TEA. 167 



and thirty-third decrees of latitude.* Tea requires a moist ilimate 

 and a light and sandy soil. No manure is given, and no attention 

 is paid to the nature of the soil where irrigation is practicable. 



The shrub is propagated from seed. Several seeds are dropped 

 into holes at the distance of from three to six feet apart, and the 

 plant begins to produce from the third year : the gathering is done 

 by the hand, the leaves being picked off; but a few are always left 

 upon each branch. The number of gatherings made in the same 

 year varies from one to three, according to the age of the plant. It 

 is very seldom indeed that a fourth gathering is practised. In 

 China the tea harvest begins about the middle of April, a period at 

 which the leaf buds appear surrounded by a slight cottony down. 

 The first gathering is very small, but it constitutes the highest- 

 priced tea, the Shou-chun or tea of the first growth. The second 

 gathering takes place in June, when the branches are covered with 

 leaves of a pretty deep color; these leaves are very abundant, but 

 inferior in quality to the buds of the former gathering ; they con- 

 stitute the tea called Urh-chun, or tea of the second growth. The 

 third gathering is performed a month later, and the produce passes 

 by the name of the San-chun, or tea of the third growth. The 

 leaves are now of a deep-green color, tough, and are manufactured 

 into the most common kinds of tea. 



Considerable plantations of tea are now established in Assam, in 

 British India, and in the Brazils, and it seems not improbable that 

 the plant may be cultivated at some future day in Europe. 



According to Guillemin, who studied the cultivation and prepara- 

 tion of tea in the Brazils, the leaves are dried as soon as they are 

 gathered. From four to six pounds are thrown into an iron pot, 

 the interior of which is polished, and which may be somewhat more 

 than three feet in diameter, by about a foot in depth. The temper- 

 ature of the pot is maintained at about the boiling point of water; a 

 negro stirs the leaves in all directions with his hand, until they be- 

 come quite soft and pliant, so that they can be moulded into pellets 

 by movement between the hands. When the leaves are in this 

 state, they are thrown upon a tray made of bamboo, and strongly 

 kneaded for a quarter of an hour, so as to force out a green sap of a 

 disagreeable taste. The kneaded leaves are then returned to the 

 pot, and dried completely, being all the while stirred about with the 

 hand, being separated when they stick together, and being continual- 

 ly tossed up in order to prevent them adhering or getting scorched 

 by remaining too long in contact with the metal. During this pro- 

 cess, which lasts for some half hour, a large quantity of dust is 

 disengaged, which proceeds from the cottony down with which the 

 leaves are covered. By this rapid drying, the leaves crisp and curl 

 up of themselves, and acquire the appearance of the tea that is in 

 every-day use. On being taken from the drying pot, the tea is 

 thrown up )n a. sieve of a certain mesh, and the leaves which have 

 rolled themselves up into the smallest compass, and which are those 



 Bobinson, a Descriptive Account of Assam, p. 13L 



