Cuap. XI.] TWO KINDS OF TEA. 211 
are placed over tubs containing charcoal and ashes. 
The charcoal, when ignited, burns slowly and 
sends out a mild and gentle heat. Indeed, the only 
difference between the two teas consists in the 
mode of firing, the latter being dried less and 
more slowly than the former. The Hong-tsing is 
not so green in colour as the Tsaou-tsing, and I 
believe has rarely been exported. 
After the drying is completed the tea is picked, 
sifted, divided into different kinds and qualities, 
and prepared for packing. This is a part of the 
operation which requires great care, more especially 
when the tea is intended for the foreign market, as 
the value of the sample depends much upon the 
“smallness and evenness” of the leaf, as well as 
upon its other good qualities. In those districts 
where the teas are manufactured solely for ex- 
portation, the natives are very particular in the 
rolling process, and hence the teas from these dis- 
tricts are better divided and more even—although 
I should doubt their being really better in quality — 
than they are in the eastern parts of the province 
of Chekiang. When they have been duly assorted, 
a man puts on a pair of clean cloth or straw shoes, 
and treads the tea firmly into baskets or boxes, 
and the operation is considered complete, in so far 
as the grower is concerned. 
-Thave stated that the plants grown in the dis- 
trict of Chekiang produce green teas, but it must 
not be supposed that they are the green teas which 
are exported to England. The leaf has a much 
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