294 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



'40 to 45 per cent, of iron filings and 19 per cent, of silica.' Nor is 

 this lack of delicacy of flavour to be lightly regarded, for the efforts of 

 our manufacturers have been directed unwittingly and indirectly to 

 foster the peculiarity, as the test of Indian Tea has hitherto been its 

 strength and pungency, to fit it for salting weak, thin, inferior sorts of 

 Chinese. This is what the dealers have demanded, and what, 

 consequently, brokers in their turn have insisted on, with the result 

 that the out-turn of our Assam and Cachar plantations is now, if 

 anything, too powerful to suit public taste. Whether means of 

 manipulation may be hit upon by which aroma can be retained without 

 sacrificing strength, we leave those most interested to determine ; but 

 it is worthy of note that this objection to strength and roughness is 

 almost confined to women, the sterner sex preferring Assam unmixed, 

 while the working classes of both sexes are unanimous in favour of the 

 unadulterated Indian article. Experiments were further tried by 

 substituting Neilgherry Tea, and after a short interval the verdict of 

 the majority was in its favour. We need now only point out the 

 difference in the manufacture between the two Teas, leaving others to 

 decide questions regarding the bearing of climate or altitude. Up to 

 the time of finishing rolling, the manipulation of the leaf is identical, 

 care being taken to retain the juice ; but that made on the hills instead 

 of being almost immediately placed over choolas was spread out thinly 

 on tables all night, in a temperature of 54 deg., sustaining consequent 

 loss of strength by evaporation, but developing an aroma that 

 established it at once in favour. So successful has this Neilgherry 

 Tea been at home, that offers are now received by plantation 

 proprietors for their produce at half-a-crown per Ib. free on board, in 

 Madras. This would seem to indicate that the aroma is generated by 

 the action of cold upon the damp leaf while in a state of * suspended 

 fermentation ; ' for, previous to experimenting with consumers, the 

 samples were submitted to Mincing Lane brokers and pronounced 

 sound, in corroboration of which opinion the bulk from which they 

 were taken sold at auction for 2S. 2^., so that fermentation (i.e. 

 sourness) had been carefully avoided. We know that the climate of 

 Assam and temperature of the Tea-houses render the keeping of rolled 

 leaf even for an hour fatal to soundness ; but should the development 

 of this aroma be really due to ' suspension of fermentation' is it not 

 worth while adopting some contrivance for cooling down a chamber 

 set aside for the purpose of spreading out the rolled leaf to the 

 temperature required ? 



