CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION. 67 



tread-mill dance, until the leaves are tightly compressed 

 into the smallest possible compass. More tea is then put 

 in and pressed down in the same manner until the chest 

 is filled, when the leaden lid is put on and soldered, the 

 chest being nailed, clamped, matted and rattaned later, 

 numerous hands, men and women, being employed in its 

 final packing. . 



Before matting a Chinese character termed a " Chop- 

 mark " is placed on the side of each chest, ostensibly to 

 denote the packer or picking, but although the same 

 " crop " or brand is received year after year from the same 

 shipper it does not necessarily follow that the grade or 

 quality will be the same or even equal to that of the 

 preceding ones. 



The term " chop " in Chinese means contract, and does 

 not, as is claimed, refer to the crop or picking of any par- 

 ticular garden or season. In trade it is applied to a quan- 

 tity of tea frequently composed of the product of differ- 

 ent gardens, or piens (localities) and even districts aver- 

 aged or made uniform in the piens of the Twa-tu-tia 

 by the factors before forwarding to the shipping ports. 

 When a sufficient quantity of a certain specified grade 

 has been secured from several growers to make up 

 a chop, it is carried to a warehouse in the adjacent vil- 

 lage, where it is all mixed together, averaged, refired and 

 packed for the foreign market. The quantity for a chop 

 being selected according to the quality of the leaf and 

 the district producing it, and considering how chops are 

 made up a few piculs from several gardens, often widely 

 apart, they are wonderfully uniform in grade. Still, 

 although year after year the same " chops " are received 

 from the same shippers, it does not follow that the chops 

 of one year or season will be as fine as those of the pre- 

 ceding or of equal quality. It being by no means an 



