THE 



THE 



harvest is nearly at the same periods, the natives 

 having frequent intercourse, and their com- 

 mercial concerns with each other being very ex- 

 tensive. 



" The tea leaves should be dried as soon as 

 possible after they are gathered. For this pur- 

 pose public buildings are erected, containing 

 from five to ten, and even twenty small furnaces 

 about three feet high, each having at the top a 

 large iron pan. There is also a long table co- 

 vered with mats, on which the leaves are laid, 

 and rolled by workmen who sit round it. The 

 iron pan being heated to a certain degree by a 

 fire made in the furnace beneath, a few pounds 

 of the leaves are put upon the pan, and conti- 

 nually turned and shifted by the hands till they 

 become too hot to be endured ; they are then 

 -thrown upon the mats to be rolled between the 

 palms of the hands ; after which, they are cooled 

 as speedily as possible. In order that all the mois- 

 ture of the leaves may be completely dissipated, 

 and their twisted form be better preserved, the 

 above process is repeated several times with the 

 .same leaves, but less heat is employed than at 

 first. The tea thus manufactured is afterwards 

 sorted according to its kind or goodness. Some 

 of the young tender leaves are never rolled, and 

 are immersed in hot water before they are dried. 



" Country people cure their leaves in earthen 

 kettles, which answer every necessary purpose, 

 at less trouble and expense, whereby they are 

 enabled to sell them cheaper. 



" After the tea has been kept for some months, 

 it is taken out of the vessels in which it was 

 stored, and dried again over a very gentle 

 fire, that it may be deprived of any humidity 

 which remained, or it might have since con- 

 tracted. 



" The common tea is kept in earthen pots with 

 narrow mouths ; but the best sort used by the 

 emperor and nobility is put into fjorcelain or 

 china vessels. The coarsest tea is kept by the 

 country people in straw baskets, made in th« 

 shape of barrels, which they place under the 

 roofs of iheir houses, near the hole that lets out 

 the smoke." 



Culture. — These plants may be raised in this 

 ettuntry by seeds, layers and cuttings of the 

 young branches. The editor of Miller's Dic- 

 tionary advises that the seeds should be procured 

 from China, and that care should "be taken that 

 they be fresh, sound, ripe, white, plump, and 

 moist internally. After being well dried in the 

 sun, they may be inclosed in bees-wax, or, left 

 in their capsules, they may be put into very 

 close canisters of tin or tutenague. Thouin, in 

 his directions to Perouse, he savs, recommends 



Vol. II. 



these and other seeds to be placed in alternate 

 layers of earth or sand, in tin boxes, closed up 

 exactly, and placed m solid cases, cevered with 

 waxed cloth ; the boxes to be placed in a part of 

 the ship the least accessible to moisture, and 

 the most sheltered from extreme heat or cold." 

 And "Mr.Sneyd," he adds, "was very successful 

 in having seeds packed up in absorbent paper, 

 and surrounded by raisins or moist sugar, which 

 kept them in a state (it for vegetation. Ameri- 

 can seeds are frequently brought over, by put- 

 ting thena into a box, not made too close, upon 

 alternati- layers of moss, in such a manner as to 

 admit the seeds to vegetate. This might be tried 

 with the seeds of the Tea-tree; and to succeed 

 more certainly, sonie of the seeds might be sown 

 in pots or boxes, when the vessel arrives at St. 

 Helena, and after passing the tropic of Cancer, 

 near the latitude of thirty degrees north. But 

 the best method" says he, "seems to be, to sow- 

 ripe seeds in good light earth in boxes, at leav- 

 ing Canton ; covering them with wire, to jire- 

 vent rats and other vermin from coming to them ; 

 and taking care that the boxes be not exposed to 

 too much air, nor to the spray of the sea. A 

 little fresh or rain water should be sprinkled 

 over them now and then ; and when the seedling 

 plants appear, they should be kept moist, and 

 out of the burning sun. If young plants can be 

 procured in China, they may be sent over in A' 

 growing state in boxes, fortv inches long by 

 twenty broad, and as much in depth, having a 

 few holes bored through the bottom. When 

 the trees arrive here they must be kept in a 

 green-house during the winter, and in the open 

 air during the summer; and if they come in bad 

 condition, it may not be amiss to plunge the 

 pots into which they are transplanted, in a gen- 

 tle hot-bed, or to set them in the tan-jiit, to 

 make them strike and shoot more freely." It 

 is further remarked, that " though the Tea-tree 

 will not at present bear the rigour of our winters, 

 in the open air, yet it is not impossible but it 

 may gradually become naturalized to our climate, 

 like the Magnolia, among several other trees 

 and shrubs ; especially if it were to be brought 

 from the coldest provinces of China, where it 

 grows, or from the parts of Europe a little to 

 the southward of us, when it shall have been 

 naturalized there." It is increased freeK' from 

 cuttings, when managed in the same manner as 

 Gardenias : and it also sometimes grows from 

 lavers laid down in the autumn or spring, - -. 

 Some of these plants should he always kept in 

 pots, to be removed under the shelter either of a 

 green-house, glass case, or deep garden frame, ' 

 in winter; and others be planted inadrv, we'A- 

 3 O 



