32 TEA 



leave the path and strike off at an angle into the heart 

 of one of the plots where the pluckers are at work. 



You have noticed at a glance that most of the 

 pluckers are women and girls, and I expect you are 

 thinking that their work is very easy. If by easy, you 

 mean " Ught," so far you are right. But if you are 

 imagining that anyone could gather tea-leaves, without 

 any training, without any intelligence, with no quali- 

 fication except an uncrippled body and at least one 

 hand, you are very much mistaken. Gathering tea- 

 leaves is skilled labour ; and if it is unskilfully or care- 

 lessly performed the quality of tea prepared from the 

 crop will be impaired. 



The harvest has to be gathered from the young 

 leaf-shoots of the tea-plant, and from these only the 

 top must be nipped off at a particular spot. When 

 the pluckers are told that a " fine plucking " is re- 

 quired, they must take only the bud and two leaves, 

 that is to say, pluck just below the second leaf — under 

 special instructions, only the bud and one leaf are 

 gathered ; for a " medium " plucking, the bud and 

 three leaves are taken ; for a " coarse " plucking the 

 break is made just below the fourth leaf. The bud 

 gives the tip, which is the finest tea. From the 

 youngest, and tenderest, leaves the " Pekoe " class of 

 teas is made. " Souchongs " and " Congous " are 

 prepared from the coarser leaves. 



The young leaf-shoots of the tea-plant are called 

 the " flush." The first flush is the original growth ; 

 the second flush is the growth from the axil, or armpit, 

 between leaf and stalk on a first shoot that has had its 

 head nipped off ; the third flush shoots out from the 

 decapitated second, and so on. The first flush is 



