} REPORT OF THE CHEMIST. 127 
field, and there seems reason to believe that the results attained will 
fully accord with these rendered probable from the results of analysis. 
It is obviously true, and has been proved so by experiment, that even 
under-gized seed may, in fertile ground, produce well-developed plants; 
and, indeed, it appears to have been demonstrated that “the vigorous 
development of plants depends far less upon the size and weight of the 
seed than upon the depth to which it is covered with earth, and upon 
the stores of nourishment which it finds in its first period of life,” but 
there sill appears to remain, as an open question of very great practical 
importance, the comparative value of fully developed and imperfectly 
developed seed, under the ordinary conditions of moisture, fertility, &e, 
EXPERIMENTS IN MANUFACTURE OF THA. 
During the past year several experiments have been made in the 
laboratory of the department in the preparation of tea from leaves grown 
in this country. 
A preliminary experiment was made with leaves grown upon the 
department grounds, and the resulting product was a tea which, in ap- 
pearance at least, left nothing more to be desired, it resembling the 
choicest varieties of black tea. 
The tea was prepared from the fresh leaves according to the following 
process : 
1. The freshly picked and tender leaves were first placed in a common 
sieve, Which was placed over a tin-pan of boiling water, and were allowed 
to remain until thoroughly wilted. 
2, The wilted leaves were then wrapped up in a coarse linen eloth, 
and wrung out by twisting the cloth. 
3. The leaves, after this wringing, were then placed in a tinned iron 
pan, which was placed over a fire, and the leaves were briskly stirred 
about and rolled between the hands during this “firing” process until 
they became brittle. 
The leaves, subjected to the above process, were weighed after cach 
operation, and the loss of weight during the successive steps in the pro- 
cess were as follows: 
“a3 : 
ae tS) 
aor EG 
& 
a> ee 
ie mR 
SS. og 
a) EO 
oos s2 
=aSq ft) 
ws a 
5 a 
a2e | &e 
59 
ow oD Se 
m re) 
Per cent. | Per cent. 
EMITS OENN Oa eee Se fea icon ecto Aha tig hens ches Se cecnnereds weet es es seems 11.33 4.46 
Ona WuIaH pein Pace. 0588 ees 2 288 Boe ce Seine See aan Aino quae sa gedes 6554558 _, §.88 7.81 
TLS Re eR a SS oes ie Pea eae enn 61. 37 54. 68 
Pees sa a a i Eek EE ain en wets 79. 58 66. 95 
EATIE Sete gE 2 et iT a RE ee 20. 42 33. 05 
100. 00 100.00 - 
I 
The quantitative results obtained from the first experiment with the 
young leaves are identical with these reported in those countries where 
this industry flourishes, viz., one pound of tea from five pounds of leaves. 
Besides the two experiments already reported, there were made nine 
others, from leaves received from Mr. J. W. Pearce, Fayetteville, N. C., 
