August i, 1887.! THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
133 
you individually to decide which kiud of tea will suit 
your garden best, but having made up your mind once 
stick to it. Tlie under-fermented rasping kind is the 
easier to make, as you have not to wait long for 
colour, 30 to 50 minutes being sufficient. The tea 
must, however, be fired off very briskly ; for a dark 
thick liquor, three to four hours colouring is required, 
each table of leaf must be examined separately and 
wot rolled for the second time till the desired colour 
has been obtained. Great care is necessary here, as 
leaf colours so much quicker on a hot day than a 
cold, and during the middle of the day, than it does 
iu the morning; the leaf should be a bright deep red 
with hardly any green and the liquors should cream 
thickly when cold. 
Firing. — There is not much to say about this, except 
that in this as in every stage of tea manufacture great 
care must be displayed. Do not fire off at too great 
a heat, let the tea bo thoroughly crisp, do not take 
tea off the fires 15-aimas done,* with the idea it will 
take on the rest, because it won't. It appears to do 
so, hut it ouly dries outside. Let all your firing he 
done over the fires till quite completed. If it is 
necessary to keep one-half fired tea for any time keep 
it very thin and turn over frequently as it is apt to 
steam, in which event all briskness is lost, I refrain 
from entering on the vexed question as to which are 
the best drying machines, as beyond the scope of these 
articles, but if a coke machine is used the tea should, 
if possible, be finished over charcoal. I wish again 
to bring to the notice of every proprietor and man- 
ager the importance, I had almost said, necessity of 
having the tea-house under constant European super- 
vision, so much care is required at every stage of 
the process of manufacture, and so much discretion 
is necessary in adapting the system adopted to the 
different kiuds of circumstances, which, owing to 
weather, and other causes differ almost daily, that 
no native can be trusted entirely to work a tea-house 
to advantage alone. A manager's time is taken up 
so much with accouuts, correspondence, &c, that he 
cannot possibly do justice to the tea-house as well. 
Only really good teas sell now well and such can 
only be had by the utmost care being taken of every 
little detail of the process, the neglect of any one of 
which being most disastrous. 
Don't. 
Most of my readers have probably read the small 
book called "Don'.t" regarding good manners, &c, 
and I will conclude this article with some " Dou'c's " 
aueut tea manufacture. 
Don't put leaf in the tea-house or out in tbe sun 
to hasten witheriug. If you must warm it, put it 
in your dryer. 
Don't imagine that collecting leaf iu great heaps 
near the rolling machines, or that letting everyone 
walk to and fro over it, or that little coolie children 
playing with it improves it. The^e ideas are now 
exploded. 
Don't squeeze all the juice out of tho leaf in roll- 
ing and let it run all over the tea-house, it is now fouud 
best to keep it in the leaf. 
Don't put the rolled leaf into boxes or in heaps 
a foot high to ferment. Sour tea does not sell so 
well now as it used to. 
Don't keep your drying machines or chulas at a low 
temperature to save fuel ; the tea will of ton come 
out quite didl enough without this. 
Don't try and make one batti-tcallah do the work 
of four, better have four men to do the work of 
one. 
Don't put too much faith in the instructions and 
Suggestions frequently appended to brokers' valua- 
tions It's a rise of the blind leading those who can 
Bee. 
Don't trust to your sirdar to give fair samples of 
his previous day's manufacture. A good sirdar always 
tries to please his mister. 
Dout try and work your machinery without oil to 
iaye ezp use; accidents .will happen even in the best 
regulated families. 
Meaning Myth less than complete.— Ed, 
Don't fix your rolling machines so loosely that when 
you start working they look as if they were off for 
a tour round the tea-house. 
Don't boast when you get a broker's report des- 
cribing your tea as brassy, wait till you get the brass 
from the buyer and then talk about it. 
Don't at the beginning of a season, toll all your 
neighbours how much tea you will make and what 
you are going to get for it. Estimates made at tho 
end of a season are most reliable. 
Don't when calculating outturns per acre count your 
ten-year-old tea as not yet in full bearing, the correct 
figures are now published iu the Directories. — Indian 
Planters' Gazette. 
Sweet Lemons. — Sweet lemons are a favourite 
Mexicau dainty. They are the shape, color and size 
of the lemons of commerce, but are sweeter than 
bananas. — Gardeners' Monthly. 
Potato Culture. — Some carefully conducted experi- 
ments have been made in Eoglaud at Ghiswick, which 
Dr. Masters summarises as follows: — 1, earthing up 
produces a crop of more uniform and of superior 
quality, even if less iu quantity; 2, that bending the 
haulms occasions a diminished yield ; 3, that a larger 
aggregate produce is derived from planting whole tubers 
than from the employment of cut sets. — Gardeners' 
Monthly. 
Mum is the Word for Chrysanthemum. — The 
Journal of Horticulture says: — "An American writer 
wishes that ' the name Chrysanthemum could be 
shortened, as it causes some trouble to those who are 
not familiar with botanical names. AVe hear them 
called Oassanthiums, Ohrysantheums, as well as 
Ghrysantumfounas, Chrysauts and Ohryschianthems.' 
To these might be added a daring abbreviation in com- 
mon use amongst English growers — namely, ' the 
Mums.'" As they are jovial flowers about Christmas 
time, some American ladies call them Christmas 
Anthems. — Gardeners' Monthly. 
A Money Lesson from Khubarbs. — Faith is said 
to be the evidence of things unseen, and it is this 
faith that sees money where ordinary eyes cannot, 
that makes the fortune of many a nurseryman and 
market gardener. Everybody has heard of Myatt's 
Victoria, Myatt's Linnisus, Myatt's Prince Albert, 
and possibly other varieties of rhubbarb. The Myatts 
live at Deptford in England. Over, seventy years ago, 
old Joseph Myatt had faith there was money in 
rhubarb. He sent five bunches to Deptford market, 
but two were brought back as unsaleable. Instead of 
getting out of heart he sent ten bunches at the next 
market, and all were sold. He persevered, and finally 
acres on acres were produced, and the immense fortune 
which faith saw was realized. — Gardener's Monthly, 
[Rhubarb grows very well in the hill country, and 
if only someone would tako up the cultivation on 
a large scale, we are sure it would pay handsomely. 
Cwts could be sold every week. — Ed. J 
Coconut Butter. — Liebig devoted a great deal of 
time to experiments to discover a process of making 
a pure fat free from acids or other foreign matter, 
and asserted that tho discovery of such a process was 
a certain fortuue for the inventor. A German pro- 
fessor, Dr. Schliuk, is said to have successfully solved 
the problem, producing from the commou grades of 
coconut oil a brilliant white substinea somewhat 
harder than butter, odourless, tasteless, and containing 
neither acids, water, nor mineral matter. In fact, 
it is a pure vegetable fat, and it is claimed that it 
will prove for culinary and edible purposes much 
superior to butter, lard or tallow, all of which contain 
acids that through heat separate from the fat and 
causo the fermentation and unpleasant odours and 
tastes that are so well known. It is said that dyspeptics 
will find this new substance perfectly digestible, and 
that it will take the place in medicine of cod-liver 
oil iu the treatment of consumption. A factory hat 
been established in Germany for its manufacture ami 
another is in course of erection, and there i* thus a 
prospect that within a few years *' vegetable butter " 
will bo as well and more favourably knowu than 
butterine, butter, and oleomargarine.— Invention, 
