524 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



CULTUBB AND 



USE OP TEA. 

 EA has now become 

 almost a necessity 

 of life in nearly 

 all portions of our 

 country. It is 

 found at noon and 

 at night on most 

 of the tables in 

 not only private 

 families, but at the 

 hotels. 



It has been in 

 use but a compara- 

 tively short time. 



even in England ; and was wholly unknown to 

 the Greeks and Romans. In 1660, a duty of 

 eight pence per gallon was laid on the infusion 

 of tea made and sold in the ccfifce-houses in 

 London. An entry in the published diary of 

 Mr. Pepys, secretary to the admiralty, says : 

 "September 25th, 1661, — I sent for a cup of 

 tea, (a China drink), of which I had never 

 drunk btfore." From other sources we learn 

 that the Portuguese had intercourse with China 

 as early as 1517, and were allowed to purchase 

 fallks, porcelain and tea. The Dutch arrived 

 in China for the 6rst time in 1601, but there 

 is no authentic evidence that they or the Eng- 

 lish imported tea into the East during the first 

 half century from 1600. But soon after that, 

 in 1660, its use was beginning to spread. In 

 1664, the Engli^h East India Company brought 

 home two pounds two ounces of it as a present 

 for his majesty. But in 1667 that company 

 gave the first order to their agent at Bantam 

 to send home 100 pounds of tea for the pur- 

 pose of making "presents to their friends at 

 court." The present consumption of tea in 

 England,is more than 51,000,000 of pounds 

 annually. We have no means of knowing 

 what it is in this country, but probably as 

 much more. 



There are comparatively few families now 

 that do not have their cup of tea once a day at 

 least. It is common on the tables of all 

 classes, — on that of the day-laborer, perhaps, 

 more frequently than on that of the rich. 



The tea-tree does not require a tropical 

 climate, but great care is necessary in its cul- 

 tivation. The soil in which it flourishes the 

 best is a decomposition of granite abounding 

 in feldspar. The tea plant is chiefly raised on 



the sides of hills ; and in order to increase the 

 quantity and improve the quality of the leaves, 

 the shrub is pruned so as not to exceed the 

 height of from two to three feet. The leaves 

 are plucked one by one, selecting them accord- 

 ing to the kinds of tea required. The plant is 

 grown for the most part in gardens or planta- 

 tions of no great extent, by persons little 

 above the rank of peasants. The leaves are 

 immediately taken to market, where they are 

 purchased by a particular class of dealers, who 

 dry and otherwise prepare them to be sold to 

 the "tea merchants." The latter complete 

 the manufacture, sorting the teas according to 

 their qualities, give them a final drying, and 

 pack them up in chests. 



Teas of the finest flavor consist of the young- 

 est leaves ; and as those are gathered at four 

 diflferent periods of the year, the younger the 

 leaves the higher flavored the tea, and the 

 dearer the article. 



Some years since a Mr. Reeves, who was 

 for many years the English East India Com- 

 pany's tea inspector, was called before the 

 House of Commons in some matters relating 

 to teas, and said : — 



"The tea plant in China has two distinct varieties, 

 if not species, which respectively jield the black 

 and green teas. The tree is an evergreen. The 

 pickings of the leaves begin in May, when the 

 plant is in the lull leaf, but ready to shoot out 

 other leaves. In the black tea plant, the first 

 shoot, or the bud coming out, then covered with 

 hair, forms the fine and famous pekoe. A few days 

 more growth makes ibe hair begin to fall off; the 

 leaf then expands, and becomes the black-leafed 

 pekoe. Some yourg shoots have fleshier and finer 

 leaves, which make the Souchong; the next best 

 leaves make the Campoi; the next Congou; and 

 the next, and inferior leaves, the Bohea. 



The varieties of green tea appear to originate, 

 not from the staces of picking, like the black, but 

 partly from difference of treatment, and partly 

 from difftrence of soil. 



When a tea merchant buys green tea from the 

 farmer, he subjects it to the following process : he 

 sifts it through one sieve, which takes out the 

 dust, the youyig hyson &r,A the gunpowder, then 

 through another sieve, which passes the small-leaf 

 hyson of commerce ; two other sieves take out the 

 second and largest degree of size, and what does 

 not pass the third, forms hyson-skeri. The teas 

 then undergo the process of tiring in an iron pan, 

 at a great degree of heat, which gives the leaves a 

 lighter twist and brings them up to their color. 

 The tea which passes the first sieve is then rut into 

 a winnowing machine, and the fan blows the light 

 leaf at the further end, and the larger broken leaf 

 at a shorter distance. The heavier teas, as the 

 gunpowder and hyson, fall nearer or farther from 

 ' the hopper, and are separated by the winnowing 

 I machine. When fairly made, the difference be- 

 tween the gunpowder and the young hyson will be 

 I this : the young leaf, which takes the long twist, 

 ' will form the young hyson, and that which takes 

 the round twist will form the gunpowder." 



