THE 



T II F. 



harvest is nearly at the same periods, the natives 

 baring frequent intercourse, and their com- 

 mercial concerns with each other being very ex- 

 tensive. 



" The tea leaves should be dried as soon as 

 possible after they are gathered. For this pur- 

 pose public buildings arc erected, containing 

 from five to ten, and even twenty small furnaces 

 about three feet high, each having at the top a 

 large iron pan. There is also a long table co- 

 vered with mats, on which the leaves are laid, 

 and rolled bv workmen who sit round it. The 

 iron pan being heated to a certain degree bv a 

 fire made in the furnace beneath, a few pounds 

 of the leaves arc put upon the pan, and conti- 

 nually turned and shitted by the hands till they 

 become too hot to be endured ; they arc then 

 thrown upon the mats to be rolled between the 

 palms of the hands ; after which, they are cooled 

 as speedily as possible. In order that all the mois- 

 ture of the leaves mav be completely dissipated, 

 and their twisted form be better preserved, the 

 above process is repeated several times with the 

 same leaves, but less heat is employed than at 

 first. The tea thus manufactured is afterwards 

 sorted according to its kind or goodness. Some 

 of the younc tender leaves are never rolled, and 

 are immersed in hot water before thev are dried. 



" Country people cure their leaves in earthen 

 kettles, which answer every necessary purpose, 

 at less trouble and expense, whereby they are 

 enabled to sell them cheaper. 



" After the tea has been kept for some months, 

 it is taken out of the vessels in which it was 

 stored, and dried again over a very gentle 

 fire, that it may be deprived of any humidity 

 which remained, or it might have since con- 

 tracted. 



" The common tea is kept in earthen pots with 

 narrow mouths ; but the best sort used by the 

 emperor and nobility is put into porcelain or 

 china vessels. The coarsest tea is kept bv the 

 country people in straw baskets, made in the 

 shape of barrels, which thev place under the 

 roofs of iheir houses, near the hole that lets out 

 the smoke." 



Culture. — These plants may be raised in this 

 country by seeds, layers and cuttings of the 

 voting branches. The editor of Miller's Dic- 

 tionary advises that the seeds should be procured 

 from China, and that care should "be taken that 

 t he- v be fresh, sound, ripe, white, plump, and 

 moist internally. After being well dried in the 

 sun, they may be inclosed in bees-wax, or, left 

 in their capsules, they may he put into very 

 close canisters of tin or tutenaguc. Thouin, in 

 his directions to Perousc, he savs, recommends 



Vol. II. 



these and other lecda ■■ d m die-mate 



layi ra of earth or s ind, in tin bo) d up 



exactly, and placed in solid i I with 



n is a cloth ; the boxes to be pli cd in a part of 

 hip the least accessible to moisture-, and 

 the most sheltered from extreme- beat or cold." 

 And •■ Mr.Sneyd," he adds, "was very sua 

 in hai ds packed up in absorbent paper, 



and surrounded by raisins or moist sug.ir, winch 

 kept them in a state fit lor vegetation. Ameri- 

 can seeds are frequently brought over, by put- 

 ting them into a box, not made loo close, upon 

 alternate layers of moss, in such a manner as to 

 admit the seeds to vegetate. This might be- It u il 

 with the seeds of the Tea- tree ; and to succeed 

 more certainly, some of the seeds might be sow a 

 in pots or boxes, when the vessel arrives at St. 

 Helena, and after passing the tropic of Cancer, 

 near the latitude of thirty degrees north. Hut 

 the best method" says he, "seems to be, to sow- 

 ripe seeds in good light earth in boxes, at leav- 

 ing Canton ; covering them with wire, to pre- 

 vent rats and other vermin from coming to them ; 

 and taking care that the boxes be not exposed to 

 too much air, nor to the spray of the sea. A 

 little fresh or rain water should be sprinkled 

 over them now and then ; and when the seedling 

 plants appear, they should be kept moist, and 

 out of the burning sun. If young plants can be 

 procured in China, they may be sent over in a 

 growing state in boxes, forty inches long by 

 twenty broad, and as much in depth, having a 

 few holes bored through the bottom. When 

 the trees arrive here they must be kept in a 

 green-house during the winter, and in the open 

 air during the summer; and if thev come in bad 

 condition, it may not be amiss to plunge the 

 pots into which they are transplanted, in a gen- 

 tle hot-bed, or to set them in the tan-pit, to 

 make them strike and shoot more freely." It 

 is further remarked, that " though the Tea-tree 

 will not at present bear the rigour of our winters, 

 in the open air, yet it is not impossible but it 

 may gradually become naturalized to our climate, 

 like i lie Magnolia, among several other irees 

 and shrubs ; especially it it were to be brought 

 from the coldest provinces of China, where it 

 errow >, or from the parts of Europe a little to 

 the southward o£ua, when it shall have been 

 naturalised there." ft is increased freely from 

 cuttings, when managed in the same manner as 

 Gardenias: and it also sometimes grows from 

 lav i is laid (low n in the autumn or spring. 



Some of these plants should Ik always kept in 



pots, to be removed under the shelter either ol a 



. or deep Garden t< 



m winter: and others be planted in a dry, 



i o 



