IO6 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



particular way, make literally white or very pale yellow Tea,* 

 which, mixed with ordinary black Tea, show as " Pekoe tips." 

 In ordinary leaf-picking these two leaves are taken with all 

 the others, but unfortunately, when manufactured with 

 them, they lose this white or pale yellow colour, and come 

 out as black as all the other Tea. 



As the season goes on, this is less and less the case, till 

 towards the end nearly all the a b leaves show orange- 

 coloured in the manufactured Tea. Still they are not white 

 (the best colour) as they can be made when treated sepa- 

 rately. No means have yet been devised to separate them 

 before manufacture from the other leaf, and though some- 

 times picked separate, the plan has serious objections (see 

 next page). In the case, however, of the first two or three 

 flushes the welfare of the plants demands that no more 

 should be taken, and though the quantity obtained will be 

 small, it will, if carefully manufactured so as to make " white 

 Pekoe tips," add one or two annas a Ib. to the value, when 

 mixed with it, of one hundred times its own weight of black 

 Tea! 



More will be found under this head in the Tea manufac- 

 turing part. I now beg the question that the said downy 

 leaves taken alone are very valuable. 



In detailing the mode of picking I advocate, it would be 

 tedious to go minutely into the reasons for each and every- 

 thing. I have said enough to explain a good deal, but will 

 add anything of importance. Of the latter are the following. 



Tea can be made of the young succulent leaves only. 

 The younger and more succulent the leaf the better Tea it 

 makes. Thus a will make more valuable Tea than 6, b than 

 c, and so on ; e is the lowest leaf to make Tea from, for 

 though a very coarse kind can be made from /, it does not 

 pay to take it. The stalk also makes good Tea, as far as it 

 is really succulent, that is, down to the black line just above 2. 



* I mean manufactured Tea. The infusion is called liquor. 



