Proceedings of the Farmers'' Club. 609 



and statements carefully kept of each man's account. Small advances 

 might be made at any time during the month to laborers requir- 

 ing to purchase cattle, or other articles needed by them to add to 

 their comfort, as it is more than probable that, if comfortably settled, 

 they Avill renew their agreements with their employer, a great 

 desideratum to a factory, as new hands take a considerable initiation 

 ere they become proiicient. Advances for local labor might be 

 safely made to such respectable persons who offered to procure 

 laborers at the current rates of the district, such security as they 

 could tender being accepted for the due fulfillment of their contract; 

 or work might be measured off to them to be performed by their 

 own employes at a certain fixed rate, to be paid to the contractor, he 

 making his own arrangement with his work people. 



The advance system, though deprecatory, is advantageous in this 

 respect : That it attracts labor to the estate, and any loss that may 

 be sustained in consequence of breach of contract is more than com- 

 pensated by the additional labor attracted, to say nothing of the sav- 

 ing effected on the other hand, by not being obliged to import all 

 the labor required. 



Manufacture in all its Branches, with Sugoestions fok 

 Machinery. 



Mode of Manitfacturing Black Tea. — The plucking of the leaf 

 having been described in a preceding paragraph, need not here be 

 again commented upon. On delivery of the leaf at the factory it is 

 first weighed and then strewn thinly on the shelves, which line the 

 walls of the tea house, for the purpose of cooling ; when twenty 

 pounds should be issued to each roller, who places it out in the snn 

 to wither, beating and tossing it with his hands, and picking out all 

 coarse and useless leaves. After the leaf is sufficiently withered, 

 which can be ascertained by compressing a handful, if, on opening^ 

 the hand, the leaf has lost its elasticity, it may be considered with- 

 ered ; it must be taken back into the tea house, cooled., and rolled on 

 the tables in small portions, being formed into balls, until all the 

 leaf has been rolled, when the first ball is again rolled and all obsti- 

 nate and unrolled leaves picked out to be afterward mixed with the- 

 coarser teas. The leaf being now ready for the pans is transferred to 

 them and the roasting process commences, the pans being kept at a 

 temperature of 180 degrees. After being roasted for ten minutes,, 

 during which time the leaf must be constantly stirred and tossed. 



[Inst.] 39 



