantations of M. Vigneron, which are remarkably fine, though their
owner finds a much more profitable employment in the growth of
_coffee_, which is very lucrative. He kindly gave me a quantity of
young tea-plants and chocolate trees. Reluctantly quitting these
worthy colonists, I re-embarked in a Brazilian galliot, which took
me back to Rio Janeiro in the close of February. There I found the
tea-plants from St. Paul, set by M. Houlet, in our garden at St.
Theresa, and I added to them the stock I had brought from Ubatuba.
All the very young ones had perished on the way, from the excessive
heat, and M. Houlet had much difficulty in saving the others.

* * * * *

M. Guillemin concludes his interesting narration with this partially
discouraging fact;--that though the culture of the tea-shrub
succeeds perfectly well in Brazil; though the gathering of the
foliage proceeds with hardly any interruption during the entire
year; though the quality (setting aside the aroma, which is believed
to be artificially added) is not inferior to that of the finest tea
from China--still the growers have not realised any large profits.
They have manufactured an immense quantity of tea, to judge by what
he saw in the warehouses at St. Paul, but they cannot afford to sell
it under six francs for the half kilogramme (a pound weight), which
is higher than Chinese tea of equally good quality. This is,
however, precisely one of those commodities in which free labour,
that is, the labor of a free peasant's family, the wife and
children, the young and the old, can successfully compete with slave
labor, and considerably undersell it. It is manifest, from the
remarks of M. Guillemin, that the cost for plantation slaves, under
a system apparently so profitable as labor without wages, is a dead
weight on the Brazilian planter."

_Paraguay Tea._--A species of holly (_Ilex Paraguensis_), which grows
spontaneously in the forest regions of Paraguay, and the interior of
South America, furnishes the celebrated beverage called _Yerba Mate_,
in South America. The evergreen leaf of this plant is from four to
five inches long; when prepared for use as tea it is reduced to
powder, and hence the decoction has to be quaffed by means of a tube
with a bulb perforated with small holes.

The leaves yield the same bitter principle called theine, which is
found in the leaf of the Chinese tea-plant, the coffee berry, &c.
Various other species of Ilex are sometimes employed in other parts of
South America for a similar purpose. Although the leaves may not
contain as much of the agreeable narcotic oil as those of the China
shrub, in consequence of the rude way in which it is collected and
prepared for use, yet it is much relished by European travellers in
South America, and would doubtless enter largely into consumption if
imported into this country at a moderate rate of duty.

The consumption in the various South American Republics is estimated
at thirty or forty millions of pounds annually. It is generally drank
without sugar or milk.

There are no correct data for calculating the exports, but some
authorities state the amount sent to Santa Fe and Buenos Ayres at
eight millions of pounds.

A great trade is carried on with it at Sta. Fe, where it is brought
from the Rio de la Plata. There are two sorts, one called "Yerba de
Palos," the other, which is finer, "Yerba de Carnini." Frezier tells
us that, in the earlier part of the 17th century, above 50,000
arrobas, or more than 12,000 cwt. of this herb were brought into Peru
from Paraguay, exclusive of about 25,000 arrobas taken to Chile; and
Father Charleroix, in his "History of Paraguay," states the quantity
shipped to Peru annually at 100,000 arrobas, or nearly 2,500,000 lbs.

My friend, Mr. W.P. Robertson, has favored me with some details as to
the production of Paraguay tea. His brother has graphically described
a visit he paid to the wastes or woods of the Yerba tree, with a
colony of manufacturers from Assumption. These woods were situated
chiefly in the country adjacent to a small miserable town called Villa
Real, about 150 miles higher up the river Paraguay than Assumption.
The master manufacturer, with about forty or fifty hired peons or
servants, mounted on mules, and a hundred bulls and sumpter mules, set
out on their expedition, and having discovered in the dense wood a
suitable locality, forthwith a settlement is established, and the
necessary wigwams for dwellings, &c., run up. The next step is the
construction of the "tatacua." This was a small space of ground,
about six feet square, of which the soil was beaten down with heavy
mallets, till it became a hard and consistent foundation. At the four
corners of this space, and at right angles, were driven in four very
strong stakes, while upon the surface of it were laid large logs of
wood. This was the place at which the leaves and small sprigs of the
yerba tree, when brought from the woods, were first scorched--fire
being set to the logs of wood within it. By the side of the tatacua
was spread an ample square net of hidework, of which, after the
scorched leaves were laid upon it, a peon gathered up the four corners
and proceeded with his burthen on his shoulders to the second place
constructed, the barbacue. This was an arch of considerable span, and
of which the support consisted of three strong trestles. The centre
trestle formed the highest part of the arch. Over this superstructure
were laid cross-bars strongly railed to stakes on either side of the
central supports, and so formed the roof of the arch. The leaves being
separated after the tatacua process, from the grosser boughs of the
yerba tree, were laid on this roof, under which a large fire was
kindled. Of this fire the flames ascended, and still further scorched
the leaves of the yerba. The two peons beneath the arch, with long
poles, took care, as far as they could, that no ignition should take
place; and in order to extinguish this, when it did occur, another
peon was stationed at the top of the arch. Along both sides of this
there were two deal planks, and, with a long stick in his hand, the
peon ran along these planks, and instantly extinguished any incipient
sparks of fire that appeared.

When the yerba was thoroughly scorched, the fire was swept from the
barbacue or arch; the ground was then swept, and pounded with heavy
mallets, into the hardest and smoothest substance. The scorched leaves
and very small twigs were then thrown down from the roof of the arch,
and, by means of a rude wooden mill, ground to powder.

The yerba or tea was now ready for use; and being conveyed to a larger
shed, previously erected for the purpose, was then received, weighed,
and stored by the overseer. The next and last process, and the most
laborious of all, was that of packing the tea. This was done by first
sewing together, in a square form, the half of a bull's hide, which
being still damp, was fastened by two of its corners to two strong
trestles, driven far into the ground. The packer then, with an
enormous stick, made of the heaviest wood, and having a huge block at
one end, and a pyramidal piece to give it a greater impulse at the
other, pressed, by repeated efforts, the yerba into the hide sack,
till he got it full to the brim. It then contained from 200 to 250
pounds, and being sewed up, and left to tighten over the contents as
the hide dried, it formed at the end of a couple of days, by exposure
to the sun, a substance as hard as stone, and almost as weighty and
impervious too.

Having described the process of making ready the yerba for use, we
will now accompany Mr. Robertson to the woods, to see how it is
collected.

"After all the preparations which I have detailed were completed
(and it required only three days to finish them), the peons sallied
forth from the yerba colony by couples. I accompanied two of the
stoutest and best of them. They had with them no other weapon than a
small axe; no other clothing than a girdle round their waist and a
red cap on their head; no other provision than a cigar, and a cow's
horn filled with water; and they were animated by no other hope or
desire, that I could perceive, than those of soon discovering a part
of the wood thickly studded with the yerba tree. They also desired
to find it as near as possible to the colonial encampment, in order
that the labor of carrying the rough branches to the scene of
operations might be as much as possible diminished.

We had scarcely skirted for a quarter of a mile the woods which shut
in the valley where we were bivouacked, when we came upon numerous
clumps of the yerba tree. It was of all sizes, from that of the
shrub to that of the full-grown orange tree; the leaves of it were
very like those of that beautiful production. The smaller the plant,
the better is the tea which is taken from it considered to be.

To work with their hatchets went the peons, and in less than a
couple of hours they had gathered a mountain of branches, and piled
them up in the form of a haystack. Both of them then filled their
large ponchos with the coveted article of commerce in its raw state,
and they marched off with their respective loads. Having deposited
this first load within the precincts of the colony, the peons
returned for a second, and so on till they had cleared away the
whole mass of branches and of leaves cut and collected during that
day. When I returned to the colony I found the peons coming by two
and two, from every part of the valley, all laden in the same way.
There were twenty tatacuas, twenty barbacues, and twenty pies of the
yerba cut and ready for manufacture. Two days after that the whole
colony was in a blaze, tatacuas and barbacues were enveloped in
smoke; on the third day all was stowed away in the shed; and on the
fourth the peons again went out to procure more of the boughs and
leaves."--(_Letters on Paraguay_, vol. ii. p. 142-147).

Each peon or laborer, going into the woods for six months, can procure
eight arrobas, or 200 lbs. of yerba a day. This, at the rate of two
rials, or 1s. for each arroba, would make his wages per day 8s.; and
this for six months' work, at six days in the week, would produce to
the laborer a sum of L57 12s.

Wilcockes, in his "History of Buenos Ayres," published in 1807,
states:--"Though the herb is principally bought by the merchants of
Buenos Ayres, it is not to that place that it is carried, no more
being sent thither than is wanted for the consumption of its
inhabitants and those of the vicinity; but the greatest part is
dispatched to Santa Fe and Cordova, thence to be forwarded to Potosi
and Mendoza. The quantity exported to Peru is estimated at 100,000
arrobas, and to Chile 40,000. The remainder is consumed in Paraguay,
Tucuman, and the other provinces. It is conveyed in parcels of six or
seven arrobas, by waggons, from Santa Fe to Jugui, and thence by mules
to Potosi, La Paz, and into Peru proper. About four piastres per
arroba is the price in Paraguay, and at Potosi it fetches from eight
to nine, and more in proportion as it is carried further."

SUGAR.

Sugar is obtained from many grasses; and, indeed, is common in a large
number of plants. It is procured in Italy from _Sorghum saccharatum_;
in China, from _Saccharum sinense_; in Brazil, from _Gynerium
saccharoides_; in the West Indies, from _saccharum violaceum_; and in
many other parts of the world from _S officinarrum_. The last two are
commonly known as sugar canes, and they are generally considered as
varieties of a single species, _S. officinarum_, which is now widely
spread over different parts of the world.