CULTIVATION OF TEA. Ill 



This is the critical point in the process, when the leaves 

 must be constantly stirred, and rolled between the hands of a 

 skilful workman. When perfectly dry, the tea is picked over 

 with care, and only the handsomely rolled leaves selected 

 for the first quality. The remainder, consisting of the 

 coarser leaves and hard pieces of shoots, is sold at a lower 

 price. The second picking occurs as soon as the new growth 

 has attained sufficient size, and the leaves are treated in the 

 same manner. The mats are now removed from the poles, 

 and the full power of the sun allowed to act upon the shrubs 

 to give them as much vigor as possible for the growth of the 

 ensuing spring. At the end of summer a third picking is 

 made, which is converted into ordinary tea. The produce of 

 an acre of the best old shrubs is valued at $3,030.30. The 

 total crop from three pickings is estimated at 666 pounds, of 

 which one-half is first quality, worth $8.80 per pound, and 

 the rest is worth thirty cents a pound. Good tea land in 

 Uji is worth three hundred dollars per acre, and the best 

 fields of old plantations are prized at four thousand dollars 

 per acre. The women earn about six cents per day in 

 picking tea^ and the men in the curing-houses receive from 

 twenty to fifty cents according to their skill. The tea is 

 packed for market in close boxes or jars, which are tightly 

 covered with waterproof paper. Of course the best tea can 

 only be enjoyed by very wealthy people, and is never sold 

 for exportation. The ordinary tea-crop is worth from seven 

 to forty cents per pound, and immense quantities are pro- 

 duced. The annual export is nearly twenty-five million 

 pounds, and is consumed chiefly in the United States. 

 Japanese tea is all green tea, but is not sent to this country 

 as received from the producers. The different lots are mixed 

 to suit foreign tastes, and " fired " again ; that is, roasted 

 again at a low temperature in metallic trays, and then packed 

 in tea-chests for shipment. Every effort is made to get the 

 new tea into market while its aroma is fresh and sweet, and 

 ship-loads are now sent from Yokohama to New York in less 

 than thirty days. 



Did time permit, we might, in a similar way, discuss the 

 production of silk from both the wild and the Chinese mul- 

 berry, of lacquer and of wax from two species of poisonous 

 sumach cultivated extensively for these articles, of paper 



