1901-1902. | Tea: Its Cultivation, &c. 265 
leaves. The plucking of these shoots goes on once a week for 
- nine months of the year—viz., from the middle of March to 
the middle of December. This work, being light, is done by 
women, who can pluck about 24 lb. of leaf in a day, repre- 
senting about 6 lb. of the manufactured article. The plucked 
leaf is gathered together in baskets, and kept as much as 
possible in the shade to prevent deterioration. After being 
_ weighed it is passed on to the withering house, and the process 
of manufacture commences. 
To facilitate withering, the leaves are spread out in thin 
layers on platforms in open sheds. When properly withered, 
which may take from twelve to sixteen hours, according to its 
condition when brought in from the garden, and also to the 
_ state of the weather, the leaf is still green but very soft and 
pliable. Leaf which has not been left long enough to wither 
yields a poor quality of tea. Left too long, it becomes dry 
and brittle, breaking up during the rolling process, and also 
yielding an inferior quality of tea. From the withering sheds 
the leaves are taken to the tea house to be rolled. The pur- 
pose of rolling is to give a twist to the leaf and also to break 
the leaf cells. When the cells are broken the sap exudes, and 
_by the continued rolling it is spread all over the surface of the 
leaf. The rolled leaves are then taken to the fermenting 
_house—a dark cool place—and spread out thinly to ferment, 
or oxidise as the process is also called. 
During the fermentation, which may take about three 
hours, the leaves have changed from a green to a copper 
colour, and have possibly lost some of the twist given by 
the first rolling process. To remedy this, the leaves are again 
taken to the tea house and rolled for a quarter of an hour. 
The rolled tea is then taken to the firing machinery, where 
it undergoes two operations. In the first operation, the tea is 
dried over a current of hot air for about half an hour. This 
completely arrests the process of fermentation, and all the 
moisture is driven off. When the first firing is completed, the 
rough tea, as it is now called, is taken away to be sorted by a 
‘rotary sieve driven by machinery. The different grades are 
known as broken orange or broken Pekoe, composed chiefly of 
| tips and youngest leaves—Pekoe, young leaves and very little 
tip—Pekoe souchong, and broken tea, from coarser leaves, &c. 
