Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/303

Rh THE PLANT.

A very large majority of people are still possessed of the idea that black and green teas come from distinct varieties of plants. For a time there may have been some reason for entertaining this view because originally black tea alone was traded in, and that came from Kwangtung and the north and west parts of the province of Fokien, and was shipped from the one port of Canton. Subsequently when green tea became an article of foreign trade it was discovered that this new departure was grown and made in the more northern provinces of Chekiang and Anhwei. To the black tea botanists gave the scientific name of Thea Bohea because largely grown on the range of hills of that name. The latter was designated Thea viridis from the comparative greenness of its leaf. But the plants have now long been known to be of one and the same description, though Chinese rarely make both kinds of tea, black and green, in one district. Two notable exceptions to this general rule are to be found in the provinces of Chekiang and Anhwei, in the former of which are made the Pingsuey and Hoochow green teas as also the Wènchow black teas, and in the latter the well-known green teas of Moyune and Fychow and the new celebrated black teas known as Keemuns. Yet, as early as in 1846 Fortune wrote: "It is now well known that the fine Moning districts near the Poyang Lake, which are daily rising in importance on account of the superior character of their black teas, formerly produced nothing but green teas." Similarly, the period is well within the writer's remembrance when the district which produces the popular Keemun teas of to-day was famous for the excellence of its growth of green tea. At one time green and black teas were made indiscriminately at Canton from Bohea, at the pleasure of the manufacturer and according to demand. The Chinese, as is well known, do not drink coloured green teas, but only the sun-dried article, and are said to express surprise that civilised nations should so unnecessarily go out of their way to take poison when the genuine, unadulterated article is at their disposal, and more often than not at a lower price. It is now well known that it is not necessary to invoke the aid of Prussian blue and other colouring materials to produce an even coloured green tea, for that result may be simply obtained by stopping the fermentation before it begins to discolour or darken the leaf, as is done in the case of India and Ceylon green teas. The only sane reason advanced for the colouring or facing of the leaf is that it is a protection against any fermentation that might set up on the voyage and so, possibly, render the article unmarketable. And that reason was framed in the long-past sailing ship days, when teas were packed into a stuffy hold and buffeted day after day during a six months' voyage. But fashion and utility have much to answer for its insane continuance. It is not known with certainty that teas were faced or coloured earlier than 1832, when the remission of the tea duties in America took place. But coloured they most distinctly were then to please a fancy which has continued ever since across the Pacific, and the practice has been kept up by the utilitarian Chinese not only to maintain uniformity and brightness of colour, but under cover of the "fake" to disguise inferior leaf.

PICKING AND MANUFACTURE.

Tea is grown in an absolutely different way in China from that which obtains in India and Ceylon. In these latter countries large plantations are to be seen covering many acres of carefully tended and cultivated plants under one management. The produce of each estate is manufactured into the trade article entirely by machinery, and the busy work goes on uninterruptedly for ten months in the year. In China there are no plantations worthy of the name. The plant is cultivated for the most part on the slopes or bases of hills, generally in small patches around the endless farmsteads, where the drainage is quick and the necessary moisture unfailing. The small tea patch is the farmer's heritage. The leaves are picked by the members of his family, and the preliminary sun-drying is performed round the hamlet. This busy time seldom lasts much longer than a fortnight, when the produce is bought up by the middleman, who, when he has bought a sufficiency of the sun-dried leaf, takes it to the firing house for assortment and treatment. A second picking takes place towards the middle of May and lasts from ten to twelve days, and the third crop is gathered in August. The maximum time expended upon securing the whole of the three crops is well within two months, whereas, as we have seen, five times that length of time is occupied in India and Ceylon in securing their annual supply. In China the principal tea districts lie within the comparatively narrow limits between the 25th and 31st degrees of North latitude, while British-grown plantations extend over the wide range from 28° to 7° North. And yet tea, which is a great industry in China, may be regarded in the light of a by-product. It in no way interferes with or displaces any of the cereal, vegetable, or fruit crops. It requires little or no attention and receives but a modicum. That China tea should so long have maintained a standard of excellence, considering the indifference which attends its culture and the vicissitudes which the sun-dried leaf undergoes on its search for a market, is little short of marvellous—for it is thrust into light cotton bags and bandied about from cottage to village and from village to town, and exposed to many of those changes of weather so common in the fickle spring, until it finds a purchaser. It is not the small farmer and first manipulator who gets overpaid. The big country profit goes to the middleman. But under any and all circumstances the grower makes a profit, varying only in degree, and consequently is a contented man. And those variations are seldom very serious. In this connection the following comparisons are interesting. In 1848 the price of ordinary leaf in the country was 80 cash a catty, or about $4 per picul, for the number of cash to the tael in those days was much the same as it is now. In 1908 it was 70 cash. In 1848 good common Congou realised upon the Shanghai market $9 to $10 per picul. In 1908 similar teas cost $12 to $14 per picul. In 1848 exchange was 6s. 8d. per tael, and the lay-down cost in London of common tea at $10 per picul was 8½d. per lb. where its market value was 8d. To-day at the exchange of 2s. 4½d. common Congou lays down at 4½d., and is worth about 4d. per lb.

Reverting to the picking of the leaf, the young leaves gathered early in April are covered with a whitish down and are known by the name of pekoe. Only a very limited quantity of this costly article is manufactured for export, probably not more than 10,000 chests, which is consumed chiefly on the continent of Europe and in Persia. While it is the most costly, it is at the same time the least fragrant and most insipid of all teas. This picking over, the general picking commences, and this, unfortunately, is not carried on with any reasonable regard to future supplies. The aim of the native would seem to be to get, and to get immediately, as much leaf off the shrub as he can. There is none of the science in picking which obtains in India. In China the leaves are picked off wholesale with any amount of stalk. In India due care is taken that the lowest leaf in a "flush" or shoot shall 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, and the supply so continued. There is a good description, of how the leaves should be plucked, and what special grade of tea the leaves supply, in