MODES DESCRIBED BY MR. FORTUNE. 143 



the sun : some in a coarse and careless manner, 

 doubtless for the use of the peasantry and others ; 

 and some by a laborious and expensive method. 



There is also a mode of manipulating black tea 

 in cloths, as described by Mr. Bruce for the manu- 

 facture of green tea. But the Chinese all agree 

 that this mode is never adopted except with very 

 coarse and inferior leaves, and for the purpose of 

 fraudulent adulteration of good tea. 



It may, perhaps, be expected that I should make 

 a few observations on the modes of manipulating 

 tea, as seen by Mr. Fortune in the provinces of 

 Fokien and Chekiang ; and this appears to be a 

 suitable place. It may be succinctly stated, that 

 the difference in the modes of roasting and drying 

 black and green tea arises from the black tea being 

 finally dried in sieves over a charcoal fire, and the 

 green tea in an iron vessel : and this is an essential 

 difference. The modes seen by Mr. Fortune in 

 Chekiang correspond with this rule, with the excep- 

 tion that a flat basket was used in lieu of a sieve, 

 but there, green teas were produced by both 

 methods. Now if we refer to Fokien, where the 

 same modes were employed, we there find that they 

 produced black teas. Thus it would appear a 

 matter of indifference which of the two methods 

 be adopted, which seems to me to strike the mind 

 at once as a fallacy. It is partly true with respect 

 to black tea, but wholly false as regarding green ; 

 and indeed that the results should be so different 



