104 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



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 

 separately. No means have yet been devised to separate 

 them before manufacture from the other leaf, and though 

 sometimes 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 b, 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 f, 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. 



