94 JOUKNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



working at right angles to each other. Briefly it may be said that the 

 lighter the rolling, the more juice remains in the cells, and alight-coloured 

 tea is obtained in which the whitish colour of the immature tip-leaf is 

 only slightly stained, thus giving a pretty-looking tea full of " golden tip." 

 If the rolling be hard, much juice is pressed out, and a much darker 

 liquor is obtained from the finished tea, mth more " body " but less pun- 

 gency and containing less ^' golden tip." The time taken for this process 

 varies from a quarter of an hour to an hour or more. Sometimes the 

 rolling is partly carried out and the leaf sifted through rotating sieves. 

 The finer portions (containing most of the "golden tip ") are not again 

 put into the machine, while the coarser portions are subjected to a second 

 rolling under high pressure. 



Fermentation. — The juice squeezed on to the surface of the rolled and 

 broken leaf is readily acted on by the air. This naturally, therefore, leads 

 to the so-called fermentation process. Before rolling is complete the 

 edges of the leaves and the ends of the stalks have begun to change from 

 green to a brown colour and to assume a peculiar smell. These are the 

 signs of the commencement of fermentation, which is continued for four 

 to six hours, according to requirements and conditions. For this purpose 

 the rolled leaf is spread out on a specially prepared floor or table in a 

 layer of from one to two inches deep. It is kept cool and perfectly clean. 

 It rapidly turns brown and commences to smell like finished tea. The 

 exact time or degree of fermentation required has to be determined by the 

 skill of the manufacturer, and it is then of a coppery-brown colour. The 

 changes that have taken place are even now very obscure and need not 

 be here discussed. 



Fermentation being complete, the product must now be dried off or 

 fired, and this operation has to be done as rapidly as possible. Formerly 

 this was clumsily accomplished over open fires ; now it is brought about 

 within machines that make use of a current of hot air drawn over the tea 

 for that purpose. The firing usually i§ commenced at a high temperature, 

 the air entering the machine at 220° to 240° F. When the drying is 

 about three-quarters completed a somewhat lower temperature is employed 

 from 180° to 200°. It is imperative that the drying be expeditiously accom- 

 plished, since if protracted much of the pungency of the tea is lost. 



Grading. — After drying the tea is graded. The trade names for the 

 chief grades are those given originally to the Chinese teas, such as Orange 

 Pekoe, Pekoe, Souchong, Congu, &c. Thus the unopened tip (or bud) and 

 the first opened leaf constitute the Orange Pekoe, the next lower grade is 

 the Pekoe, then the Souchong, &c. The grade names do not, however, 

 necessarily represent any particular part of the plant, still less are they 

 the names of the teas of different plants. The grading is accomplished by 

 certain sieving, or assortment by size, together with breakers or equalisers, 

 in which the coarse leaf is broken down to a uniform length. 



Packing is done now almost exclusively by patented machines. The 

 chests are always lined with lead sheeting, since tea is exceedingly liable 

 to absorb moisture from the air and then rapidly becomes mouldy. It is 

 accordingly packed while gtill hot. 



Green Tea. — For many years, writes Dr. Mann, the manufacture of 

 green tea in India may be said to have died out, except in Kangra and 



