6 9 4 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April 2, 1888. 
TEA OULTUEE IN JAPAN. 
Mr. Consul Jernigan gives the following parti- 
culars of Japan tea culture in a report of his v'n-it 
to the tea districts aud warehouses. — '•The cultivation 
of tea was introduced into Japan from Ohina during 
the ninth century. The first mention of it is in 
the reign of the Emperor ELuaumu, when a priest 
named Saito brought seeds from China, and had 
them planted at Uji. But it was not until the 
twelfth century that the tea shrub cirne to be ap- 
preciated in Japan. For a long time, tea was an 
expensive luxury, only to be indulged in by the 
nobles. Kaempfer, in bis history of Japan, describes 
how the tea used at the Imperial Court was then grown 
and prepared at Uji, under the care of the chief 
purveyor of tea, and that for at least two or three 
weeks before the gathering of the leaves, the per- 
sons who were to pick them were prohibited from 
eating any unclean food such as fish, lest their 
breatn should contaminate the leaves, and, how dur- 
ing the gathering season they had to wash them- 
selves two or three times a day, and were not 
allowed to touch the leaves except with gloved hands. 
Tea is now grown throughout Japan — the provinces 
of Surgua and Totomi being the chief produoing 
districts. There are two varieties grown, One (Mecha) 
being large-leaved, and the other (Ocha) small-leaved. 
Both have similar habits, and the height of the 
shrub is from 3ft. to 4ft., the stem being bushy, 
with numerous and very leafy branches. "When in 
the third year of its growth, it bears leaves ready 
for pickiDg, and is considered at its best from the 
fifth to the tenth year, although age does not deteri- 
orate the plant; but as it grows older more man- 
ure is required. The plantations are started from 
seed sown in circles of 2ft. in diameter, an average 
of 30 seeds being sown in each circle, the centre of 
which should be at least five feet from the next 
circle. The soil should be well drained. The plant 
will grow well on level land or on the hillsides, the 
latter being usually selected because cheaper. These 
hillsides are terraced and cut so as to form small 
level patches, and prevent too violent rushes of water 
during the heavy rains. When the seeds brgiu to 
come up and grow, they develop into a compact bush, 
some of the shoots of which bear leaves of a dark- 
er colour and harder texture than others, and 
often smaller. This is a drawback to the quality 
of the tea, but it has been found that it can be 
obviated by proper care being taken as to the source 
of the seed: The iusecs so destructive to the tea 
plant in India have not yet made their appearance 
in Japan, so that the Japanese farmer is free from 
the spoliations of the red spider, the tea bug, tho 
green fly, and the oraDge beetle. He has, however, 
one enemy in the mino mushi, which, if not arrested 
in due time, often proves quite destructive to the 
tea plant. The harvesting of the crop consists of 
two, and frequently three, pickings. The first pick- 
ing of tea commences about the 1st of May, and 
lasts about twenty or thirty days. The second crop 
is gathered in June and July, and, when there is 
a third one, about the end of August. The pick- 
ing is done almost entirely by females, who aver- 
age about 41b. per day, and who receive about 7d. 
per day. Travellers along the roads leading from the 
tea districts to the towns and cities, seldom find 
them during the tea season free from men who are 
carrying baskets full of green leaves from the fields 
to the buildings, where they are steamed and fired. 
Generally the tea plantations are owned by small 
proprietors, who fire the leaves at home, and then 
sell the leaves to large dealers who send on their 
purchases to the Treaty Ports, where they are pur- 
chased by the marchants and exported. When the 
leaves are picked, they are steamed as early as pos- 
sible. This is done "by placing them in a round 
wooden tray with ft brass wire bottom over boiling 
water, the tray filling up the mouth of an iron 
cauldron set in plaster over a woo l fire. The pro- 
cess of steaming is complete in about half a minute. 
The moist leaves, with their nutural oil, rise to the 
surface, and they are thou placed upon a wooden 
table, and within a few minuti-s, are taken into the 
(mug-room. Firing is considered the principal mani- 
pulation, aud is conducted in a hix-shaped wooden 
frame about 4ft. long by 2$ft. wide. This box is 
cated with plaster and forms the oven. Charcoal, 
well covered with charcoal asb, is a light at the bot- 
tom, and about a foot and a half above the char- 
coal, rests a wooden frame with tough Japanese 
paper, stretched across it to form a tray. About 6Jlb. 
of green leaves are thrown into one of these paper 
trays, the box is shut up, and the weight reduced 
to ljlb. It is said that so strong is the Japanese 
paper, that one of these paper trays will last a whole 
season. The next operation is that of sorting. The 
tea is passed from the firing room to men who sort 
the leaves by jerking them up aud down in hand- 
trays made of bamboo, thus separating the heavy, 
from the light, leaves. It is then passed to a sieve, 
which generally hangs suspended from the roof, and 
swings backwards and forwards with a circular mo- 
tion, whereby the fine and thin leaves are collected 
in a heap on the floor, and the larger and coarser 
leaves are retained and thrown into a separate box. 
The tea is then placed on a long and thin table, 
around which sit girls, who pick out any seeds, 
stalks, or rubbish that may be found mixed with it. 
After this operation, the tea is packed in wooden 
boxes, which are nailed, corded, and marked, and 
sent to the nearest Treaty Port for sale. These are 
all the operations performed by the grower, but at 
the Treaty Ports it has to undergo further opera- 
tions before the foreign merchant can ship it. These 
operations are either pan-firing or basket-firing, to- 
gether with the colouring, when the latter has to be 
done. The two former processes consist of further 
drying the tea either in iron pans or bamboo bas- 
kets, thus giving employment to thousands of poor 
Japanese women, who work from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. for 
the munificent wage of from 6d. to 7d. per day. 
The shrinkage at the ports by firing is from 12 to 
15 per cent. The operations of sortiug and sifting 
are again repeated, after which the tea is weighed 
and packed in boxes, which are labelled ready for 
shipment to England, or whatever other part of the 
world they may be consigned to. " — Home and Colo- 
nial Mail. 
TEA AND COFFEE AT HOME. 
The Indian Planters' Associations did a good work 
in bringiug together such a number and highly inter- 
esting variety of exhibits of the two allied beverages, 
tea and coffee, at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition 
of last year at South Kensington, and more especially 
by affording the English public an opportunity of 
judging of the merits of these two popular drinks, by 
presenting them in a pure and unadulterated form. 
Visitors had the opportunity, after viewing the wonder- 
ful display af the raw material, of stepping down to 
the adjoining stalls and tasting a cup of coffee or tea 
free from any admixture of other compounds. It has 
been most truly remarked, as far at least as the general 
work-a-day people of London is concerned, that they 
failed to appreciate, in many instances, the virtues of 
really genuine coffee when given to them, having 
hugged the delusion for so many years that the stuff 
they had drank as supplied to them at the numerous 
coffee taverns aud stalls, was iu reality a decoction 
from the wonderful bean, and it would seem that it 
has come to this, that unless some means be devised 
to educate the working class of England, which is 
without doubt the largest coffee consuming class in the 
country, — into a full appreciation of the high value 
of pure coffee as an invigorator for work and restor- 
ative of strained nerves and faculties, adulteration in 
all its vile forms will be continued and the working 
man in England be left to swallow his daily pint or 
quart of coffee, or rather the filthy and nauseous liquid 
sold under that name as the only drink bearing that 
name he can procure. There aro many places, no doubt 
iu London and other towns, where good coffee can be 
had ; but these are reserved for the upper classes 
and wealthy, the working population is forced to fall 
