250 HEAT EMPLOYED IN THE 



required, some vague and general idea may De 

 given, but nothing fixed or positive. There must 

 be no lack of heat, that is the main point ; the 

 management of it must be left to the skill and 

 judgment of the roaster. If excessive, he can 

 compensate for this excess by increased action, 

 or other expedients within his reach ; but if defi- 

 cient, his power is paralysed and his skill lost. 

 Science may suggest much in reference to the 

 maintenance of a fixed and equable temperature, 

 with easy modes of raising or lowering it at pleasure, 

 but the control of it may ever remain dependent on 

 the skill of the operator, unless indeed new methods 

 be discovered, which is by no means improbable. 

 There are many experiments which in due season 

 may be tried in the manufacture of tea, by which 

 similar results may be obtained by less elaborate 

 means ; but the time is not yet arrived. Let it 

 be the object of every cultivator and experimentalist 

 to well introduce and disseminate the Chinese 

 methods before any such experiments be made. 

 These remarks, however, do not apply to simple 

 abridgements of labour by mechanical means. 



On the other hand, Mr. Jacobson states that 

 at Java all tea is roasted at a temperature below 

 the boiling point (ib. § 379.), and it must be ac- 

 knowledged that teas of good quality are now made 

 at Java. Still I am disposed to think that the heat 

 employed there is of too low a temperature, or that 

 some error may exist in that intelligent author's 



