CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION. 115 



cultivation in Ceylon has made steady progress if not 

 rapid strides. 



The plant chiefly grown in Ceylon is a hybrid the 

 Manipur or indigenous tea of Manipari (India) is also 

 extensively planted there, being equally hardy and suit- 

 able to the soil of the island, which is of a light, sandy 

 nature, thickly intermixed with iron-sandstone, this min- 

 eral being peculiarly attractive to the tea-plant. The 

 methods of cultivation and preparation are similar in 

 every respect to those in vogue in India. The land is 

 carefully drained and weeded, the trees are not allowed 

 to grow too high, being reduced to a bushy form and 

 picked when they are from two to three years old, 

 according to site and elevation, and the tea prepared from 

 the tender shoots only, caution being exercised not to 

 injure the plants or future flushes checked. 



Picking the leaf is carried on all the year round in 

 Ceylon, except during pruning time, when the plants do 

 not " flush " for two months, with which exception they 

 flush every week, from each shoot of which the two top- 

 leaves with the young shoot and half the third or coarser 

 leaf are only plucked at a time. At 4 o'clock each 

 evening the day's " picking " is carried to the factory and 

 the leaves laid out on the " withering " mats, which are 

 stretched one above the other from poles or racks until 

 the next morning, when the leaf is sufficiently evaporated, 

 being rendered soft, pliable, and easy to roll by that time. 

 The next process, that of " Rolling," is one to which 

 special attention is paid, as it is mainly to this system 

 that the quality of the tea depends. The previously 

 withered leaves are put into the roller, which is operated 

 by hand or steam power, 100 pounds at a time placed 

 in an upper box of the machine and pressed down with 

 weights on the table or lower portion of the machine. 



