1839.] extent and produce of the Tea Plantations in Assam. 517 



and nothing against it. After a year's instruction under Chinamen, it 

 might be left to the ingenuity 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 sulphate of lime overboard. 

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

 towards 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 Eng- 

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



Now for a word about the Lead-canister maker, who is a very im- 

 portant man in our establishment; for without him, we could not 

 pack our Teas. — On two tiles about an inch thick and sixteen inches 

 square, is pasted, on one side, a sheet of very fine thick paper, said 

 to have been made in Cochin-China, over this another sheet is pasted 

 only at the edges. The paper must be very smooth, and without any 

 kind of hole, knob, or blemish. To make it answer the purpose better, 

 fine chalk is rubbed over it. The tiles thus prepared are laid one 

 over the other and moved backwards and forwards, to ascertain if they 

 work smoothly. The lower tile rests on two pieces of wood, about 

 four inches in thickness, and the exact length of the tile. The room 

 where the sheets of lead are made must be very smooth and level, as the 

 tiles are apt to break when there is any unequal pressure on them. In 

 the corner of the room there is a sunken brick fire-place, the up- 

 per part of which rises just a little above the floor; into this fire- 

 place is inserted one of the cast iron pans used for making Tea, 

 and in one corner of the masonry is a vent hole on which in general 

 a Tea-kettle stands. The pan is heated by a wood fire; an iron 

 ladle with a handle, about six or eight inches long, answers the 

 purpose of taking the lead out of the pan when required. The pan 

 may hold about twenty pounds. There is also another ladle 

 with a long handle, and holes at the bottom, to take the dross off. 

 When lead for the sides of the boxes is required, the proportion of 

 one maund of lead to five seers of tin is put into the pan. When 

 well melted and freed from dross, the two tiles above mentioned are 

 placed on the two pieces of wood, one piece being nearly under the 

 centre, and the other at the edge of the lower tile; the upper tile is 

 placed on the lower tile even and square, projecting perhaps a little 

 backward towards the operator. The tiles being thus placed near the 

 melted lead, the Chinaman squats down on them, placing his 

 heels near the edge, with his toes towards the centre ; while with 

 his left hand he lays hold of the corner tile, and with the right 

 holds the short ladle, which he dips into the boiler, and takes out 



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