Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/111

Rh subsequently sent in to the genus Camellia, although scientifically defensible, unfortunately diverted attention from the significance of the discovery. It was not till 1834 that, overcome by the insistance of Captain Francis Jenkins, who maintained and proved that, called by the name Camellia or not, the leaves belonged to a tea-plant, Dr Wallich admitted ‘‘the fact of the genuine tea-plant being a native of our territories in Upper Assam as incontrovertibly proved.” In the meantime a committee had been formed by Lord William Bentinck, the governor-general, for the introduction of tea culture into India, and an official had already been sent to the tea districts of China to procure seed and skilled Chinese workmen to conduct operations in the Himalayan regions. The discovery and reports of Captain Jenkins led to the investigation of the capacities of Assam as a tea-growing country by Lord William Bentinck’s committee. Evidence of the abundant existence of the indigenous tea-tree was obtained; and the directors of the East India Company resolved to institute an experimental establishment in Assam for cultivating and manufacturing tea, leaving the industry to be developed by private enterprise should its practicability be demonstrated. In 1836 there was sent to London 1 lb of tea made from indigenous leaves; in 1837 5 Ib of Assam tea was sent; in 1838 the quantity sent was twelve small boxes, and ninety-five boxes reached London in 1839. In January 1840 the Assam Company was formed, and thenceforward the cultivation of tea in India was carried on as a private commercial undertaking. The tea districts of India include, in the order of their priority, Assam, Dehra Dun, Kumaun, Darjiling, Cachar, Kangra, Hazaribagh, Chittagong, Tarai, and the Nilgiris (Madras).

Attempts were repeatedly made to introduce tea culture in Ceylon, under both Dutch and British authority. No permanent success was attained till about 1876, when the disastrous effects of the coffee-leaf disease induced planters to give serious attention to tea. Since that period the tea industry has developed in Ceylon with marvellous rapidity, and it has every prospect of taking the first rank among Singalese productions. Tea-planting has also been successfully established in Natal. But beyond the regions above enumerated the industry has never taken root. It has been tried in the West Indies, the Southern States of America, Brazil, Australia, and the south of Europe; but cheap labour is a sine qua non of success. 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 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. The methods employed in cultivating the plants and in making tea in China differ widely in various districts, and the teas retained for native use—especially the high-class fancy teas which are never seen abroad, and would probably not bear exportation—undergo special manipulation. The teas exported are of three principal classes—black tea, green tea, and brick tea. 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. The first is made early in April, when the young leaf-buds are just unfolding, and these, covered below with their fine silky hairs, are taken for making pekoe or young hyson. The second gathering takes place about the beginning of May, another in July, and the fourth in August and September. On each succeeding occasion the product is less fragrant and valuable, and the final gathering is said to consist of large leaves of little value. These statements do not, however, accord with Indian experience.

The following brief outline of the Chinese tea-making processes is given by Mr Ball (Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea):—

“The leaves of black tea are exposed to the sun and air on circular trays and treated as hay, during which an incipient saccharine fermentation is supposed to take place in conjunction with a volatile oil. Various modifications of flavour are thus produced by the management of this fermentation; a loss of tannin takes place by the conversion of part of the tannic acid into sugar. During this change the leaves become flaccid, and slightly tinged or spotted with red or brown colouring matter, and give out a peculiar odour, approximating to, or, as some think, identical with, the odour of tea. A certain change in this odour is carefully watched by the workmen, this being an indication that the roasting must not be delayed. It is not necessary to wait till the leaves are spotted with red. They are then roasted in an iron vessel, and afterwards rolled with the hands, to express their juices. The roasting and rolling are repeated so long as any juices can be expressed from the leaves in the act of rolling. Finally, they are dried in sieves placed over a charcoal fire in drying tubes, during which the leaves are occasionally taken from the fire, and turned until completely dried. It is in this last stage of the process that the leaves turn black, though this change of colour is mainly due to the process of manipulation previously to roasting, and not to the action of heat.”

“The leaves of green tea are roasted also in an iron vessel, but as soon as gathered, without any previous manipulation, all heating or fermentation of the leaves being studiously avoided; they are then rolled as black tea, and finally dried in the same vessel in which they have been roasted, by constantly stirring and moving them about. They are also fanned to hasten evaporation, and the drying and formation of the peculiar characteristic colour of this tea, which it gradually acquires in this process, and which resembles the bloom on some fruits.”

The colour of genuine green tea is entirely due to the rapid drying of the fresh leaves, which prevents the chlorophyll from undergoing any alteration. The green tea sent out of China is almost invariably faced or glazed with artificial colouring matter, principally with a powdered mixture of gypsum and Prussian blue.

The names distinguishing commercial qualities of tea are almost entirely of Chinese origin. In general they indicate a gradation of qualities from the fine and delicate product of the young leaf-bud up to the hard and woody expanded and partly-grown leaf. The following list represents the ordinary series of qualities, beginning with the finest:—

Black Tea.— Flowery pekoe, orange pekoe, pekoe, pekoe souchong, souchong, congou, bohea.

Green Tea.—Gunpowder, imperial, hyson, young hyson, hyson skin, caper.

Of these names, pekoe is derived from pak-ho (white hairs), the pekoes showing the fine downy tips of the young buds; souchong is from siaou-chung. little plant or sort ; congou (kung-fu), labour; bohea (wu-i) the mountains in Fuh-keen, the centre of the black-tea country; and hyson (yü-tsien) before the rains, or tu-chun, flourishing spring. Many other names occur in the trade denoting teas of special qualities or districts, such as oolong (black dragon) and twankay, from the district of that name in the province of Keang-su. Scented teas also form a special class of Chinese produce. 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.

Brick tea is the special form in which tea is prepared for use throughout the vast tracts of Central Asia. It is made principally from broken leaves, stalks, and fragments of large leaves, compressed into blocks of various sizes. 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. The Russian factors established in Hoo-pih prepare two sizes of brick tea, which they send off in great quantities through the Kalgan Gate of the Great Wall.

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. By much crossing and intermixture the gradations from one extreme to the other are almost imperceptible. The best qualities of black teas are made from indigenous and high-class hybrid plants, but these are comparatively tender and require a close humid climate. The hardiness of the Chinese plants is their most important character, for, favourably situated, the Assam plant gives a larger yield of delicate young leaf during the season than any other.

In favourable circumstances the tea-plant “flushes” or sends forth a fresh crop of tender young shoots from twenty to twenty-five times in the course of its growing and picking season of about nine months. 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. The diagram (fig. 5) from Col. Money's valuable practical treatise on the