Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN ASIA. 



157 



970. The gathering of the leaves is performed with care and selection. The leaves 

 are plucked off one by one : at the first gathering only the unexpanded and tender are 

 taken ; at the second, those that are full grown ; and at the third, the coarsest. The 

 first forms what is called in Europe imperial tea ; but of this and other names by which 

 tea is designated, the Chinese know nothing ; and the compounds and names are sup- 

 posed to be made and given by the merchants at Canton, who, from the great number of 

 varieties brought to them, have an ample opportunity of doing so. These varieties, 

 though numerous, and some of them very different, are yet not more so than the dif- 

 ferent varieties of the grape ; they are now generally considered as belonging to one 

 species ; the Thea Bohea, now Camellia Bohea (Jig. 127. a), of botanists. Formerly it was 

 thought that green tea was gathered exclu- 

 sively from Camellia viridis ; but that is now 

 doubtful, though it is certain there is what 

 is called the green tea district, and the black 

 tea district ; and the varieties grown in the , 

 one district differ from those grown in the 

 other. Dr. Abel could not satisfy him- 

 self as to there being two species or one ; 

 but thinks there are two species. He was 

 told by competent persons that either of the ^ 

 two plants will afford the black or green tea 

 of the shops, but that the broad thin-leaved 

 plant (C. viridis) is preferred for making the 

 green tea. 



971. The tea leaves being gathered are 

 cured in houses which contain from five to 

 ten or twenty small furnaces, about three 

 feet high, each having at the top a large flat iron pan. There is also a long low table 

 covered 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 little fire made in the furnace 

 underneath, a few pounds of the fresh-gathered leaves are put upon the pan ; the fresh 

 and juicy leaves crack when they touch the pan, and it is the business of the operator to 

 shift them as quickly as possible with his bare hands, till they become too hot to be easily 

 endured. At this instant he takes off the leaves with a kind of shovel resembling a fan, 

 and pours them on the mats before the rollers, who, taking small quantities at a time, 

 roll them in the palms of their hands in one direction, while others are fanning them, that 

 they may cool the more speedily and retain their curl the longer. This process is 

 repeated two or three times or oftener, before the tea is put into the stores, in order that 

 all the moisture of the leaves may be thoroughly dissipated, and their curl more com- 

 pletely preserved. On every repetition the pan is less heated, and the operation performed 

 more slowly and cautiously. The tea is then separated into the different kinds, and 

 deposited in the store for domestic use or exportation. 



972. The different sorts of black and green are not merely from soil, situation, and age 

 of the leaf: but, after winnowing the tea, the leaves are taken up in succession as they 

 fall ; those nearest the -machine, being the heaviest, form the gunpowder tea ; the 

 light dust the worst, being chiefly used by the lower classes. That which is brought 

 down to Canton undergoes there a second roasting, winnowing, packing, &c., and 

 many hundred women are employed for these purposes. 



973. As moi-e select sorts qf tea, the blossoms of the Camelba Sasanqua [fig. 127. b) appear to be 

 collected ; since they are brought over land to Russia, and sold by Chinese and Armenians m Moscow at a 

 great price. The buds also appear to be gathered in some cases. By far the strongest tea which Dr. 

 Abel tasted in China, was that called Yu-tien, used on occasions of ceremony. It scarcely coloured the 

 water, and on examination was found to consist of the half-expanded leaves of the plant. 



974. As substitutes for tea, used by the Chinese, may be mentioned a species of moss common to the 

 mountains of Shan-tung ; an infusion of ferns of different sorts, and, Dr. Abel thinks, the leaves of the 

 common camellia and oil camellia may be added. Du Halde observes that all the plants called tea by the 

 Chinese are not to be considered as the true tea plant ; and Kaempfer asserts that in Japan a species of 

 Camellia, as well as the Clea frigrans, is used to give it a high flavour. 



975. The oil-bearing tea plant {Camellia, oleifera) is cultivated for its seeds, from which 

 an oil is expressed, in very general use in the domestic economy of China. It grows 

 best in a red sandy soil ; attaining the height of six or eight feet, and producing a pro- 

 fusion of white blossoms and seeds. These seeds are reduced to a coarse powder, either 

 in a mortar by a pestle acted on by the cogs of a 

 water-wheel (Jig. 128.), or by a horizontal wheel, 128 



having small perpendicular wheels, shod with iron, 

 fixed to its circumference, and acting in a groove 

 lined with the same metal. The seeds, when 



ground, are stewed or boiled in bags, and then 



pressed, when the oil is yielded. The press is a hollow cylinder, with a piston pressed 



