AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



47 



PRODUCTION OF TEA IN ASSAM. 



A Report of the Government Tea Committee has recently been presented 

 at Calcutta, and reached this country. It is drawn up by the superin- 

 tendent, Mr Bruce, and is a most interesting and somewhat lengthy docu- 

 ment, which, however, may be seen in full in the Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal, whence we glean a few interesting particulars. " It gives me 

 much pleasure," says Mr B., " to say that our information and knowledge, 

 respecting tea and tea-tracts, are far more extensive than when I last 

 wrote on the subject, the number now amounting to 120, some of them 

 very extensive, both in the hills and on the plains. A reference to the 

 accompanying map will show that a sufficiency of seeds and seedlings 

 might be collected from our tracts in the course of a few years to plant 

 off the whole of Assam ; and I feel convinced that but a very small por- 

 tion of the localities are as yet known. * * « Black tea and green 

 are procured from the same plant, the leaves being plucked in a different 

 state and manner. This has been proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, 

 for I am now plucking leaves both green and black from the same tract 

 and the same tree ; the difference lies in the manufacture, and in nothing 

 else." Mr B. calculates the produce of the year 1839 at upwards of 5000, 

 and that of 1840 at upwards of 11,000 pounds. 



It is often supposed, in this country, that the manufacture of Tea is a 

 very simple process, which is easily effected, and can be performed as 

 well half asleep as awake. This, however, is very far from being the 

 case, as will appear from the following account of the preparation of the 

 Sj/chee Black Tea. After the leaves have been gathered and dried in the 

 usual way, they are beaten, and put away four different times ; they are 

 then put into baskets, pressed down, and a cloth put over them ; when 

 the leaves become of a brownish colour by the heat, they throw out and 

 have a peculiar smell, and are then ready for the pan, the bottom of which 

 is made red-hot. This pan is fixed in masonry breast high, and in a 

 sloping position, forming an angle of forty degrees. The pan being thus 

 placed, the leaves when tossed about in it cannot escape behind or at 

 the sides, as it is built high up, but fall out near the edge close to the 

 manufacturer, and always into his hands, so as to be swept out easily. 

 The bottom being made red-hot by a wood fire, the operator puts a cloth 

 to his mouth, to prevent inhaling any of the hot vapour. A man on the 

 left of him stands ready with a basket of prepared leaves ; one or two 

 men stand on his right with shallow baskets to receive the leaves from 

 the pan ; and another keeps lifting the hot leaves thrown out of the pan 

 into the basket that they may quickly cool. At a signal given from the 

 Chinaman, the person with the basket of prepared leaves seizes a hand- 

 ful, and dashes it as quick as thought into the red-hot pan. The China- 

 man tosses ana turns the crackling leaves in the pan for half a minute, 

 then draws them all out by seizing a few leaves in each hand, using them 

 by way of a brush, not one being left behind. They are all caught by the 

 man with the baskets, who, with his disengaged hand, continues lifting 

 the leaves and letting them fall again, that they may quickly cool. 

 Should a leaf be left behind in the pan by any accident, the cloth that is 

 held ready in the mouth is applied to brush it out ; but all this is done as 

 quick as lightning. The man that holds the basket of leaves watches 

 the process sharply ; for no sooner is the last leaf out of the pan than he 

 dashes in another handful, so that, to an observer at a little distance, it 

 appears as if one man was dashing the leaves in, and the other as fast 

 dashing them out again, so quickly and dexterously is this managed. As 

 soon as one basket has received about four handfuls of the hot leaves 

 from the pan, it is removed, and another placed to receive the leaves, 

 and so on until all is finished. A roaring fire is kept under the pan to 

 keep the bottom red-hot, as the succession of fresh leaves tends greatly 

 to cool the pan. In China these pans are made of cast-iron, and if great 

 care is not taken, they will crack in the cooling; to prevent which, one 

 man keeps tapping the inside of the edge of the pan briskly with a wet 

 broom, while another pours cold water in gently ; thus it cools in a few 

 seconds, and is ready for another batch of Tea. The leaves are rolled 

 and tatched the same as the other Teas, and put into the drying basket 

 for about two minutes. When a little dry, people are employed to work 

 and press the leaves in the hand in small quantities, of ubout one and a 

 half or two rupees weight at a time, for about half a minute; they are 

 then put into small pieces of paper and rolled up. After this they are 

 put into the drying basket, and permitted to dry slowly over a gentle fire 

 for some hours, until the whole is thoroughly dry. This is said to be a 

 very fine Tea, kept for high days and holidays ; but tedious and laborious 

 as the above process is, it is far from equalling in these respects some 

 other kinds (especially the Greens) on which our space does not permit us 

 to say any thing. With one other extract we must conclude this article. 



" In speaking of the trouble and expense attending the second process 

 of the Green Tea making, I beg to observe it appears to me, from what 

 little I have seen of it, that machinery might easily be brought to bear. 

 The Tea half made, (as previously described,) I am informed by the Green 

 Tea Chinaman now with me, is put either into boxes or baskets, with 

 bamboo leaves between ; it then has to make, in this state, a long journey 



by land and water, and then to go one or two months in a boat by sea, 

 before it reaches Canton, where it is laid aside for one or two months 

 more, before it undergoes the second process, making in all about five 

 months from the time it was first prepared — all that is required is to keep 

 it dry. Now, if all this be true, which I have no doubt it is, I see no 

 reason why we could not send it to England, and have it made up there. 

 I rather see every thing in favour of such a plan, and nothing against it. 

 After a year's instruction under Chinamen, it might be left to the inge- 

 nuity of Englishmen to roll, sift, and clean the tea by machinery, and, in 

 fact, reduce the price of the Green Tea nearly one half, and thus enable 

 the poor to drink good unadulterated Green Tea, by throwing the indigo 

 and gypsum (by which Mr Bruce discovered it was coloured) overboard. 

 At all events, the experiment is worthy of a trial, and the first step to- 

 wards it would be to manufacture the Tea at Calcutta ; or, perhaps, it 

 would be better to let the China Green Tea makers go direct to England 

 along with it, and have it manufactured there at once." 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Illustrations of British Birds By H. L. Meyer, London. 



No branch of Natural History has been more successfully cultivated in 

 this country than Ornithology, nor are any animals more generally interest- 

 ing than Birds, which, from the facility with which they may be observed, 

 the diversity of their forms, plumage, and colours, their wonderful mi- 

 grations, and curious habits and instincts, afford pleasing subjects of ob- 

 servation to persons of every rank and age. Several works of consider- 

 able merit have accordingly been issued to the public, giving a more or 

 less extended account of our native and migratory species ; and, at the 

 present day, the number is greater than at any previous period. Of these 

 it will suffice to mention two on an extended scale, one remarkable for 

 its beautiful engravings on wood, and the care with which the distribu- 

 tion of the species in the different districts has been sought out, the 

 other remarkable for containing the only full descriptions of British Birds 

 yet given, together with lengthened accounts of their habits, and many 

 details respecting their anatomy. Mr Meyer's Work supplies a desidera- 

 tum, in presenting coloured figures of sufficient size to give the distinc- 

 tive characters. 



In forming an opinion of this Work, we shall consider it, without re- 

 ference to others on the same subject, simply as consisting of represen- 

 tations of living Birds. It in fact contains " coloured figures of the Birds 

 indigenous to Great Britain, or that visit the British Isles in the course of 

 their periodical migrations." These figures are generally accompanied 

 with representations of the eggs, and sometimes the nests. The female 

 is introduced when her plumage differs much from that of the male, and, 

 in a few instances, the gradations of plumage as connected with age or 

 season are depicted. The figures are drawn on stone, most of them re- 

 duced, the size of the work being royal quarto. 



Examining the plates one by one in their systematic order, we pronounce 

 the first figure, that of the Egyptian Neophron, very poorly executed, 

 being deficient in spirit, in the form of the feathers of the neck, in the 

 details of the bill, and the skin of the head. The Golden Eagle is better in 

 these respects, but the form of the bill, and the curvature of the neck, 

 and the proportional length of the toes, with the form of the scales, and 

 especially the wing, which has the first quill erroneously the longest, are 

 all defective. The White-tailed Sea-Eagles afford a pretty accurate idea 

 of these Birds ; the Osprey is moderately well represented, as is the Jer 

 Falcon ; the Peregrines are good, especially the adult ; the smaller Fal- 

 cons, as well as the Sparrow Hawk and Goshawk, are correct enough ; 

 and of the other Hawks some are good, and some indifferent. Of the 

 Owls, one, the Snowy, is a wretched caricature, representing two ill- 

 stuffed specimens stuck up in the snow, like monuments ill-designed. 

 The Eagle Owl is not much better, but the small species are prettily 

 done. The Shrikes, Thrushes, Accentors, Warblers, Wagtails, Pipits, 

 Finches, Buntings, and in general the smaller Passerine Birds, are re- 

 markably well executed, with some exceptions, however, such a; the 

 Bullfinches, which are among the poorest figures in the work, both as to 

 drawing and colouring, and contrast in both respects with the Pine Bull- 

 finches. The Grouse and other Gallinaceous Birds are tolerable, as are 

 the Pigeons, but many defects might be pointed out in them, as well as 

 in the Waders, which, however, are generally good. The aquatic Birds 

 are less correctly drawn and coloured than the Passerine, and many of 

 them are mere caricatures : the Black Guillemot and Gannet for example. 



It would appear that most of the figures have been taken from stuffed 

 specimens, of which not very many of the larger have been placed in natu- 

 ral attitudes. Some of the smaller figures, however, are very beautiful, and 

 those of the Warblers and allied species are superior to any that we have 

 seen. But if the work, like all other productions of the kind, be full of 

 defects, it undoubtedly has the great merit of not containing a single 

 figure that may not readily be recognised by a person acquainted with the 

 originals. To the student it must prove of great value, for in every case 

 it will enable him to determine the species, unless when a young bird oj 



