December i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



429 



COL. MONEY ON TEA MACHINERY. 



Col. Money commeuces with a notice of plougliiug 

 and hoeing machinery, which may ultimately be 

 found of use in some of the lower and flatter estates 

 in Ceylon. In Assam so much of, the land is flat 

 that we do not wonder at frequent suggestions to 

 supersede expensive cooly labour by ploughs and 

 harrows, even the use of the steam plough being re- 

 commended. The tea plants would require to be very 

 far apart in the ro'vs, however, to escape damage 

 from the animals used for traction, and the steam 

 plough could only be used, so as to pay, in the 

 preparation of very large expanses for planting. Col. 

 Mooney's remark on jjloughiug is : — 



If animal power is U8td, it must be a single bull 

 ock alone. How to harness a single bullock to the 

 plough is the- question. A collar with a binge below, 

 which allows it to open at top, may be put on from 

 below, and then the sides fastened tojet ler at the 

 top. But I advise another plan, which I have seen 

 most successfully practised in Austria. The tracep, 

 joining together, and thus becoming one behind the 

 bullock, are fastened to the horns, and tightly con- 

 nected with a leather pad across the animal's forehead 

 The bullock thus pulls by his head, and I am sur 

 he can pull in no more efificient or easier way to him- 

 self. Bullocks ill pairs, or singly, are thus harnessed 

 foi' plough work in Austria, and I have seen single 

 animals dragging ploughs of much greater weight and 

 power than we should require in our tea gardens. 



Given a proper plough, and I feel sure a large strong 

 bullock thus hiruessed would be successful. 

 But he adds : — 



Cultivation with ploughs of any kind can never be 

 feasible except on flat land. 



He notices " planting-pots " made of clay, cow-dung 

 and cut straw,, ^ by means of which the seedling 

 " does not know it has been transplanted." He ne.xt 

 mentions, with qualified approval, .Jebben's trans- 

 planter. Happily, in our climate, "planting weather" 

 can generally be relied on sufficiently long-continued 

 to enable planters to dispense with all such aids. 

 But we have many inventions in Ceylon for the 

 purpose, amongst which we may mention the com- 

 bination of Davidson's transplanter and Scowen's 

 cups to keep the root-earth firm ; but for cheapness 

 and simplicity what can e.xcel Mr. Owen's method 

 of wrapping the uplifted plants in funnels of old 

 newspapers, the paper being left on, as tire moisture 

 soon decomposes it? Proceeding to notice " tca- 

 maunfacturing machinery," Col. iloney safely asserts 

 that no plucking machine can be invented, but that 



A good withering machine (it nitist be on a large 

 scale) might, I think, be easily invented ; there is none 

 at present. Why do none of the inventors of other 

 tea machinery try to suceeed in this ? 

 We recently quoted a description of a machine such 

 as is desiderated by Col. Money, invented by -Messrs. 

 Greig it Co. of Edinburgh, the efliciency of which 

 remains to be proved. Then, as to sorting green leaf, 

 Col. Money writes : — 



This is sometimes attempted in a rough way by the 

 use of sieves of different meshes. To separate the 

 flje from the eiarse leat, andineome cases to elimin- 

 ate the Pekoe tip, is the object. A machine by John, 

 Gieig and Co., of Edinburgh, profess. s to do the latter. 

 I have never seen it, but I doubt any machine abstract 

 ing the Pekoe tips alone. A machine which would 

 however, sepai'ate thn line from the coarse leaf pre- 

 vious to rolling is, 1 think, quite feasible, and it would 

 conduce much to good tea. This, again, is an opening 

 for inventors. 

 55 



Of rolling, Col. Money states :^ 



This is perhaps the most important of all p-oceseee 

 iu Tea manufacture. The object of it is to break the 

 cells in the Tea a-ad liberate the sap (fermentation could 

 not take place otherwise), and further to give a tight 

 roll or twist to the leat. Formerly this was always 

 done by hand (it is so done in China, I believe, to 

 this day), but the process was lengthy, expensive and 

 dirty. I might perhaps add inefficient, for doubtless 

 machine-rolled tea is better done (b-'tter in appearance, 

 better in liquor) than hixud-ioUed. 

 Col. Money then proceeds to deal in detail with 

 the rolling-machines of Jackson, Kinmond, Haworth, 

 Lyle, Greig and Thompson— all he had heard of. 

 Jackson, it seems, invented five machines, and, of the 

 Cross-action and Excelsior rollers, the Essayist speaks 

 in terras of unqualified approval. He adds : — 



His last invention (if 1 mistake not) is the Rotary 

 Tea Roller, which is on quite a different principle to 

 the others. It cousists of an elongated revolving 

 barrel or cylinder, with a polygonal inhrnal surface, 

 and a rolle"r with a fluted external surlac?, mounted 

 within the said barrel its whole length. These revolve 

 in opposite directions (the roller the quicker) and the 

 leaf is rolled in the annulue between. It is not yet 

 known what the success of this last invention will 

 be. 

 This is what he says o|,Kiumond : — 



Kinmond invented the first tea roller (see p.age 117) 

 many years ago. Many improvements resulted, eventu- 

 ally, in his " Improwd Double Action Tea Roller," 

 which is a very good machine and has given satisfac- 

 tion to the many who have used it. From all I have 

 heard and seen, however, I doubt if, take it all in all, 

 it is equal to Jackson's Cross Action Excelsior. Kin- 

 mond, some two years ago, invented a " Centrifugal 

 Roller. " It was made m two sizes. The smaller 

 seems to have done well, not so the larger; one of 

 the latter on the Phoolbarry garden (in which I am 

 interested) has proved a failure. But Mr. Kinmond 

 has quite lately materially altered the said Centrifugal 

 machines, and is coiifiJsut thnt they iciW do well. He 

 is now leaving for India with one, 'and anticipates 

 good results. 



Tea machinery is still so much iu its infancy that 

 the best machines are likely to be improved upon, 

 and perhaps superseded by others, but as things are 

 now, I think, though some do not agree with me, that 

 Jackson has carr ed oft" the palm in rollers. 

 Col. Money then quotes a letter from the Tea Gazette, 

 the writer of which states : — 



For coarse leaf, Jackson's "Excelsior" is a splendid 

 machine. I should say a factory could not want two 

 better machines than one of Kinniond's " Patent 

 Double Action" and one of Jackson's "Excelsior" 

 Rollers— tlie former lot fine, the latter for coarse leaf. 

 But, as far as we understand the matter, the press- 

 ure In the working of .Tackson's rollers can be reg- 

 ulated to suit coarse or fine leaf, if our planters ever 

 pluck coarse leaf. Regarding Kiumond's Compound 

 Action Centrifugal RoUer the complaint was that 

 it not only heated the tea but cut 5 per cent 

 of the leaf into mincemeat. Then cmues a notice 

 of Hawortli's roller, iu the case of which the tea 

 eaves operated on are enclosed iu bags. That prob 

 ably is the reason why the leaf is not so well 

 twisted as in the case of that prepared in Jackson's. 

 Mr. Owen, who has had the advantage of us iu having 

 seen tea rolled iu bags, spoke well of Haworth s 

 machine ; and the result of comparisons instituted 

 was that, although Jackcon's roller gave the tea best 

 in appearance, Haworth's gave superior liquor, and 

 the tea prepared in the latter was, for this reason, 

 valued a little higher in Calcutta than the tea done 

 jU Jackson's roller. Cci. Money thinks that Uaorth'sw 



