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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885. 



umler rather than over-fermenting." And so we 

 determined that the system should he tried. But 

 here is Mr. Armstrong, our great and trusted tea 

 authority decrying very fine ijlucking and stating 

 that, as regards fermentation, we must use our 

 nose as well as our eyes, after periods extending 

 from IJ to 6J hours — the longer the period, the 

 greater the necessity for frequent examinations ! 

 It is in truth evident that a skilful and successful 

 tea-maker must have all his senses alive and 

 active and intent on the various and comiilicated 

 process of his vocation. 



Those processes, unlike the few and simple oper- 

 ations connected with the pulping, washing and 

 partial drying of coffee — water and not tire being 

 the chief agent employed — go on, more or less all 

 the year round, and, unless there is space to 

 spare and machinery galore, the work of day fre- 

 quently steals more than a few hours from the 

 night. Tea-planting is comparatively easy work, 

 but the manufacture of green leaf into dry is 

 anything but child's play. Where space, machin- 

 ery, tea and money are plentiful, however, there 

 are compensations for hard and continuous work, 

 which we trust may amply reward Mr. Armstrong 

 and all our tea-planter readers. 



May we ask Mr. Armstrong when the Hibernian 

 element came into his family ? It asserted itself 

 when he wrote : — " I have seen, we have all 

 seen young bushes jticheil to death, to give tine 

 teas." And then he naively added ; — " How can 

 these bushes ever develop themselves and give us 

 the cover which we should get ? " Aye, how in- 

 deed can these dry bones live ? When they do, 

 we may exjiect trees which have been " picked to 

 death " to be able to perform the feat of devel- 

 oping themselves. There has been nothing better 

 since the Irish Colonel in India said to his men : 

 " Ye ate too much, and ye drink too much, and 

 ye kill yerselves ; and then ye write home and 

 tell yer mothers that the climate killed ye ! " 

 There is a story of a Glasgow bailie insisting 

 that " the defunct " should be called into court, 

 but that must be " a weak invention of the enemy," 

 as Scotchmen never make bulls : they are supijosed 

 not to have imagination enough. But Mr. Arm- 

 strong desfrves free forgiveness for a slip due to 

 the vehemence of his indignation against the 

 practice of destructive picking of immature tea. 

 Let planters lay this and Mr. Armstrong's other 

 lessons to heart, and let them be grateful for 

 the full details given respecting the best style 

 of bin construction, fur which many another man 

 would have secured the benefit of a patent. Be- 

 sides Mr. Jackson's rollers, Mr. Armstrong strongly 

 recommends a tea-cutter by the same inventor. 

 We had somehow got the idea that tea-cutters 

 had been banished as unorthodox, and, of course, 

 the finer sorts of tea are not subjected to their 

 action. Mr. Armstrong feels strong objection to 

 the far travelling of tea-leaf in the process of 

 sifting, confirming the feeling we have long en- 

 tertained, that the sifting process, as generally 

 carried out, the finishing off being by coolies, is 

 about the most trying of all to the quality of 

 Ceylon tea. Frequent handling is deprecated, but 

 the severe friction which too often accompanies 

 the sifting and Hnyliiiti processes seems to us, be- 

 sides accounting for a large proportion of broken 

 tea and dust, to be the solution of dull-looking 

 and inferior pekoe. The swinging arrangement 

 described by Mr. Armstrong seems certainly sup- 

 erior to the knocking of sieves against hard 

 substances, in vogue amongst the sorting labourers. 

 Mr. Armstrjng contemiilates a cement Hoor (than 

 which nothing could be better), masonry pillars 



and wooden walls, jjosts, rafters, reepers, and, we 

 presume, shingles. Such being the case, we are 

 rather surprised that he did not enjoin precau- 

 tions against fire : at least that the woodwork 

 should all be carefully coated with asbestos or 

 plumbago paint. The manufacture, or introduc- 

 tion from America, of the latter substance, by the 

 way, should engage the attention of Messrs. John 

 Walker & Co. Factories composed mainly of ii'on 

 would, no doubt, ofler more chances of inmiunity 

 from fire, but we fear that such buildings must 

 be very expensive. We are not aware if any 

 information has been published regarding the 

 mammoth iron -buildings imported and erected on 

 Mariawatte ? We cannot doubt that accompany- 

 ing models of tea factories and manufacturing 

 appliances, which are to be sent by the Planters' 

 Association to the London Exhibition (after being 

 shewn locally), much valuable information will be " 

 given as to Mr. Megginson's slielves and other 

 improved contrivances. Mr. Armstrong anticipates 

 the best results for tea leaf naturally dried in a 

 temperature of 75° to 80°. We suppose he 

 means shade temperature, not infiuenced by sirocco 

 heat. In that case, how are the high Dim- 

 bula estates and especially the very lofty plant- 

 ations of Nuwara Eliya, Kandapola, Udapussellawa, 

 and Maturata, to manage : a shade temperature 

 of 75° being rarely attainable, while 80° is a 

 very exceptional extreme '? We observe that Mr. 

 Armstrong believes in separating large leaf from 

 small before withering, but he does not advert to 

 IMr. Megginson's practice of separating the two 

 classes of leaf after partial rolling : firing the 

 small and returning the large into the roller for 

 further manipulation. He is properly careful to 

 warn planters not to allow their coolies to squeeze 

 or bruise the green leaf, which is, in truth, 

 to be treated as gingerly as Isaac Walton treated 

 his worms used as bait for fish. We have heard 

 many stories of tea being fired by a jiroportion 

 of 1 lb. of firewood to 1 of tea. Mr. Armstrong's 

 average of 1^ lb. of dnj wood is much nearer 

 the mark, 2 lb. being required if the firewood is 

 not well-dried. The difference in toughness and 

 delicacy of leaf in different districts is recog- 

 nized, and of course season has its influence. 

 Mr. Armstrong, too, reminds tea planters that 

 superior tea cannot result from the first few pluck- 

 ings after pruning : the leaves being what the 

 Scotch call " fusionless," with abundance of moist- 

 ure, and but little tannin, theine and essential 

 oil. It is a "wrinkle" to "take note of" that 

 tea is not to be left in the drier until fully desic- 

 cated, but taken out with moisture in it which 

 will soon evaporate ; while the finishing off is to 

 be done at 2li0° and the leaf ixtobe pached ithile 

 hut : hermetically closed at once, of course. Mr, 

 Armstrong speaks of good teak as the best sub- 

 stance for roller tables, but what about paper, 

 which, subjected to severe pressure, actually takes 

 a polish, and can by chemical treatment be made 

 transparent, like glass ? We are still looking for 

 papier-macli(5 tea boxes, and meantime Mr. Arm- 

 strong bears favourable testimony to the wooden 

 boxes from Japan. It is quite evident that too 

 much attention cannot be paid to keeping the 

 roller table cleair, as also the cement fioor, on 

 which Mr. Armstrong sugge!-ts that in the case 

 of a full bearing estate "bulking" should be per- 

 foi-med, that is that each particular kind of tea 

 prepared on diiferent days should be carefully 

 mi:;ed so as to secure uniform quality, really in- 

 ferior makes being, of course, excluded. In the 

 case of a young estate, it is recommended that a 

 one-ldnd of tea should be sent to market, which 



