CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION. 59 



leaves be fermented without previously going through 

 this process, the tea will be too pungent and bitter. 

 The fluid driven out through the holes is of a green- 

 ish, semi-viscid nature, the quantity expelled from the 

 leaves being considerable. Properly evaporated, the 

 leaves when pressed in the hand return to their regular 

 shape, the stem bending double without breaking. 



The process of fermentation is accomplished by next 

 emptying the leaves into bamboo baskets and covering 

 them with cotton or felt mats, to cause a retention of 

 heat and hasten the fermentive changes. Having been 

 allowed to stand in this condition, the time requisite for 

 this process, being learned only by experience, being more 

 rapid in dry, warm weather than in cool and damp. If 

 the leaves be allowed to remain in a heap after evaporat- 

 ing, so that heating by natural fermentation should 

 occur, the tea will be greatly injured. The process is 

 stopped by emptying the leaves and spreading them 

 out on large mats, exposed to the sun's rays. The effect 

 of proper fermentation is to make the tea richer, smoother 

 and more pleasing in flavor. Tea in this respect being 

 like tobacco, which if dried over a fire when first cut, 

 becomes so sharp and bitter as to sting the tongue. 



During the process of " sunning " the leaves are tossed 

 up and turned over repeatedly, so that the whole may 

 be diffused and thoroughly permeated by the sun. With 

 bright sunshine one hour's exposure is sufficient, after 

 which they are ready for the final processes of firing 

 and curling. One of the results of the sunning process 

 is to evaporate in a greater degree the properties that 

 produce nervousness or wakefulness in the tea. 



As in the case of its botanical classification, much error 

 and confusion for a long time existed with regard to the 

 production of the varieties known to commerce as Green 



