vi AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
August, 1912 
The Stephenson System 
of Underground Refuse 
Disposal 
your and 
Keep garbage 
waste out of sight, under ground or below 
fioor in 
mos al Refuse Receivers 
Sanitary, odorless, fly-proof, a clean back yard, 
a fireproof disposi il of refuse in . 
cellar, factory or garage. 
Underground Earth Closet with port- 
able steel house for contractors, farm 
or camp. 
Nine years on the market. 
to look us up. 
Sold direct. Send for circular. 
C. H. STEPHENSON, Mfr. 
21 Farrar St. Lynn, Mass. 
It pays 
THE aes AL 
_y BIRD BATHS 
will give your garden a new touch and 
add greatly to its charm. 
We make them in large variety to har- 
monize with any surroundings. 
Our new catalog U fully describes them. 
It also contains many illustrations of foun- 
tains, sundials, benches, vases, statuary, 
etc. We will gladly mail it on request. 
The Erkins Studios 
The Largest Manufacturers of 
Ornamental Stones 
230 Lexington Ave., New York 
Factory. Astoria, L. I. 
New York Selling Agents 
Ricceri Florentine Terra Cotta 
RAISING has male me thou- 
sands of dollars on very little 
capital and my spare time only. 
It will do the same for you. 
1 Jl teach you free and buy aJl you raise) Worth $6 a lb. now Yields 
about 5090 Ibs. to the acre. Write for my easy natural method 
T. H. SUTTON 606 Sherwood Ave., Louisville, Ky. 
BILTMORE NURSERY 
Ornamental Shrubs, Hardy Plants, Deciduous and Evergreen Trees, 
Interesting, helpful, informing catalogs sent upon request. 
Box 1284 Biltmore, N. C. 
Details of Building 
Construction 
A collection of 33 plates of scale 
drawings with introductory text 
By CLARENCE A. MARTIN 
Assistant Professor, College of Architecture, 
Cornell University 
This book is 10x!2% inches in size, and 
substantially bound in cloth. Price $2 
MUNN & CO., Inc., 361 Broadway, N. Y. 
HOME BUILDERS— SOME HELP 
Beautiful homes—characteristic homes are not ac- 
cidents, but the outgrowth of careful planning. The 
biggest help in the preliminary steps is obtained 
from a good architect’s book of designs and floor- 
plans from which to cull ideas. 
“DISTINCTIVE HOMES AND GARDENS” 
give endless suggestions, covering evcry phase of | 
building. No. 1—35 designs, $1060 to $6000, $1.00; No. J 
2—35 designs, $6000 to $15000, $1.00; No. 3~Combin- 
ing No.1 and2 $1.50. Stock plans priced in each 
ese 
book. Descriptive circular sent upon request. tN 
mw? (U 
~The Kauffman Compand- i 
620 ROSE BUILDING CLEVELAND, OHIO t 
ie SSseseseses SS25=25 sessed) 
THE CHEMISTRY OF Es 
HE average housewife may make good 
tea or vile, says a writer in Harper's 
Weekly, but in either case she knows noth- 
ing of the inner secrets of the process— 
that is to say, its chemistry. She may, led 
by some fortunate instinct, brew the tea 
only five minutes with perfectly satisfac- 
tory results, or she may even boil it a long 
time, securing a decoction that undoubtedly 
“takes hold” in its awful strength; she may 
talk about Orange Pekoe or Young Hyson 
and green tea and black, but there her 
knowledge ends. 
Surely our forefathers or mothers have 
had knowledge of tea-making long enough 
for this same knowledge to be deep enough. 
Pepys, in his Diary of September 28, 1660, 
wrote: “I did send for a cup of tee, a 
China drink, of which I had never drank 
before.” For a thousand years or so be- 
fore that date the Chinese had _ selfishly 
enjoyed the beverage at home. However, 
the Orient is now more than willing to 
share that pleasure with us. The great 
tea-drinkers outside of Asia—Russians, 
English, and Americans—annually buy more 
than seven hundred million pounds from 
the Orient. 
The tea-plant (Thea sinensis), a shrub 
from three to six feet high, thrives in 
China, Japan, India, and Java, though there 
are a few small groves in Florida and Cali- 
fornia. The leaves are picked three times 
a year—in April, May, and the middle of 
July. The first pickings are the best and 
tenderest and make the finest grade of tea. 
Of these first pickings we are most familiar 
with Pekoe and Gunpowder. “Flowery 
Pekoe” is, in fact, gathered so early that 
the leaves are still covered with down. 
The black teas are Oolong, Bohea, Con- 
gou, Souchong, Caper-tea and Pekoe, and 
among the green teas are Hyson, Young 
Hyson, Hyson Skin, Twankay, Imperial 
and Gunpowder. The difference between 
the two colors is merely in the preparation, 
although of course that affects the analysis. 
Yet it is well known that tea from the same 
shrub can be made into either green or 
black. 
Green teas are steamed thoroughly and 
then rolled and carefully fired. This heat- 
ing kills the enzyme which would other- 
wise cause fermentation. Fermentation is 
desired in making black teas, so in the lat- 
ter process the leaves are rolled in heaps 
and allowed to ferment before firing. The 
Japanese, who export most of their green 
tea for the American trade, steam the leaves 
in a tray over boiling water, then heat them 
on a tough paper membrane over an oven 
and at the same time stir with the hand. 
After this firing the tea is dried for some 
hours and sieved. In the warehouse it may 
be “faced” by heating iin large bowls with 
the addition of certain pigments. 
Our green teas come from China and 
Japan for the most part, while India’s ex- 
ports are largely of black teas sent to Eng- 
land, where they are very popular. 
These Indian and Ceylon teas are much 
stronger than the China product, and the 
English consider it economical to buy the 
stronger grade. 
The tea extract consists essentially of a 
solution of a bitter alkaloid called caffeine, 
an astringent substance called tannin or 
tannic acid, and an essential oil giving 
flavor to the brew. The caffeine in the dry 
tea leaves amounts to two or three per 
cent., while the tannin may vary from four 
to ten per cent. Caffine alone tastes bitter, 
and tannin alone is unpleasantly astringent, 
yet a well-made tea has neither character- 
istic, only a bland, smooth quality. 
Tannin and caffeine, say these scientists, 
unite in the proportion of three to one to 
form caffeine tannate, a compound of pleas- 
ant taste and possibly very different physi- 
ological action from either constituent. 
When the infusion contains more than 
enough tannin to unite with caffeine—that 
is, more than three times as much tannin 
as caffeine—the astringent taste becomes 
evident. On the other hand, if there is 
more than one third as much caffeine as 
tannia, the drink becomes slightly bitter. 
Their conclusion, then, is that an ideal 
infusion contains just three times as much 
tannin as caffeine—exactly the right pro- 
portion to form caffeine tannate. If this 
balance cannot be found the second choice 
is a tea containing a slight excess of caf- 
feine. Such are the China teas. This con- 
ception throws light on the making ot 
“blends.” If a tea a little too rich in tan- 
nin be mixed with one a little too rich in 
caffeine a perfect tea may result yielding 
an infusion with the proportion of tannin 
to caffeine as three to one. The profes- 
sional blenders themselves do not know why 
they secure their results and are guided only 
by the sense of taste. 
TYPEWRITING MACHINES IN 
CHINA 
MPORTERS of American typewriting 
machines report that recent changes in 
Chinese political and commercial organiza- 
tions are increasing their sales. There has 
been a steady increase in the use of type- 
writers among progressive Chinese busi- 
ness houses for some time and the move- 
ment toward modern things generally fol- 
lowing the revolution is stimulating the 
adoption of all such modern business con- 
veniences. Foreign firms in the open ports 
are also increasing the use of typewriters. 
Until recently many of them still cor- 
responded in handwriting and it has been 
difficult to break some of the old and con- 
servative firms away from such methods. 
However, about 500 typewriters are now in 
use among such firms in Hongkong at pres- 
ent and at least 450 of these machines are 
American. Purely Chinese firms are now 
using perhaps fifty machines and more are 
being sold daily. Business college instruc- 
tion in various Hongkong schools is pro- 
ducing a large and increasing force of 
stenographers among young Chinese and 
Eurasian people, so that the possible use 
of typewriters to advantage is greatly in- 
creasing. 
It is difficult to ascertain the exact im- 
portation of typewriters into China. Im- 
ports of such machines in the national cus- 
toms returns are included in other general 
items. Details of imports of such machines 
in various ports show importations of 
typewriters to the value of $48,112 gold in 
1910, of which about 60 per cent. go to 
Shanghai, but these figures are incomplete 
and the valuation is more or less empirical. 
It is probable that imports of typewriters 
into China and Hongkong now reach about 
$100,000 annually and are likely to show a 
notable increase. 
CHICORY 
HICORY, which is mixed extensively 
with coffee in Russia, is scarcely im- 
ported, as the home-grown chicory from 
the central parts of the Empire furnishes 
ample supply. Consul General Snodgrass 
states that the seventeen chicory factories 
are principally in Poland and the Baltic 
Provinces, where the people use coffee to a 
greater extent than Russians in general, 
who are tea drinkers. 
