122 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



made in the province of Fukien, and used principally in India and 

 Australia. It is a black variety, with the taste of green tea. The 

 Congo, — that is, " well-worked," — is also called Bohea, after a 

 district in Fukien. It constitutes the great mass of cheaper black 

 tea, and its poorest sort has been sold in London at threepence per 

 pound. The common black tea of better quality is Souchong {i.e. 

 small, rare sort), to which the Caravan-tea largely belongs. The 

 Pekoe (Pek-ho, i.e. white down) is the finest and dearest black tea. 

 The English expression Pekoe tips better characterizes the un- 

 developed leaflets of the buds, still covered with white down, than 

 the term Pekoe-blossoms used by German merchants — a term 

 against which Kaempfer, even in his day, argued in vain ; for the 

 tea-plant blossoms in autunm, and therefore long after the harvest, 

 hence there cannot be blossoms in any variety of tea, least of all 

 in Pekoe, which is picked first. 



Souchong and Congo are blacker than Pekoe, and yield a darker 

 liquid. It is, moreover, an established fact that the aroma is 

 developed along with the leaves and does not appear until after 

 their preparation. Very young leaves do not contain it. Hence 

 the best Pekoe, despite its high price, cannot satisfy our taste, and 

 must be mixed with Souchong. The better sorts of black tea, 

 especially Souchong, were formerly the only kind exported as 

 Caravan-tea. Being transported by land over cold, dry countries, 

 they could dispense with the final thorough heating in the drying- 

 establishments of the ports, and thus the aroma was better pre- 

 served ; so that they were deservedly celebrated. But since more 

 time has been devoted to preparing and packing tea for shipping, 

 and this is so much more quickly accomplished, the difference in 

 quality has largely disappeared, and there remains only the great 

 difference in price, to the disadvantage of the Caravan-tea. As a 

 consequence, the importation of cheap tea by ship into Russia is 

 increasing steadily, while a falling off in that of Caravan-tea, 

 across Siberia, has long been observed. A Zuibik, i.e. a cubical 

 box, lined with lead, and painted on the outside and marked 

 with Chinese characters, contains usually sixty pounds of Caravan- 

 tea. 



Black tea is produced chiefly in the provinces of Fukien, Kuang- 

 tung, Hupeh, Hunan, and Sz'chuan, the last province also yielding 

 a great deal of green tea and brick tea, for Tibet. Futscheufu 

 and Canton are the principal ports for black tea, though Shanghai 

 and Ningpo export great quantities of it too, besides green tea. 



The preference of the Mongolians for green tea is shared only 

 by North Americans and the upper classes in Morocco. By far the 

 greater number of tea-drinkers in Europe prefer the black, and the 

 foreign resident in Japan (even the tea-exporter) has it sent for his 

 own use from China. The Japanese are well aware that they 

 depend on the American taste for the sale of tea, their most im- 

 portant article of commerce, save one. For this reason their efforts 



