58 CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION. 



this concavity are constantly agitated until the process is 

 completed, finishing the cultivator's work, the leaves 

 being delivered to the merchant or factor in this state. 

 The quantity for a " chop " or shipment being selected 

 according to the quality of the leaf and the district pro- 

 ducing it. The merchant or factor has them picked over 

 by women and children to remove the stems and fibre 

 which still remain attached to the young sprouts before 

 completing its final preparation for the foreign market. 

 The drying, buying and transporting of the leaves from 

 the gardens to the hongs occupies considerable time, 

 during most of which the but partially prepared tea is 

 very much at the mercy of the elements. 



Tea leaves, when first picked, possess none of the color, 

 odor or flavor of the tea of commerce, these properties 

 being developed by the numerous processes to which 

 they are subjected in the operation of curing and firing, 

 and for which the Chinese have a long vocabulary of 

 technical terms. The definition of which, as vouchsafed 

 to the "outside barbarians," are intended more to 

 mystify rather than elucidate the art. The operations 

 of Tea manufacture may, however, be classified in the 

 following sequence: Evaporating Fermenting Sun- 

 ning Firing Rolling; each process having to be 

 carried to a certain specific point, or if under or over- 

 done, the leaf is spoiled and the tea correspondingly 

 injured. 



The partially withered leaves are packed in small cot- 

 ton bags, loosely tied at mouth, and placed in open 

 wooden troughs or boxes perforated at the sides with 

 numerous holes, in which they are pressed and kneaded 

 by the feet, to expel all superfluous moisture, the object 

 being to extract all excess of tannin the principle to 

 which tea owes its bitterness and astringency. If 



