March r, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. - 
vhIb in rows, iu which the young tea plauts, which 
meanwhile have been growing in the nurseries, are 
plautud when tho weather admits. The trees are not 
allowed to grow up high, but are from time to time 
pruned down and reduced to bush form, and when they 
an; two or three yoars old, according to the elevation 
at which they are planted, the operation of tea-making 
commences. 
The tea is made from tho tender shoots only : 
generally two leaves and the undeveloped bud are 
plucked • earo being taken not to injure the eyes from 
which future buds may spring, or future flushes may 
be checked thereby. Bach tea plucker is provided 
with a basket iu which he places the leaf, which 
is collected twice a day, and laid out as soon as 
possible till trays iu withering rooms. After sufficient 
moisture has been withdrawn from the leaf, which 
is sometimes done by exposing it to a blast of dry 
air driven in by machinery, the leaf is placed in 
heavy rolling machines, in which it is tossed about, 
all the cellular tissues broken, and rolled up tightly 
as if by the action of tho hund. After this process 
is completed, the leaf is taken from the rollers and 
placed in small heaps on tables, where it undergoes 
a process of fermentation, the colour changing from 
green to a bright bronze. When sufficiently fer- 
mented, the leaf is passed through the firing machines, 
of which thero are great variety, and when suffi- 
ciently roasted is aoiually tea, and simple operations 
of sorting aud sizing it into different grades pre- 
pare it for market. It has been mentioned 
before, that each of these operations requires to 
be carried out with mathematical precision, or the 
vulue of the tea as an article of food becomes 
muoh lessened. If the loaf is allowed to remain on 
the trees a day too long, or plucked a day too 
soon, if it is not withered to the hour, if it is al- 
lowed to fermeut too long, if it is rolled excessively 
or insufficiently, aud if tho critical operation of fir- 
ing is not watched to a second, the liquor result- 
ing may bo nauseous, and lose much of its agree- 
able and stimulating properties. Each operation of 
manufacture is carried out by machinery which 
ensures purity and oleanliuess, impossible in China 
teas, and improvements in machinery have so occu- 
pied the mind of the Ceylon planter, tint nearly 
every week sees a new patent launched, con lucing 
to superiority of aud economy in manufacture. 
That eveu- before the consumption of tea became 
general, it was necessary to proteot tho consumer from 
the vile and often unwholesome mixtures brought into 
the country and sold as tea, is shown by the various 
Acts bearing on the subject which were from time 
to time passed. An Act of 1725 provides that no 
dealer should counterfeit or adulterate tea, or alter, 
fabricate, or manufacture with terra japouica, or with 
any drug or drugs whatsoever; aud six years after- 
wards, this Act being apparently insufficient, another 
statute was pussed proscribing a peuulty for the 
offeuoe, oulled sophisticating tea. It reoitus that 
several evil-disposed persons do mix, colour, staiu, 
and dye tea with terra japouica, sugar, molasses, 
day, lougwood, and with othor ingradieuts ; and again 
in 176t>-(57, an Act became law, the preamble of which 
gets forth — "That great quantity of sloe loaves and 
leaves of ash elders and other trees, shrubs, and 
plants wore manufactured in imitation of tea. " Aud, 
with a gastronomic iutorost iu His Majesty's Ltftgei 
which is remarkably secondary, proceeds to say — 
" That such evil praotices were increased to a very 
great degree, to the injury and destruction of great 
quantities of timber, woods, a id underwoods, the 
prejudice of the health of His Majesty's subjects, the 
diminution of the revenue, tho ruiu of the fair tra- 
der, and to tho encouragement of idleness." 
Though a great deal of the Uliiua lea which is 
imported int i Lc Ion is of so low a quality as 
by itsoU to he unfit for humaQ food, th • vigilance 
ot the trade and the Custom House is so groat, fiat 
there is practically now no adulteration of teas im- 
ported int i Koglaud, nor in t present day <>f low. 
priced tea nurd the dealer wli > mobile* t > dishonesty 
to mix sloe t i other leavus with his tea ; but there aru 
597 
trade malpractices of the day which " prejudice the 
health of Her Majesty's subjects," and tend to the 
"ruin of the tea grower and fair trader." 
It will be seen from the annexed table (Appendix 
No. V.), and chemical analysis proves the fact, how 
much more valuable the average Ueylou and Indian 
teas are than those of China and Java, and, though 
some of the China tea is of undoubted excellence, 
a large quantity is imported into the United Kingdom 
eve.y year, which, though not absolutely injurious to hu- 
man health, is of s i low a standard as to be deficient iu 
all the properties which e .institute a good commer- 
cial tea. This tea is so nauseous and unpalatable by 
itself as to be unfit for food, and the custom of 
the trade is to bring it into consumption by mix- 
ing it with Ceylon and Indian tea : a custom which 
could not be gainsaid provided the mixture was sold 
as a mixture ; but with tho rapidly-increasing appre- 
ciation of Ceylon and Indian teas has risen an in- 
creased demand, and a section of those engaged in 
the tea trade do not hesitate to meet the demand, 
and make it lucrative to themselves by mixing China 
rubbish with Indian and Ceylon tea, and selling the 
mixture as Ceylon or Indian tea, oftea accentuating 
the fraud by the adoption of a Ceylon or Indian 
native name upon their packets, aud turning the lie 
into a satire by the affix of the word "pure." 
The new Merchandise Marks Act seems framed to 
check frauds of this nature, so injurious to the Brit- 
ish tea grower and consumer, and the fair trader — 
so advantageous to the Chinese tea grower and tho 
dishonest dealer; but in such an article of food as tea, 
admixture will often be hard to prove, and the grower 
of British tea must look rather for relief to the 
gra lual education of the people, and to the appreci- 
ation of that which is good and pure. 
What planting industry has done for Ceylon has 
already been told in the words of Sir Wm. Gregory, 
and every precediug and each succeeding Governor 
has borne similar testimony how mere fishing vil- 
lages and groups of mud-huts have been turned into 
busy centres of commercial life ; how roads and 
railways have intersected a country where but a few 
years ago the only means of communication were 
ill-ilefined footpaths ; how schools and churches have 
dotted the surface of the island, and how all this 
has gouo hand-in-hand with a vastly ameliorated 
oo idition of the people, is a story to.) well told by 
others to be 'dwelt upon here, and what the sequel 
of the story is to be, what proportion the industry 
is to assume, what success is to attond it, is to be 
measured in a great degree by the will of the people 
of the United Kingdom. 
The specid advantage of climate, of labour, of 
transport which Ueylon offers for the cultivation of 
tea have been already enumerated. That the ex- 
port will increase enormously, and probably reach 
1,00,000,000 pounds by tho end of the century, an! 
tho rock which looms ahead is where markets are 
to be found for this nipidly-increi-ing quantity. A 
table annexed (appendix No. III.) shows the con- 
sumption of tea per head of population in most of 
the European countries, and it is surprising how 
small it is in many. Though a natural increase may 
be looked for, it must bo borne in mind how s!ow 
has been the growth of consumption during nearly 
three centuiios in which tea has been known in 
Europe, aud habit and circumstances having iu most 
cases settled the national beverages of ordinary life, 
no rapid increase onn bu looked for : it is to the 
Mother Oountry and the vast sections of the g obe peo- 
pledby tho Anglo-Saxon race that Ceylon must look lor 
the consumer of the future. The table referred to 
will aNo show that though tho British Isles consume far 
moro tea than any other European couutry, the quantity 
tikouper hold is far behind that of the Australasian 
Colonies, kut as c .denial society is moro largely 
composed of adults, and less frugality is probably 
exercised iu house-keeping than in the Mother Couutrv, 
tho ro > 1'iiption of tea m tho United Kiug loin will 
in all likelihood not increase much further, COT would 
it be much atfectel by a reduction of the preaeut 
duty of sixpence per pound. Suoh reduction would 
