Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/541

 ARTICLES OF IMPORTATION, 525 of the commodities imported by us for their use, the bulky can be consumed only by the limited market of the spot where they are imported, while a few of the less bulky, and the least important alone, can obtain a more extended one. Of the exports, teas are the only article which is of very great importance. There are, as is well enough known, two descriptions of tea, black and green., permanent varieties of the same plant, divided into subvarieties. The cul- ture and qualities of the tea-plant are most satis- factorily illustrated by comparing them with those of the grape. The districts in China which grow green tea are distinct, and even distant from those which grow black, and both are far enough from Canton, the only port of exportation. To grow the different varieties of tea, in perfection, de- mands a peculiar soil and climate, and the cul- ture, in general, requires the care and attention of a skilful husbandry. China is the only country in the world where fine tea, fit for exportation, is produced. Even in Japan tea is grown in a very careless manner, as a secondary object of cul(ure, being planted only round the edges of corn-fields, and not as a distinct object of husbandry, and it is so ill cured that it will not keep in a long voyage. The teas of Tonquin and Cochin-China are still coarser, and fit only for the use of a people long accustomed to them, and who know no butter. Even in China the situations fit for growing teas, as is the case in Europe with the