TEA 159 



excess. The amount of phosphoric acid and potash appears 

 to have an important influence on the flavour. The seed 

 is sown in nurseries, and the plants are ready for transplanting 

 about May. Under old systems of planting the bushes were 

 arranged almost entirely on the square, but it Is becoming 

 more popular now to plant them on the triangular system. 

 By this arrangement a greater number of plants can be put 

 on an acre with the same distance from bush to bush. 

 Incessant hoeing is one of the most important parts of the 

 cultivation. Farmyard manure is not obtainable and bullock 

 dung is scarce and needed for food production, but some 

 form of green manure is often used to take its place. 

 Unpalatable oil cakes are also freely used, but there is great 

 difficulty in obtaining sufficient suitable supplies of organic 

 nitrogen materials, and sulphate of ammonia is used to make 

 up for this deficiency. The tea bush will often last out from 

 forty to sixty years, depending upon the amount of pruning. 

 Frequent light prunings are practised and heav^^ prunings 

 at intervals of every few years. The pluckings are made 

 by pressure, and not by pulling, and the number of leaves 

 taken off at a time will determine the quality of the tea ; 

 the better qualities liaving about three leaves, and the lower 

 qualities about five leaves. The period of plucking is most 

 active during July, August, and September, when the result 

 of the rains produces its maximum moisture in the soil. The 

 tea leaves are transferred as quickly as possible to a withering 

 house, where they are spread out in trays. This place must 

 be kept as cool as possible, and with the greatest possible 

 amount of ventilation, to allow rapid evaporation of water. 

 When the leaf has become sufficiently flaccid it is carried to 

 a rolling machine, which imitates rolling between the palms 

 of the hands as in the original primitive Chinese system. 

 This operation breaks up the cells of the leaf, and allows the 

 different parts of the plant juice to come into contact with 

 one another, so that much of the chemical change which 

 takes place is due to the enzymes which occur in the tea 

 itself, and as little as possible due to bacterial decomposition. 

 The tea is then transferred to the sirocco, or drying machine, 



