PICKING. IO3 



pruned, and reason would seem to argue that when this vio- 

 lence is repairing, that is, when the first shoots in the spring 

 show themselves, and until new mouths (or leaves) in 

 sufficient quantities exist, until then but little leaf should 

 be picked. 



Fortunately, moreover, while in the interests of the plant 

 this is the best plan, it also is the mode by which the largest 

 yield of leaf will be secured in the season. I go to show this. 



The ordinary size of a good full-grown Tea plant, at the 

 end of the season, is, say, 3^ or 4 feet high, and 5 feet 

 diameter. It is pruned down, say, to a height of 2 feet, with 

 a diameter of 3 feet. It is then little more than wooden 

 stems and branches, and to anyone ignorant of the modus 

 operandi in Tea gardens, it would appear as if a plantation so 

 pruned has been ruined. The tree remains so during all its 

 hybernating period, that is, during the time it is resting and 

 the sap is down (this period is longer or shorter, as the 

 climate is a warm or cold one, and it is always during the 

 coldest season), but on the return of spring new shoots start 

 out from the woody stems and branches in the following 

 way : At the axis or base of each leaf is a bud, the germ of 

 future branches, these develop little by little, until a new 

 shoot is formed of, say, five or six leaves, with a closed bud 

 at top. Then if it be not picked the said bud at top hardens. 

 At the axis or base of each of the said five or six leaves are 

 other buds, and the next step is for one, two, or three of 

 these to develop in the same way and form new shoots. The 

 original shoot grows thicker and higher until it becomes a 

 wooden branch or stem. The same process, in their turn, is 

 repeated with the new shoots. A diagram (see next page) 

 will make my meaning clear. We here have a shoot fully 

 developed, of six leaves, counting the close leaf a at top as 

 one, viz., the leaves a, b, c, d, e,f. The shoot has started and 

 developed from what was originally a bud at A r , at the axis 



