62 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [FT. II 



each coolie recorded, the wages depending partly on the amount 

 plucked. 



After the leaf has been weighed it is taken to the upper 

 floor of the factory and thinly spread out on light openwork 

 shelves of canvas known as tats, to wither. In good weather 

 it becomes limp and flaccid in about 18 hours, but in wet 

 weather artificial heat is employed and a current of warm dry 

 air drawn through the withering loft. The properly withered 

 leaf is next thrown down through shoots into the rollers or 

 rolling machines on the ground floor. A roller consists essen- 

 tially of a table with a central depression to hold the leaf, and 

 a hopper above it, the two moving over one another with an 

 eccentric motion. Pressure to any required extent can be put 

 upon the mass of leaf that is being rolled, and at the end of an 

 hour or so the door in the bottom of the table is opened, and 

 the " roll " falls out, the leaves all twisted and clinging together 

 in masses, which are then broken up in a machine called a roll- 

 breaker, to which is usually attached a sifter that separates the 

 coarser leaf from the finer. After this the leaf is piled in 

 drawers or on mats to ferment or oxidise, with free access of air. 

 This process is omitted in the manufacture of green tea. In 

 a couple of hours or so, depending upon the weather, the leaf 

 assumes a coppery colour, and gives out a peculiar smell. Ex- 

 perience is required to determine the exact point at which to 

 stop the fermentation and place it in the firing or drying 

 machines. There are many types of these machines, but all 

 act by passing a current of hot dry air through the damp 

 fermented leaf till it is dry and brittle, when it is removed and 

 sorted into grades by a machine composed of a series of moving 

 sieves of different sizes of mesh. Finally it is bulked (i.e. the 

 whole mass of each grade made on one or more days is 

 thoroughly mixed together, so as to secure as great uniformity 

 of quality as is possible), packed in lead-lined boxes of about 

 100 Ibs., soldered up, labelled with the name of the estate, and 

 despatched to the port for shipment. 



The grades of tea usually prepared in Ceylon and India are 

 known (in order of quality and value) as orange pekoe, pekoe, 

 pekoe-souchong, souchong, congou, and dust. 



