James Paton

“ While in Chinese tea-making that juice is squeezed out of the leaves, in India it is most carefully lapped up and absorbed in the spongy mass. In hand-rolling as much as can be worked between two hands is operated on, and passed from man to man along the table till fully worked, when it is made up into a compressed ball and so put aside for fermenting. This process is the distinguishing feature of black-tea making, and on its sufficient accomplishment depends much of the character and quality of the tea made. ”

“ Money's valuable practical treatise on the cultivation and Manufacture of Tea illustrates the method in which a flush or shoot is picked, and the portions which go to make special classes of tea. The lines in the diagram show the points at which the shoot may be picked, and it is important that the lowest leaf taken should be so nipped off as to leave the bud in its axil uninjured on the branch, as from it the next flush will then develop. ”

“ Money lays down the following rules: the darker the liquor the stronger the tea, and the nearer the approach of the infused leaf to a uniform salmony brown the purer the flavour. Black tea of good quality should in infusion yield a clear bright brown liquor emitting a subdued fragrance, and in taste it should be mild, bland, and sweetish, with an agreeable astringency. Green tea yields a light-coloured liquor of high fragrance, but thin, sharp, and somewhat rasping in taste as compared with black tea. ”

“ At the same time, it is practicable to prepare, emboss, and gild cheap leather covers by the same processes and machinery adopted for cloth cases, and the bindings of cheap family and pocket Bibles are thus produced. But although the old solid and substantial handiwork of the craft is thus fairly eclipsed, there is still employment—and more employment than ever—for binders in leather, who chiefly rely on manual dexterity for the forwarding of their work, and individual taste and skill for its artistic finishing. ”

“ Tea thrives best in light friable soils of good depth, through which water percolates freely, the plant being specially impatient of marshy situations and stagnant water Undulating well-watered tracts, where the rain escapes freely, yet without washing away the soil, are the most valuable for tea gardens. As a matter of fact, many of the Indian plantations are established on hill-sides, after the example of known districts in China, where hill slopes and odd corners are commonly occupied with tea-plants. ”

“ The fresh leaves from the garden, as they are brought in to the factory, are withered by being spread evenly over square wicker-work trays—leaf challanies—thickly or thinly as the weather is hot or cool. Thus they are left exposed to the air till they become quite soft and flaccid, folding together when pressed in the hand into a clammy mass without crackling or rebound. In cloudy or rainy weather it becomes necessary to wither by machine, acting on the leaves with artificially dried and heated air. ”

“ In the year 1826 the Dutch succeeded in establishing tea gardens in Java. At an early period the East India Company of Great Britain, as the principal trade intermediary between China and Europe, became deeply interested in the question of tea cultivation in their Eastern possessions. In 1788 Sir Joseph Banks, at the request of the directors, drew up a memoir on the cultivation of economic plants in Bengal, in which he gave special prominence to tea, pointing out the regions most favourable for its cultivation. ”

“ The manufacture of black tea is found to be an essentially simple matter. Many of the processes employed by the Chinese are quite superfluous, and several of the manual operations which bulk largely in the Chinese manufacture, it is found, can with advantage be supplanted by mechanical agency. The whole object of the black-tea manufacturer is to ferment, roll, and dry the leaf, and for that purpose the leaves undergo— (1) withering, (2) rolling, (3) fermenting, and (4) firing or dholing. ”

“ No strictly wild tea-plants have been discovered in China, but an indigenous tea-tree (Thea assamica) is found in Assam, which botanists now incline to regard as the parent species of all cultivated varieties. It differs in many respects from the Chinese plants. The indigenous Assam tea-plant is a tree attaining a height of from 1 5 to 20 feet, growing in the midst of dense moist jungle and in shady sheltered situations. ”

“ Green tea.The manufacture of green tea is comparatively little prosecuted in India. In Europe, the demand has greatly fallen away, and, though the consumption is considerable in the United States, the supply is principally drawn from Japan, where its preparation is extensively practised. The manufacture as carried on in the North-Western Provinces resolves itself into a rapid piling and drying of the leaf. Without permitting the leaves to wither after gathering, they are, if free from moisture, at once by exposure to a brisk heat sweated and softened for rolling. ”

“ In scenting the finished tea, either black or green is intimately inter-mixed with odoriferous flowers and left in a heap till the tea is fully impregnated with the odour, when the two substances are separated by sifting, and the tea so scented is immediately packed and excluded from the air. ”

“ The quantity consumed in China has been estimated as high as 2000 millions of pounds annually, being at the rate of a little more than 6 Ib per head of the population; and, considering the tea-drinking habits of the people, the estimate is by no means extravagant. In this light it may be safe to affirm that the amount of tea used yearly throughout the world reaches the gigantic total of 2500 millions of pounds. ”

“ The bricks are of various degrees of compression, some being lightly squeezed into a loose mass and sewed up in cowhide bags, while others form compact resonant cakes, in which all trace of the original leaf structure is lost, with gilt characters impressed in their surface. Brick tea is much in demand over an area greater than the whole of Europe, and by many tribes it is stewed with milk, salt, and butter or other fat and eaten as a vegetable. ”

“ In another machine the knife acts with a punching motion, and cuts the three edges in one descent; and there is in use a most ingenious American machine, with a revolving table, in which each edge of the book is in succession drawn in a slanting direction up against a fixed cutter. The edges are gilt as in ordinary binding, but instead of each volume being operated on singly, a number are placed evenly in a lying press and gilt simultaneously. ”

“ The teas exported are of three principal classes—black tea, green tea, and brick tea. Cultivation.In cultivation, the young plants are not ready for picking till they are three years old, by which time they should be well established, throwing out young shoots or “flushes” with vigour and profusion. It is these tender shoots, with leaf-buds and expanding leaves, which alone are gathered for tea manufacture, and the younger the leaf-bud the better is the quality of the tea. According to Chinese statements there are four gatherings of leaves in the year. ”

“ They are variously dotted with pellucid cells containing essential oil, and the number of such cells shown by the leaf is held to be an indication of the quality of tea it will yield. The leaf of the Chinese plant never exceeds 4 inches in length, while that of the Assam tree reaches 9 inches and upwards. The Chinese plant is hardy, and capable of thriving under many different conditions of climate and situation; while the indigenous plant is tender and difficult of cultivation, requiring for its success a close, hot, moist, and equable climate. ”

“ Tea industry in India.Under European supervision the cultivation and especially the manufacture of tea have in India undergone remarkable improvements. Indeed, the traditional and empirical teaching and processes of China proved a most serious stumblingblock to the progress of the tea industry under Western auspices. The tea-plants now cultivated in India are of three principal classes—the indigenous Assam, the Chinese, and a hybrid between the two. ”

“ Tea can be picked in China and the British East Indies for two or three pence a day of wages, and it is on such exceedingly moderate outlay that the margin of profit depends. Tea industry in China.
Tea is more or less cultivated for local consumption in all provinces of China except the extreme north, but the regions from which it is exported are embraced within the provinces in the south-east—Kwang-tung, Fuh-keen, Keang-se, Che-keang, Keang-su, and Gan-hwuy. Black-tea manufacture belongs to the more southerly portion of these regions, the green-tea country lying to the north. ”

“ Nearly all books are now bound with open or elastic backs, that is, with the leather of the cover not attached to the back of the sheets. The elastic back is composed of a strip of thin cardboard as long as the volume and a little broader than the back, so that it covers the whole back, and is glued in the joint at the edge of the millboards. Across this elastic back false bands are glued to imitate the projections produced by the cords of ancient bindings; and when these are dry, the book is ready for covering. ”

“ From the record of an extensive series of experiments instituted by the Indian Government it is demonstrated that quinidine is even more active than quinine, and it forms the principal constituent of a variety of calisaya bark in extensive cultivation in Java. Cinchonidine is only a little less powerful in its febrifugal effect than quinine, and it is abundantly formed by the red bark cultivated in British India. Cinchonine, although the least potent, is an abundant principle, and still a highly valuable and efficient remedial agent. ”

“ The gentle exhilaration which accompanies the moderate use of tea is not followed by the depression which succeeds the use of alcoholic stimuli. Experience has proved that it sustains the frame under severe muscular or mental exercise without causing subsequent exhaustion and collapse. Tea is frequently found to be beneficial to sufferers from nervous headache, and it counteracts to some extent the effects of alcohol and of opiates. ”

“ In cloth binding the preparation and ornamentation of the cases are throughout distinct from the preparation of the sheets, and it is only in the very last stage that the volume and its case are brought together. The first process in the preparation of the cloth cases is cutting the millboard. This is now effected by a rotary cutting-machine or "ripper," an invention introduced from America, whence indeed comes most of the machinery used in this species of binding. ”

“ For several years subsequently additional supplies of plants of various species were obtained from different regions of South America, and some were also procured from the Dutch plantations in Java. Now the culture has spread over a wide area in Southern India, in Ceylon, on the slopes of the Himalayas, and in British Burmah; and recently plantations which already present a promising appearance have been established in Mauritius. ”

“ The superfluous edge of the leather, first pared to reduce its thickness, is turned over on the inside, and concealed from view by the end papers attached to the sheets forming the book, which are subsequently pasted down upon the mill boards. As a last operation in forwarding, but one now frequently omitted, the book is "corded," that is, firmly tied between two boards until it is dry, so as to insure perfect smoothness in the cover. A book is half-bound when only the back and corners are protected with leather, the rest of the boards being covered with prepared paper or cloth. ”

“ The average annual yield per plant is very variable, but may be stated at about one-fifth of a Ib of finished tea; and, as each acre of a garden holds 1500 to 1600 mature plants, the yield per acre may be from 300 to 350 lb per annum. ”

“ Taken in excess it produces cerebral excitement, sleeplessness, and general nervous irritability. The tannin contained in its infusions also interferes with the flow of the saliva, diminishes the digestive activity of the stomach, and impedes the action of the bowels. In this view the large quantity of strong tea used by the poor—and especially by the sedentary poor,—while serving to blunt the keen tooth of hunger, must work incalculable havoc with the digestive and nervous systems of the consumers. ”

“ Climate and soil. A rich and exuberant growth of the plants is a first essential of successful tea cultivation. This is only obtainable in warm, moist, and comparatively equable climates, where rains are frequent and copious. ”

“ It will suffice here to notice the operations in finishing an ordinary white-calf binding. The whole of the leather is first washed over with a thin paste of the consistency of cream and allowed to dry. The colouring is then done by brushing over it a solution of "salts of tartar" (tartrate of potash) , which produces the brown tint of ordinary bindings. If the sides are to be further ornamented, as, for example, by forming "tree-calf," they are washed over with glaire (white of egg) . ”

“ Sprinkling is accomplished by merely mixing the colour or colours with paste or size, and throwing the mixture from a brush violently on the edges. The uniform colouring of the edges is done by screwing the volume up in the lying-press and applying the colour with a sponge. Marbling is usually carried on as a separate trade, and requires considerable adroitness. The colours to be used are thrown into a square shallow trough containing prepared gum water, and as they float on the top they are dexterously mixed and combed through each other so as to produce the kind of marble pattern desired. ”