182 



Report on the manufacture of Tea, and on the [July 



not open ; and then draws the cloth of the bag over the hall of leaves, 

 thus doubling the bag, the mouth of which is twisted and made fast. 

 The man then stands up, holding on by a post or some such thing, and 

 works this ball of leaves under his feet, at the same time alternately- 

 pressing with all his weight., first with one foot and then the other, 

 turning the ball over and over, and occasionally opening the bag to 

 tighten it more firmly. When be has made it almost as hard as a stone, 

 he secures the mouth well and puts the bag away for that day. Next 

 morning it is open°d out and the leaves gently separated and placed on 

 dollahs, then fire 1 and dried until they are crisp, the same as the Black-. 

 Tea, after Avhieh they are packed in boxes or baskets. In China the 

 baskets are made of double bamboo, with leaves between. The Te x may 

 then remain on the spot for two or three months, or be sent to any other 

 place to receive the final process. This first part of the Green-Tea pro- 

 cess is so simple, that the natives of this country readily pick it up in a 

 month or two. 



The second process now commences by opening the boxes or baskets, 

 and exposing the Tea on large shallow bamboo baskets or dollahs (see 

 former account, fig. 1) until it has become soft enough to roll; it is then 

 put into cast iron pans, set in brick fire-places, the same as described 

 in making the St/ch?e Black-Tea. The pan is m ide very hot by a 

 wood-fire, and seven pounds of the leaves are thrown into it and rub- 

 bed against the pan, with the ri^ht hand until tired, and then with the 

 left, so as not to make the process fatiguing. The pan being placed on 

 an inclined plane the leaves always co>ne tumbling back towards and 

 near the operator, as he pushes them up from him, moving his hand 

 backwards and forward* and pressing on the leaves with some force 

 wiih the palms, k°eping the ends of the fingers up, to prevent their 

 coming in contact with th* hot pan. After one hour's good rubbing 

 the leaves are taken out and thrown into a large coarse bamboo-sieve, 

 from this into a finer on n , and again a still finer one, until three sorts 

 of Tea have been separated. Tru fi s f , or largest sort, is put into the 

 funnel of the winnowing machine, which has three divisions of small 

 traps below, to let th 1 Tea out. A man turns the wheel with his right 

 hand, and with the left regulates the quantity of Tea that shall fall 

 through the wood ~n funnel nb ve, by a wooden slide at the bottom of 

 it. The Tea being thrown from the sieves into the funnel, the man 

 turns the crank of the wheel, and m >ves the slide of the funnel gra- 

 dually, so as to It t the Tea fall through gently, and in small quantities. 

 The blast from the fan blows the smaller particles of Tea to the end of 

 the machine, where it is intercepted by a circular moveable board placed 



