62 TEA 



Frequently we find tea-bushes growing in company 

 with other crops, such as mulberries and plums. And 

 in the Uji district the tea-lands have yet another novel 

 spectacle to show us in connection with cultivation 

 methods. Here the tea-bushes are grown under cover 

 for part of the year. A framework of bamboo poles 

 supports a roof of mats, which shades the plants, with 

 the object of inducing them to bear leaves of a superfine 

 quality and of a very dark-green colour. When the 

 crop has been gathered, the sunshade erection is re- 

 moved. 



The tea harvest season in Japan begins about 

 May ; usually, two crops are gathered annually, a 

 second flush bemg ready for plucking towards the 

 middle of June. Sometimes the bushes are picked 

 over a third time, but the resulting crop consists of 

 inferior quality leaves. 



The teas prepared in Japan are, for the most part, 

 green. Commercial instinct and intercourse with the 

 world have taught the Japanese to keep well abreast 

 of the times in the tea industry ; they use modern 

 machinery in the preparation of the bulk of the teas 

 for foreign markets. But such skilled handicraftsmen 

 could hardly be expected to acknowledge the superi- 

 ority of a machine in any industry ; and it must be 

 difficult for a nation that is so cleanly as to be world- 

 famous for its cleanliness to understand why the 

 world-at-large prefers machine-prepared to hand- 

 prepared food supplies. However, since the foreigner 

 demands machine-prepared tea, the Jap in his role of 

 competitor for foreign custom has erected factories, 

 installed machinery, and is on the alert to please the 

 taste and fancy of the public without his gates. But 



