NA TURE 



97 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1897. 



TEA. 



A Text-Book of Tea Planting and Manufacture. By 

 David Crole. Pp. xii + 242. (London : Crosby 

 Lockwood and Son, 1897.) 



THIS handsomely got-up book, although written with 

 too obvious a bias in favour of the produce of India 

 and Ceylon, as distinguished from that of China, is a 

 valuable contribution to the literature of an important 

 subject. Mr. Crole's experience has been mainly gained 

 in the " gardens " and " houses " of Assam, but he has 

 evidently had good opportunities of acquiring information 

 from personal observation of the methods of cultivation 

 and manufacture in other parts of our East Indian 

 possessions. Of China he apparently knows nothing from 

 personal experience, and the value of his strictures on 

 the character of the produce, as well as of the modes of 

 manufacture, of the Celestial Empire may be said to 

 suffer in consequence. The book is mainly written for 

 the benefit of planters, but there is much in it of interest 

 to the general reader who is not insusceptible to the 

 charms of "the sovereign drink of pleasure and of 

 health." The extraordinary growth in the consumption 

 of tea in Great Britain is a significant feature in our 

 social and domestic economy. As it is the fashion just 

 now to compare everything at present with what it was 

 in 1837, it may be interesting to note that whereas in 

 that year the amount of tea consumed in this country did 

 not exceed 30,ooo,(X)olbs., all of which came from China, 

 the quantity now imported is upwards of 230,000,000 lbs., 

 or more than 5^ lbs. per head of population. China now 

 furnishes less than half the amount she sent into this 

 country at the time of the Queen's accession. The 

 import from India, which began in the early 'sixties, now 

 amounts to more than five times that from China ; whilst 

 Ceylon, which has only sent tea into this country to any 

 extent during the last fifteen years, furnishes us with more 

 than three times the quantity of that from China. In 

 other words, China now sends us only about 10 per cent, 

 of our tea, whereas ten years ago she gave us half the 

 amount we then consumed. It is obvious, therefore, that 

 unless China can be induced to abandon her absurdly 

 exclusive policy, her tea trade with and through this 

 country is doomed. 



As is well known, Chinese tea is mainly made from 

 the Thea chtnensis, whilst that from India is the pro- 

 duce of T. assamica. Mr. Crole calls the former variety 

 " a poor, scrubby-lookmg shrub " and " a wretched 

 plant." From his remarks it would appear that the 

 only service that Fortune rendered to the Indian tea 

 industry by the introduction of the Chinese plant was 

 the deterioration of the indigenous seed, giving rise to 

 quantities of hybrids of various qualities, "from very 

 rank stuff to fairly good." According to the author, the 

 most that can be said in favour of the China plant is 

 that it is distinctly more hardy than the Assam variety. 

 We are disposed to believe that Mr. Crole's prejudices 

 affect his judgment. There is no question whatever that 

 some of the finest and most wholesome tea the world 

 produces is to be met with in China. Whether it is to 

 NO. 1466, VOL. 57] 



be met with in this country is wholly a question of 

 price. 



Mr. Crole's account of the rise and development of 

 the Indian tea industry forms one of the most interesting 

 chapters in his book, although here, as in the whole 

 work, he never loses an opportunity of casting a slur 

 upon the China tea plant. This he stigmatises as " the 

 pest of Assam," and its introduction a curse " that at 

 one time seemed as if it would prove as disastrous to 

 Assam as ever the Phylloxera vastatrtx has been to 

 France, or the Hemileia vastatrtx in Ceylon." No men- 

 tion is made of Fortune and his labours — which, what- 

 ever may have been his merits or demerits, is inexcus- 

 able in what purports to be an historical narrative. Full 

 justice, however, is done to Sir Joseph Banks' efforts to 

 introduce the Chinese plant into India as far back as 

 1793, ^"d to the remarkable and accurate knowledge he 

 showed in his selection of suitable stations for its culti- 

 vation. The discovery that a variety of Thea was in- 

 digenous to Assam has been claimed for a number of 

 persons, but, according to the author, the credit indubit- 

 ably belongs to Mr. R. Bruce, who first met with the 

 plant on the hills round Rungpore in 1823. The justice 

 of the award for this discovery, subsequently made by 

 the Government to Mr. Bruce, which gave rise to some 

 little controversy at the time, is thus borne witness to. 



The chapters on cultivation and manufacture, although 

 perhaps too technical for the ordinary reader, are un- 

 doubtedly the most valuable in the work. They are 

 based upon the author's individual experience and upon 

 a comparison of the methods employed in different parts 

 of the various provinces, not only in Assam proper, in 

 Cachar and Sylhet, but also in the Dooars and Darjeeling 

 districts of Bengal, in the Punjab, in Madras and irv 

 Ceylon. They are, of course, of special interest to the 

 planter, by whom they will doubtless be studied with the 

 attention they merit. It is, however, noteworthy that 

 certain minor details of manufacture, especially the 

 operation of sorting, as usually conducted, have only 

 served to confirm the author's inherent dislike to the 

 beverage ; for he tells us, with a perfect candour, that he 

 never drinks tea by any chance — but rather wishes to be 

 transported, with Pope's Belinda, to some isle where 

 "none e'er drink Bohea." 



Perhaps the least satisfactory portions of the book are 

 those relating to the chemistry of tea during growth 

 and manufacture. The subject is no doubt beset with 

 difficulties, and although the author, with the assistance 

 of Prof. Bayne, has evidently done his best, the result 

 compares somewhat unfavourably with the rest of the 

 work. To be told that tea contains organic acids, and 

 that organic acids in their turn "contain the carboxyl 

 group radical (COOH)," which is all the information 

 vouchsafed, is not instructive to the average man, and not 

 worth the telling to the chemist. Nor even if its con- 

 struction were to be amended, is any precise information 

 to be extracted from the following sentence. " \'olatile 

 oils . . . consist of two parts : (i) solid stearopton, 

 and (2) liquid oleopton ; all contain decone (CjoHig), 

 which is a member of the turpene series of hydrocarbons, 

 or some polymer, and are obtained by distillation with 

 water." The author appears to be somewhat sceptical 

 as to the identity of caffeine with theine, and sees in the 



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