Tea 



159 



out on the level plains. The famous -Uji tea gardens are mostly on the plains. It fre- 

 quently happens that the tea is interplanted with other crops, mulberries and plums 

 being often. grown between the tea bushes, while in one district pears are grown on trellises 

 placed above the tea. The bushes are usually allowed to reach a height of about three- feet, 

 but in the Uji gardens they frequently attain to six feet. A peculiarity of the Uji district is 

 that a large part of the tea is cultivated under artificial shade, the effect being to produce 

 a better quality of leaf of a darker green colour. Bamboo poles are set up at intervals and 

 arranged to support horizontal mats also made of bamboo. After the crop has been 

 plucked the matting and poles are taken down. This shade-grown tea is highly valued 

 by the Japanese, and it is grown exclusively for home consumption. Picking .-usually begins 

 at the end of the third or fourth year and the best leaf is obtained from the eighth to the 

 fifteenth year. The ordinary life of the bush is about twenty-five -years. There are, as a rule, 

 two crops in the year, one in May and the second in the middle of June, after the rains ; a 

 third, crop is sometimes obtained, but the quality of the leaf is very poor. The bushes are 

 pruned after the first. crop, and again during the winter. 



"• In the manufacture of the teas it is interesting to note that in the case of the better-class 

 green, teas, and a considerable proportion of Sencha, no machinery is used, the whole process 

 being carried out by hand, the popular belief being that it is impossible to procure with 

 machinery the delicate aroma produced by the old-fashioned hand methods. For the 

 production of teas destined for the export trade, however, machinery has entirely supplanted 

 hand labour. 



The preparation of the leaves begins as soon as possible after picking, and in the case of 

 Sencha, which forms the bulk of the tea consumed in Japan, the first process is said to be 

 that of steaming. The steam is allowed to act on the leaves for about four minutes, when they 

 are shaken by hand, and spread out on mats to dry. The important procsss of firing now 



A KANGANI SUPERINTENDING THE PLUCKING 



