TEA AND "TEA-YIELDING" PLANTS 93 



east of Yachou, also has a share in this trade, but there the 

 hcences are all issued by the Imperial Government and are not 

 connected with the provincial authorities at Chengtu. The 

 industry is a very ancient one, the plant itself having been 

 grown in this vicinity since the dawn of the Christian era. 



To supply the licensed establishments the peasants and 

 farmers cultivate the tea plant. The culture extends up to 

 4000 feet altitude, the bushes being planted round the sides of 

 the terraced fields on the mountain-sides. Very little attention 

 is given them and they are usually allowed to grow smothered 

 in coarse weeds to a height of from 3 to 6 feet. Less frequently 

 are the bushes kept free of weeds. During the summer months 

 the leaves and young twigs are plucked off and placed, handfuls 

 at a time, in heated pans for a few minutes, and then spread 

 out in the sun to dry. They are then collected into large 

 sacks or into loose bales and carried down to the towns and 

 villages, where they are purchased by agents of the tea 

 establishments. Occasionally the bushes, when they have 

 become old, are cut down, the branches dried in the sun, and 

 afterwards tied into bundles and carried down for sale. The 

 very young leaves and tips of the shoots are commonly gathered 

 by the growers and prepared into tea for home consumption 

 and local trade, the old coarse leaves and branches being con- 

 sidered good enough for the Thibetans. 



I visited a brick-tea factory in Yachou, where I observed 

 the following processes of manufacture : The sacks of leaves 

 and bundles of leafy sticks, after they had fermented for 

 a few days, were taken in hand by women and children who 

 picked off the leaves and shoots, sorting them into four grades, 

 each grade being determined by the size and age of the leaves. 

 The sticks, often i to 2 inches in circumference, after the 

 leaves have been removed, were chopped small by means of a 

 large knife fixed in a block of wood. Mixed with coarse leaves 

 and sweepings these chopped-up sticks constitute the fourth 

 grade. A small packet of the very worst of this grade is 

 inserted in the ends of each bamboo-cylinder as a gratuity 

 to the repackers and muleteers at Tachienlu. 



A certain British cunsul has likened this brick-tea to 

 " crows' nests pressed into cakes." This aptly describes the 



