50 TEA 



certain important differences in the two classes of 

 estates, I shall incidentally help you to see for your- 

 selves how it is that some of the planters in India have 

 an exceptional! j^ exacting post to fill. 



Grenerally speaking, the hill districts where tea is 

 grown are health}^ — some of them are health resorts. 

 The tea produced in these districts is less in quantity 

 per acre but of finer quality than that from the plains. 

 Although, generally speaking, the plain centres of tea 

 cultivation are much healthier districts than in the 

 days when they were mere jungle-swamps, the climate 

 is apt to play havoc with the health of a white man. 

 In a word, the planter located amidst the plains has to 

 supervise a larger labour force, and look after a bigger 

 crop in order to compete with a hill-estate's planter ; 

 and very often he has to work under exceptionally 

 trying weather conditions. 



I am not taking you to an Indian tea factory, because 

 the whole method of preparing tea for market in India 

 is similar to the method practised in Ceylon. But in 

 justice to India, I must ask you specially to remember 

 that she set the example of manufacturing tea by 

 machinery, and of taking every precaution to supply 

 the consumer with a clean commodity produced amidst 

 wholesome surroundings. 



Now we will hie us to the Celestial Empire, and see 

 how John Chinaman deals with the tea-plant. 



