504 Report on the manufacture of Tea, and on the ^June, 



flower-buds more abundantly than ever. Thus it is not unfrequent to 

 see some plants in flower so late as March (some of the China plants 

 were in flower in April) bearing at once the old and the new seeds, 

 flower-buds, and full-blown flowers — all at one and the same time. 

 The rain also greatly affects the leaves ; for some sorts of Tea cannot 

 be made on a rainy day; for instance the Pouchong and Mingeheiv. 

 The leaves for these ought to be collected about 10 a. m. on a sunny 

 morning, when the dew has evaporated. The Pouchong can only be 

 manufactured from the leaves of the first crop ; but the Mingehew, al- 

 though it requires the same care in making as the other, can yet be made 

 from any crop, provided it is made on a sunny morning. The Chinese 

 dislike gathering leaves on a rainy day for any description of Tea, and 

 never will do so, unless necessity requires it. Some pretend to dis- 

 tinguish the Teas made on a rainy and on a sunny day, much in the 

 same manner as they can distinguish the shady from the sunny Teas — 

 by their inferiority. If the large leaves for the Black-Tea were 

 collected on a rainy day, about seven seers, or fourteen pounds, of 

 green leaves would be required to make one seer, or two pounds, of 

 Tea ; but if collected on a sunny day, about four seers, or eight pounds, 

 of green leaves, would make one seer, or two pounds, of Tea ; — so the 

 Chinamen say. I tried the experiment, and found it to be correct. 

 Our season for Tea making generally commences about the middle of 

 March ; the second crop in the middle of May ; the third crop about the 

 first of July ; but the time varies according to the rains setting in sooner 

 or later. As the manufacture of the Sychee and the Mingehew Black- 

 Teas has never been described, I will here attempt to give some idea 

 how it is performed. 



Sychee Black-Tea. The leaves of this are the Souchong and Pou- 

 chong. After they have been gathered and dried in the sun in the usual 

 way (see my former account of Black-Tea) 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. Thus the pan being placed on an in- 

 clined plane, the leaves, when tossed about in it cannot escape behind, or 

 on 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. 

 When the bottom of this pan has been 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 



