Il6 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



An ingenious planter, a Mr. McMeekin, in Cachar, in- 

 vented a rolling table with the object of separating the said 

 leaves. It is constructed of battens, and while rolling the 

 leaf on it, many of the small leaves fall through. The said 

 table is now well known in Cachar, and is in use in several 

 gardens. I have tried it and find that it in a great measure 

 answers its object, but the objection to it is that the leaf 

 must be rolled lightly, and lightly-rolled leaf, as observed, 

 does not make strong Tea. 



The Pekoe tips may be, in a great measure, preserved 

 by rolling all the leaf lightly on a common table. But then 

 again the Tea is weak, and the plan will not give so many 

 Pekoe tips as McMeekin's table. 



In short, in the present state of our knowledge, except by 

 the hand process (a tedious and expensive one for separating 

 the leaf), strong Teas and Pekoe tips are incompatible. 



The difficulty is just where it was, and will so remain 

 until dealers give up asking for Pekoe tips (not a likely 

 thing), or till a machine is invented to separate quickly and 

 cheaply the two said small leaves from the others after they 

 have been all picked together. That such a machine is 

 possible I am certain, and the inventor would confer a boon 

 on the Tea interest far beyond the inventor of any other 

 machine, for all the other processes can be done by hand 

 without much expense, this cannot. 



I may here notice such machines and contrivances as 

 exist for cheapening the manufacture of Tea, or rather such 

 as I know of. 



Rolling-machines have for their object the doing away with 

 hand labour entirely for rolling the leaf. Kinmond's rolling- 

 machine is first on the list, for it is the best yet invented.* 



* It was the best, but is superseded by a new rolling-machine (Jackson's) 

 I have seen quite lately. 



Note to Third Edition. Jackson's rolling-machine, by a late Calcutta 



