6o 



<THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1884. 



BREAKING AND EQUALIZING TEA MACHINERY. 



The Messrs. Jackson have invented an equalizing machine 

 which ia a good deal used. It consists of two cylind- 

 ers of sieve wire, one fixed in a strong cast-iron frame 

 and the other revolving within it, being driven either 

 by hand or by a belt and pulley. The bearings on which 

 the shaft which carries the revolving wire cylinder are 

 hung are made adjustable, so that the pressure on the 

 tea may be regulated as required. The tea is fed into the 

 machine through a hopper on the top, aud passes rapidly 

 hrough the cylinders. It turns out a large quantity of 

 work, and is very efficient in equalizing the coarse teas. 

 It is said, however, by some persons to take the bloom off 

 the tea, so tne inventors have also put into the market 

 another machine for the same purpose, which is considered 

 by many to be preferable to the former. In a strong iron 

 frame-work there are mounted two cast-iron rollers 

 which are grooved or indented on their surfaces. The 

 space between them can be increased or diminished as 

 required, and in passing through this machine the tea is 

 art, not rubbed small. The cutting process is preferable 

 in any equalizing machine than rubbing the tea through 

 the sieves, as it is aim st self-evident that rubbing or crumb- 

 ling the tea must make a lot of dust and rub the black 

 colour off the outside of the tea known in the trade as the 

 bloom. The tea becomes c/r >y and loses in appearance 

 and price. This is very important, aud much attention is 

 paid by a careful manager to this point ; agents also insist 

 very strongly on the proportions of coarse teas and dust 

 being kept down as low as possible. 



Mr. Ansell, of Kuresong, whom I mentioned before as 

 the inventor of a very excellent sifting machine, has in- 

 vented a very good breaker, very simple in construction 

 and easily driven. It has the drawback however of making 

 dust according to some of its users. It is somewhat 

 difficult to describe without a sketch, but if the reader 

 can imagine a large wooden gridiron moving backwards 

 and forwards on the top of a table, the tea being fed into 

 it through the wooden bars of the gridiron aud broken by 

 being rubbed by them on the table, an idea of the machine 

 may be formed. Some of the very best tea-makers I know 

 are very much in favour of this machine. .Some again 

 complain that it makes dust. I am of opinion that a good 

 deal would depend on the shape given to the edges of the 

 wooden bars. One thing I know from person d observation 

 is. that it puts through a very large quantity oUtea. 



An excellent tea-breaking machine is much used in 

 Assam for which Messrs. Begg, Dunlop & Co. are agents, 

 namely, Mr. George Reid's invention. The principle of 

 working in it is cutting the leaf between toothed rollers. 

 There is a sieve however to prevent any coarse leaf from 

 escaping uncut from the machine. It is spokeu very highly 

 of by some of the most prominent managers in Assam, 

 and does its work excellently. I think the great secret of 

 the successful working of Mr. Reid's machine is in the 

 great speed at which it is driven, namely. 250 00 



revolutions per minute. The tea has no time to be rubbed 

 at this very hi^h speed, but is broken aud sent through 

 the machine, at once. The machine is very strongly made 

 and compact, and the price is very moderate. 



In Tn<mv tea-houses there is to be found a circular saw 

 useful for cutting planks for t< a-boxes, firewood billets, 

 &c. The Messrs. Marshall make these in three sizes, of 

 which I think the one best adapted to the tea planter's 

 use is the No. 2 size. A slack pulley and lever to stop 

 the saw should invariably be ordered. There is also a 

 diagonal motion attached to the parallel fence for feather 

 edge cutting, and as some tea-boxes are now made with 

 leather edged pieces of wood at their corners, this also 

 would be found useful to them. 



The following letter on repacking Indian teas in London 

 appears in the Home and. Colonial Mail : — 



Sir, — As a tea planter, permit me to give vent to a few re- 

 marks on the existing system of selling teas on the London 

 market. 



To a plauter an insight into the existing conditions is no- 

 thing less than exasperating. This statement may appear 

 uncalled-for to those who have never seen the care bestowed 

 upon the packing of tea on the tea plantations. Let me 

 explain the position: On visiting the warehouses in which' 

 riur teas are bulked in Loudon, previous to sale, I found 



heaps of tea lying about, covered with a thick brown layer 

 of tea-dust, and exposed to the damp draught of opened 

 windows through which the Loudon fog had free right of 

 entry. In one warehouse only I found any mechanical ap- 

 pliance for rapid bulking under favourable conditions as to 

 protection from damp. In that warehouse there was only 

 one such appliance, and this did not nearly meet the 

 requirements; consequently, iu many rooms, tea was also 

 being bu ked on the floors under the old exposed con- 

 ditions. A second bulking machine, it is true, was in process 

 of erection, but I question if, even with that assist- 

 ance, the whole of the bulkiug in that warehouse will be 

 provided for. Granted for the sake of argument, that out 

 of the numerous warehouses one does bulk the teas with 

 the least possible exposure, this is but one step in the 

 right direction. A vast amount of tea must be deteriorated 

 pennies per lb. at the other warehouses, by the old-fashioned 

 heap-system of bulking. Let what may be said to the 

 coutrary, I have good authority for saying that the heaps 

 of tea frequently lie exposed for days before being repacked, 

 viz., until it suits the convenience of some official to be 

 present at the weighing. This may not appear to people 

 on this side such an outrage on quality as it does to a tea 

 planter. To the latter it is no less irritating than to a 

 connoisseur would be the leaving champagne uncorked for a 

 week when bottling it. 



Let me explain that to pack his teas super-heated, and 

 so hot that his hand cannot comfortably remain inserted 

 iu tea, then to see it leaded and soldered down whilst hot, 

 is esteemed a duty of the highest importance by every 

 Indian tea-maker. The greatest care is taken to super-heat 

 the tea before packing to ensure the absence of damp. 

 This very super-heating renders the tea so treated all the 

 more absorptive ou exposure. The planter knows this, and 

 as he knows also, that most of his aroma and " nose," as 

 it is called, depends upon the conveyance of his teas in 

 their super-dried condition, he pays particular attention 

 to the soldering and fastening down of the chests. To such 

 an extreme of caution is this carried that a carpenter, against 

 whom it could be proved 'hat he had driven a nail through 

 the lead whilst nailing down the lid, would be fined on 

 many plantations. Now sir, after having for years devoted 

 much care and labour to thus shipping his teas at perfection 

 point, what must be a planter's feelings on seeing his labour 

 wasted through carelessness on this side, a carelessness so 

 efficient — permit the expression — that his teas are placed on 

 the market in the very worst possible condition, not to be 

 actually unsound? Teas cannot be turned out of a chest and 

 left exposed for half -an-hour to London fog, without being 

 damaged, if they are repacked cold. Teas left exposed on 

 a floor all all night, will travel all the way between 

 the super-dry state and the state of the surrounding at- 

 mosphere, sometimes damp enough in London. Once this 

 absorption has taken place, thedamageto aroma and *' nose" 

 has been done, and pennies per lb. have been taken off the 

 value. When it is remembered that these teas could have 

 much of their aroma and "nose" returned to them by 

 being super-heated again, after bulking, immediately before 

 repacking, why is this not done ? It would pay handsomely, 

 provided the teas were repacked in properly soldered down 

 chests, instead of as at present in part paper part lead, un- 

 soldered, and wholly exposed. 



This latter is another of the existing evils, and deserves to 

 be noted, though remedyi ~tg it would only be a comparative 

 success, unless the more heinous crime of repacking the teas 

 cold had been removed. As this question refers to thousand 

 of pounds lost annually in the way indicated, perhaps you 

 will pardon this lengths epistle from An Old Planter. 



P.S. — One word as to the state in which the chests 

 are too often offered to the buyers here. The chests after 

 the process of bulking and repackiug — save the mark — as 

 permitted at present, are barely recognizable as the same 

 packages despatched, so neatly and trimly fiuished off 

 from the gardens. Broken, bulging aud patched with 

 paper lining to replace the damaged load, and no attempt 

 at rendering the contents atmosphere, or even weather, 

 proof ; such is the end of all the planter's efforts aud 

 the state in which his teas reach the buyers in far too 

 many instances. — A. O. P. 



Our Jorhat correspondent writes : — Your excellent 

 leader aneut grogshops iu the tea districts is very much 



