232 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



I will consider the machines invented for each process, 

 in the order of the said processes. 



Plucking. No machine has ever been invented for this, 

 and I do not think any is possible. 



Withering. In any but continued wet weather no arti- 

 ficial means are necessary. The leaf, spread thinly and 

 exposed to the action of the air below and around (former 

 attained by any kind of mesh), withers perfectly." In con- 

 tinued wet weather artificial means are sometimes required. 

 The various Dryers in use (see further on) are sometimes 

 supposed to furnish the means, but their use necessitates 

 much labour, nor is the result satisfactory. A good 

 withering machine (it must be on a large scale) might, I 

 think, be easily invented ; there is none at present. 'Why 

 do none of the inventors of other Tea machinery try to 

 succeed in this ? 



Sorting Green Leaf. This is sometimes attempted in a 

 rough way by the use of sieves of different meshes. To 

 separate the fine from the coarse leaf, and in some cases to 

 eliminate the Pekoe tips, is the object. A machine by John 

 Greig and Co., of Edinburgh, professes to do the latter. 

 I have never seen it, but I doubt any machine abstracting 

 the Pekoe tips alone. A machine which would, however, 

 separate the fine from the coarse leaf previous to rolling is, 

 I think, quite feasible, and it would conduce much to good 

 Tea. This, again, is an opening for inventors. 



Rolling. This is perhaps the most important of all 

 processes in Tea manufacture. The object of it is to 

 break the cells in the Tea and liberate the sap (fermentation 

 could not take place otherwise), and further to give a tight 



* In wet weather especially the warm air generated in the factory by the 

 fires in it helps the process. 



