9 6 CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION. 



and considering that the use of tea is universal among 

 its inhabitants, an average of five pounds per capita 

 would not be an overestimate, making a total of two billion 

 pounds alone for home consumption. Again averaging 

 the product at 100 pounds of cured tea per acre and the 

 total area under tea cultivation at 20 million acres, if, 

 therefore, we admit the home consumption of tea in 

 China to be two billion pounds, we cannot but be sur- 

 prised at the relatively small quantity which is exported 

 from that country. According to the latest statistics, we 

 find that the total exports to all countries from China 

 does not exceed 200 million pounds, which is less than 

 one-tenth of the total production of that country. 



Tea is grown for commercial purposes all over the 

 Japanese islands, from Kiusiu in the south to Niphon in 

 the north, but both in quantity and quality of their 

 product the central provinces of Hondo are the finest, 

 particularly that produced in the districts on the coast 

 provinces of the interior sea. The tea soil of Japan is 

 described as slate atmospherically dissolved with gypsum 

 and phosphoric acid, produced by manuring. The system 

 of cultivation and methods of preparation do not differ ma- 

 terially from those of the Chinese, the first picking, which 

 is the best, occurring about the beginning of May, the 

 second a month later, the third is often, however, omitted 

 altogether, in order not to injure the plants. In Japan the 

 raw leaves are generally sold to the exporters, by whom 

 they are prepared and converted into the several descrip- 

 tions known to commerce. 



When a sufficient quantity has been accumulated they 

 are carried to the hong or " drying house " and first placed 

 in large bamboo baskets, in which they are subjected to a 



