February i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



679 



cultivation was carried on. During the past session 

 in »ne of the debates iu the Assfmbly, the hon. 

 Member for Enoggera proposed that Italians and Uer- 

 mans should be brought out to take the place of 

 Kanakas, and that after five years' service in a serv- 

 ile capacity, they were to be allowed to mix with 

 a 'superior race.' This vile insinuation on Germans 

 and Italians he did not allow to remain unanswered; 

 and he repudiated with scorn the proposal to employ 

 Germans as a servile race to do the work now per- 

 formed by Kanakas: it was well known that Germans 

 and Scandinavians were some of our best colonists. 

 He hoped wo should never have to place white men 

 on our plantations to do the work at present perfor- 

 med by the Kanaka. He would consider it slavery 

 indeed, and he would never ask a white man to do 

 it. The coolie must be brought here to meet the 

 pressing demand fxr labor, but under Government re- 

 gulations, so that they must not be allowed to in- 

 oroach on the legitimate employment of Europeans, 

 and must be returned after the expiration of their 

 period of service. The supply of kanakas was fall- 

 ing off; no matter what number of ships were to be 

 placed in the trade, they would not be obtainable. 

 He trusted that the question of colored labor would 

 be shortly settled upon a firm basis satisfactory to 

 all parties. " — (Jueeitslander. 



INDIAN TEA (IN THE KANGRA VALLEY). 



Picking. 



The sap begins to rise in March, and by the middle 

 of April the first flush or picking comes on, and 

 every available man, woman, and child in the neigh- 

 bouring villages is hunted up to reinforce the per- 

 manent coolies of the establishment. A man and a 

 boy per acre are required for a garden in full yield, 

 at 4 Es., 3 Rs., Or 3 Es., Sa., a month respectivel3'. 

 On a garden of 600 acres there would therefore, at 

 times, be the responsibility of 1000 coolies on the 

 head of one European, who has himself only to rely 

 upon for good management and efficient work. The 

 flushes continue in greater or less strength and vigour, 

 from April to the end of October. A long, succulent 

 shoot runs up of four, five, or even six leaves, and 

 from these three or four are taken, as the case may be ; 

 the whole shoot, stem and leaves, is picked off by 

 the fiugers down to the leaf which is left to shelter 

 the bud from which the new flush is to spring. At 

 times the growth is so rapid that by the time the 

 pluckers have been round the whole garden in the 

 course of two or tluee weeks, and have, with their 

 nimble little fingers of both hands at work at the 

 same time, taken off all shoots that are then ready 

 for plucking, new shoots have come to perfection. It 

 is astonishing how few mistakes these pluckers make, 

 they become suck adepts at the work that is very 

 seldom that too few or too many ready leaves are 

 picked from any particular shoot. 



Prepabation of the Leaf. 



During a good Hush some 5000 lb. a day of leaf j 

 will be plucked on the plantation, and when it is 

 brought to the factory, if it be intended to make black 

 Tea from it, it must all be spread out iu thin layers to 

 wither. The planter's ingenuity, after all his floors 

 and tables arc covered, is much exercised to contrive 

 surface for this necessary process. High racks are I 

 constructed, and divided by thin slips of wood or wire, 

 so as to form lofty stands for series of light Bamboo 

 trays, which contain the leaf. In this way the air 

 circulates among the bright, fresh green leaves, and 

 what was life to them whilst they were on the bushes 

 now brings decay, and i^y the following morning the 

 day's picking is changed to a dark green colour, and 

 the crisp leaves have become withered, soft, and 

 pliable. 



/ 



The rolling process, which follows next, is in some 

 gardens carried out by machinery-, and thereby much 

 labour is s.^vcd, though perhaps not altogether to the 

 bentit of the leaf. We will, therefore, keep to the 

 old plan. A hundredweight of the withered leaf is 

 given out to every three men, and if tlie leaf be suc- 

 culent it will take them four or five hours to roll this 

 properly : the work is hard and exhausting, and very 

 often the men begin as early as 3a.i«. to get it well 

 over before the great heat of the day comes on. Each 

 man takes as much at a time as he can grasp and 

 conveniently cover with his hands, then with arms 

 and hands he gives a sort of rotatory movement to 

 the leaf, which he presises with the palms and heels 

 of his hand, and deftly gathers together with his 

 fingeis, wuriiiug the mass so as to break all the cells 

 of the leaf and free the sap. and at the same time to 

 give it that curled and twisted form peculiar to manu- 

 factured Tea. When sufficiently manipulated the 

 mass leaves the hand iu the shape of a ball, and 

 is placed to ferment in baskets, which will hold about 

 2 cwt. each, lined aud covered with damp blankets. 



The amount of fermentation given to tlie leaf is a 

 matter of great importauce, and recjuires in its legula- 

 tion much judgment and experience ; the process can 

 be checked or encouraged at the will of the planter, 

 whose object it is to produce a leaf of a bright colour, 

 like a new penny, which is also the colour the finished 

 Tea should have after infusion. 



When the proper amount of fermentation has been ' 

 obtained, the balls of leaf are taken out of tne basket, 

 broken up, and thrown into metal pans, to be cooked 

 over a gentle fire. This at once checks and stops 

 the fermenting of the leaf, and makes it softer aud 

 more pliable for the second rolling, which is gener- 

 ally necessary at this stage. The leaf is from this 

 time called "Tea," but it would seem that it is not 

 yet quite a finished article ; for even after panning, 

 the colour of the newly manufactured Tea is liable to 

 change, becoming, as it is thought, oxidised by the 

 action of the air. It is the planter's business to see 

 that one jirocess of manufacture succeeds another as 

 quickly as possib'e, and he immediately spreads the 

 new Tea on Bamboo mats, or sheets of zinc, and 

 places it in the hot sun, which quickly dries up into 

 tile Tea all the remaining sap, fixes the twist, aud 

 adds a bloom like that on a d' ied Raisin. To pre- 

 vent the i^ossibility of the Tea becoming sour, and '. 

 any loss of aroma from exposure, it is, after a short 

 expo.sure to the sun, taken to tlie long, narrow firing- 

 rooms, which run along the sidei of the factory, and 

 placed in wire-gauze trays, holding about 2 lb. each 

 of Tea, over charcoal fires, which are contained in 

 long narrow troughs of masonry, about two feet high. 

 Supposing 100 lb. of Tea to be over the fires at one 

 time in these 2 lb. trays, it would reqnire an hour and 

 a half to dry the Tea sufficiently for packing, and as 

 space is limited the Tea is usually fired to i3uch an 

 e?teut as will prevent its turning sour, and finished 

 off afterwards. 



SoETiNO FOR Market. 



All that rem'iins is to classify aud sort the Tea, and 

 to pack it for market. A certain amount of classifi- 

 cation has been going on during manufacture ; and 

 the larger and coarser Tea can be separated from the 

 ma.'is by sifting it, but after that the Tea has to be 

 shaken out pound by pound on to Bamboo tr.iys, and 

 sorted by the quick fingers of boys and girls, who, 

 whilst they separate the various c|iialities of Tea, pick 

 o^it all ueelesj and foreign matti r. This is a long and 

 tedious work, and, to the uniniti ited, seems hopeless. 



Each estate keeps its own sawyers, carpenters, 

 anil smiths, who cut the tree^ from the forest — 

 which the planter should always be careful to include 

 in his land ■ purchases— saw the planks, and make the 

 chests iu in which the Tea is packed, and which, lined 



