TEA MACHINERY. 239 



not this be rectified by making the faces of the rollers of porcelain or 

 iron (like camp crockery) and the drums of opaque coarse glass ? 

 Both these, if they would stand, could easily be washed quite clean. 



I give the idea, given to me, for what it is worth, and would invite 

 the opinion of other planters on it. EDWARD MONEY. 



Darjeeling, November loth, 1880. 



Fermenting is the next process in the list. After the leaf 

 is rolled it is put together ; some make it up in truncated 

 balls, some put it in baskets, but in either case it is allowed 

 to stand until a given amount of fermentation has set in. 

 This is done in the warm atmosphere of the factory. Natu- 

 rally no machine is required for this process ; but shelves, 

 at varying height from the factory floor, are useful to 

 regulate the fermentation, inasmuch as the higher the shelf 

 the warmer the air, and warmth hastens the process. This 

 plan of shelves was devised by Mr. J. Fleming, at the Phool- 

 barry Garden, and it seemed to me to answer well. 



Drying or Firing comes next. Up to this point the leaf 

 is of a brownish green colour, and soft. After the drying it 

 is black and crisp, in fact, made Tea. By the drying process 

 all the moisture in the mass is driven off. For many years 

 charcoal only was used to fire Tea, and it was an established 

 belief that the fumes given out by the said charcoal had some 

 chemical effect on the Tea in fact, that good Tea could 

 not be made without it. When, twelve years ago, I pub- 

 lished the First Edition of this Essay, I had begun to doubt 

 the soundness of the above belief, and four years later I had 

 thoroughly satisfied myself of its fallacy. It was not, how- 

 ever, till 1877-78 that I devised a means of firing Teas 

 without charcoal. The invention was well received, and 

 thought well of. At all events, it proved what I had long 

 urged viz., that any fuel, if contact with the smoke was 

 avoided, would dry Tea. My invention was a very crude 



