JuLYi, iSSs-l ISS^THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



SEEING THE TEA GROW IN THE CENTRAL 

 . PKOVINCE OF CEVLOX. WITH A GLANCE AT 

 CACAO, CARDAMOMS AND OTHER NEW 

 PRODUCTS. 



VICTORIA AVEHAOE loss OF WKIGHT IN DRylN(? TEA 



LEAVES — Jackson's and kinmond's dkiebs compared 



— PKOTECTION AGAINST LOSS OF SMALL TEA — DRTINC 

 LAKOE AND SMALL IKA— TIIH PROCESSES OF THE VIC- 

 TORIA DRIER — TEA NOT TOUCHED BV THE HUMAN 

 UAND IN MANUFACTURE— A SUBSTANTIAL PIECE OF 

 WOHK— OEEAT HEAT — SMALL AMOUNT OF LABOR 

 REQUIRED— THE A AND B MACHINES — JACKSON'S 

 DRIER AND THE SIROCCO USED TOOETUEK— OUTTURN 

 OF MADE TEA — TIME NECESSARY FOR ROLLING— QUICK 

 JtOLLINO IN ASSAM — CEYLON TEA PLANTERS PROFITING 

 BY THE EXPERIENCE OF THEIR INDIAN BRETHREN. 



All familiar with the processes of tea-making 

 arc avraie that the loss of weight in tea 

 leaves, in passing from green to dry, is on 

 au average 75 per cent. Mr. Armstrong in a 

 recent letter to our columns, gave the actual 

 weight of rolled tea as compared with the finally 

 dried article, aud I am sorry I cannot refer to the 

 Btatomei.t as I writo, but I do not suppose I shall be 

 far from an approximation when 1 attribute two- 

 thirds of the whole loss of 75 per cent to evapor- 

 ation in "withering," the other tliird disappearing 

 in the roasting or " drying " process. In very wet 

 weather, probably the proportions are altered so that 

 the rolled leaf contains considerably more moisture 

 than one half of its weight. The weather during the 

 trials at Carolina was mild, altho ugh occasionally 

 showery : good withering weather on tho wliole. 

 The amount of moisture in tho rolled leaf, 

 therefore, which had to be carried away by 

 the heated air and which reduced that air, in 

 its transit, from 280' to US' Fahrenheit, may, I eup- 

 po3o, bo considered the fair normal proportion. I 

 suppose most readers familiar with the processes of 

 tea-making will agree with me that tho principle of 

 Jackson's machine, by which tbc-hot air is continu- 

 ously exhausted and expelled na it becomes laden 

 with moisture and as continuously renewed, is superior 

 to what I was told was the principle of Kinmond's, 

 by which the moisturcladon air was repeatedly made 

 to traverse the same tta. What is certain is, that, 

 while the exhaust fan in Jackson's machine draws 

 out at the top the hot-air which has imbibed moisture 

 in its passage through tho tr a leaves, those leaves are 

 delivered below in a pprfectly dry state. At present the 

 tea is nccived in boxes, but Mr. Megginson, I nnder- 

 etox), was meditating au appliance by which the 

 roastid tea would be conveyed directly from the drier 

 to the sifter. The word appliance reminds me that 

 what I telegraphed was that there is an appliance to 

 prevent email tea biing drawn up by the exhaust 

 Ian ill Jackson's drier, so tiiat only a modicnm, not 

 wnith mention, goes on to the blanting board up 

 which the exhausted air travels to thu witheriog loft. 

 A small (|nanti;y of tea, I believe, falls down to tho 

 bottom cf the machine, which can easily be taken 

 out in a finished state. Of course Mr. Megginaon's 

 plan of scparaiing the smaller tea from the larger 

 and drying it on the Sirocco reduces the chances 

 of any possible loss of small tea iu 'the drier. In my 

 notice of .Mr. Megginaon's projesses, for which he has no 

 doubt good reasons, the want of runctualiou aud capitals 

 created gome confniiion. The statement was meant 

 1 



to run thus : — " Mr. Megginson takes out the leaf from 

 tho roller at th) cud of tho half-hour, sifts out the 

 small leaf on a pulpor-siove No. 3 mesh, and, when this 

 small tea is fermented, ho dries it on tho Bii-ucoo. 

 Tho larger tea is again imt back into the rollir aud 

 operated on for a ijiiiirtcr-of-au-hour further before 

 being fermented and dried on Jackson's machine." 

 With these corrections wa trust our descriptions of tho 

 various processes is clear. The rolled tea is fed in at 

 an orifice iu the top aud is automatically spread 

 successively on three travelling webs composed of plates 

 of perforated lead-covered iron, tho tea falling from 

 the first wob, down to tho second aud then tho 

 third, while the hot-air, is iu the proocts of rising 

 through the series. By this arraugcment, it will bo 

 seen, tho tea finally comos in cont.'ict with tho 

 pure hot-air unmixed with moisture, parting before 

 being ejected with the last traces of moi^luro iu its 

 own substance. The tea leaves are not touched by 

 the human hand from tho time ih»>y are fed in as 

 "roll" until they emerge as finished tea, aud, if 

 Mr. Megginson's design is carried out, the tea on 

 emerging will be conveyed without man's inttr- 

 vcntion to the sifter or, if more coavenioot, ilie bin. 

 The machine is, as we stated iu our telegram, a 

 solid mass of metal equal to 1.3 tons, aud Mr. 

 Jackson assured us that the pipes in the multi- 

 tubular arrangement are so substantial, that lie doci 

 not autioipatu that even with C/nslant working it 

 will be necessary to replace nny of the lower tier 

 of six pipes in less than five years at tbo earliest. 

 Of course the heating of the great (although 

 most compact) mass of metal we have described 

 tells powerfully im the surrounding atmoaphere which 

 is proportionally raised in temperature (oui- weight 

 while note-taking was reduced by at least tho enui- 

 valent of a five-catty box of tea); but our readers will 

 observe that tho machino is so onstructed and does 

 its work after euch a fashion, that tiio European 

 superintendent need merely occasioually see that tho 

 rolled tea is properly fed and tho lininhed tea pro- 

 perly received, a stoker being held responsible for 

 keeping up tho furnace to tho proper mark. To 

 do this, wo suspect 2 lb. of fuel to 1 lb. of dry tea 

 will be needed. But oven so tho drier i^ jus!; tho 

 machine for a respectably siz';d ctatc, where motive 

 power, of which tho drier dem.-mds but a moderate 

 portiun is available. In places whero the Milheriug 

 lofts are over the tea-house and the climate renders 

 artificial warmth desirable, wo bhfuld think two of 

 the B machines such as that exliil)ited at Carolina, 

 price £270, would be preferable to one of tho 

 A kind costing A'.370, although the • latter 

 is said to turn out 240 ll>. of tea per hour against 

 IGO lb. promised, and about 170 lb. accomptuhed 

 by the former. I'robably mobt planters (who 

 can afford to do so), will folhiw Mr. Megghi- 

 son's example by using Jackson's I'rier and Davul- 

 son's Sirocco, iu combination. Wc noticed that Mr. 

 Jackson did not depreciate the Belfast niachiu!-, tho 

 chief fault of which is the amount of handling aud 

 friction of the tea needed. Mr. Meggiutou ttattd that 

 70 lb. as a maximum per hour was preparer! by tho 

 No. 3 .Sirocco, but this was when pushed to its utmoSit 

 capacitj-. When we stated that only (j4 lb, an hour 

 could, as yet, ire got at Abbotsford, Mr. Megginson 

 stated that about Co lb, an hour was the ical average. 

 For reasons which we doubt not are good, Mr. 

 Megginson, as we have stated, roils his small tea far 

 half-au-hour and the larger leaf for (bree-quarteis 

 of an hour, but Mr. Armstrong, whom we had tho 

 pleasure of meeting at the station, reminded us thap 

 ho and others fiml twenty miunies suliicieiit,— for leaf 

 of all sizes understood. But we have never heard 

 of Ceylcn leaf being rolled in ten miuuleB as Wt 

 Jackson naid wfti* done ja A«<am. Wc rcgrtt Tvc'did 



