92 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. Y. 



a fit state for transplanting. This is always done at 

 the change of the monsoon in spring, when fine warm 

 showers are of frequent occurrence. They are planted 

 in rows about four feet apart, and in groups of five or 

 six plants in the row. The distance between each 

 group or patch is generally about four feet. The 

 first crop of leaves is taken from these plants in the 

 third year. When under cultivation they rarely 

 attain a greater height than three or four feet. 



When the winters are very severe the natives tie 

 straw bands round the bushes to protect them from 

 the frost, and to prevent it and the snow from 

 splitting them. 



In my former work * I offered some remarks upon 

 the preference which many persons in Europe and in 

 America have for coloured green teas, and I will 

 now give a " full and particular account" of the 

 colouring process as practised in the Hwuy-chow 

 green-tea country upon those teas which are destined 

 for the foreign market. Having noted down the 

 process carefully at the time, I will extract verbatim 

 from my note-book : — 



" The superintendent of the workmen managed 

 the colouring part of the process himself. Having 

 procured a portion of Prussian blue, he threw it into 

 a porcelain bowl, not unlike a chemist's mortar, and 

 crushed it into a very fine powder. At the same 

 time a quantity of gypsum was produced and burned 

 in the charcoal fires which were then roasting the 

 teas. The object of this was to soften it in order 



* Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China. 



