HOCKINGS' GARDEN MANUAL. 



153 



TEA. 



The tea plants may be placed on a gentle slope, at 

 the distance of six feet apart. Transplanting may be 

 done in August if the ground is in a favorable condi- 

 tion, and the plants should have shelter and water if 

 requisite until they are established. In China the 

 plants are three years old before the leaves are gathered; 

 there are then three gatherings, at one month apart, on 

 which occasions three classes of tea are gathered. This 

 is performed with great care : the leaves are picked off 

 one by one. At the first gathering, only the unex- 

 panded and tender are taken ; at the second, those that 

 are full grown; and at the third, the coarsest. A picker 

 collects from 30 to 50 lbs. of green leaf per day. 



The tea leaves are cured in houses which contain 

 from five to ten or twenty small furnaces, about three 

 feet high, each having at the top a large, flat iron pan. 

 There is also a long, low table, covered with mats, on 

 which the leaves are laid, and rolled by workmen who 

 sit round it ; the iron pan being heated to a certain 

 degree by a little fire made in the furnace beneath, a 

 few pounds of the fresh-gathered leaves are put upon the 

 pan, and it is the business of the operator to shift them 

 as quickly as possible with his bare hands, until they 

 become too hot to be easily endured. At this instant 

 he takes off the leaves with a kind of shovel resembling 

 a fan, and pours them on the mats before the rollers, 

 who, taking shall quantities at a time, roll them in the 

 palms of their hands in one direction, while others are 

 fanning them that they may cool the more speedily, 

 and retain their curl the longer. This process is re- 

 peated two or three times, or oftener, before the tea is 

 put into the stores, in order that all the moisture of 

 the leaves may be thoroughly dissipated, and their curl 

 more completely preserved. On every repetition the 

 pan is less heated, and the operation performed more 



