March i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
645 
2. It should be boiled in a perfectly clean kettle ; 
until steam is emitted through the kettle-spout the 
water should not be deemed to be boiling — most im- 
portant is Ms. 
3. The tea-pot to receive this water should first be 
made hot ; then the fresh boiling water should 
be poured into it, and then— and not until then — the 
tea should be strewn on the top of the water, leaving 
the steam to saturate it, thus causing it slowly to sink — 
in this way the tea leaves will not be scalded and the 
fragrance will be kept at its best. 
4. Maximum time of infusion to be five minutes, 
but better four or three minutes, adding tea in pro- 
portion. The sooner the water is availed of after 
boiling the better. 
6. With such rapid infusions one can well afford 
to be generous with the tea, it should not be stinted. 
This is, after all, as recorded by travellers in China 
and Japan, the great secret of good tea making. 
6. As soon as the time fixed upon has elapsed the in- 
fusion (not decoction) should be decanted into another 
tea-pot, first made hot for its reception. Prepared in 
this way tea will remain hot and pleasant and whole- 
some for more than double the time than if cold tea-pots 
were employed— this stands to reason — and if the tea- 
cups are heated or warmed so much the better. 
7. Lastly and most important. — Even newly im- 
ported teas infused in this way cannot injure the 
weakest stomach. Instantly, for mercy's sake, treat the 
spent tea leaves as so much poison and cast them aside. 
To give them even to a beggar to infuse a second time 
would be cruelty indeed, not to speak of the feelings 
of the " Poor Planter." 
THY it for yourselves, but deal not niggardly with 
the OKEAM. 
TEA (especially British-grown tea), having in its manu- 
facture been subjected to very great heat and afterwards 
packed, still heated, in well-soldered lead-lined cases, 
thus rendering them, practically, hermetically sealed, 
is, nevertheless, owing to its extreme tendency to 
absorb moisture, and foreign flavors, carefully packed 
aivay by itself in holds of steamers, so that it may, in 
these respects, receive no damage on the voyage home. 
On its arrival there it is treated in a similar sensible 
fashion in the Great Bonded Warehouses prepared 
specially to receive it. 
The good housewife (?) in her innocent way lets it lie 
for days nay even -weeks at a time in an open or half 
open state in her pantry next to hams, bacon, ohee«e, 
spioes, &C.&C. ! 
Ia time the elevation at which tea is grown will 
be asked for. The higher it is grown the better 
it is for invalids : vide statements published in the 
Ceylon Observer about a year ago by the Analyst Mr. 
John Hughes. Less " tannin " being the reason 
of this. 
Buyers of tea in fact will no doubt eventually be- 
come as fastidious as buyers of wines. 
The better the class of tea is the less of it is required 
to a good infusion. Given good tea say at 2s 6d per lb., 
wh*t is the price per cup ? About Jd per cup, I should 
think. Really good tea is now so to speak "dirt cheap" ! ! 
Australian squatters in the bush — what can they know 
aboutpwe tea? They have for years had to be content 
with China (li ?) tea : a good deal of which has perhaps 
already paid the toll of a first blush of an infusion in 
some swell China ten-drinking saloon. They soon found 
out that to extract the shadow of & flavor they had to 
boil the leaves in a punnikin adding more tea and 
more water and rarely brewing freshly. They would 
be savages indeed to adopt this vile plan in dealing 
with pure and strong and still delicate (if carefully 
infused) Ceylon virgin teas. 
In conclusion and in regard to PURE TEA. I 
would say advance not only Australia, but every 
other country, including those described by the famish- 
ing boy, at the mizen-top, in that never-to-be 
forgotten "Split Pea" song of Thaokeray's, viz., "North 
and South Ameriky."— I am, yours truly, D. L. G. 
Smoe writing the above, my attention has been 
drawn to the result of experiments by Dr. Hale White 
ol Guy s Hospital on the quantity of tannin extracted 
from tea by short and long infusion, and also as to 
the percentage of tannin in different teas. The result 
is what might have been expected, as tannin is very 
soluble in hot water, and nobody who has drunk 
Assam or any other Indian tea and the choicest China 
would require any scientific analysis to tell him which 
would be most likely to disorder the stomach and 
nerves- It is of course true that any tea which has 
been infused for some time has a more marked effect 
than tea whic h has been infused a shorter time : but 
this difference is due not so much to the tannin as 
to strength. The moral, therefore, for persons with 
weak digestion is to select the best China tea they 
can get, and not to drink it strong ; to be satisfied 
with flavor and not to desire intoxication. They must 
be particularly careful, also, to see that the tea is 
not blended. 
After ten years tannine/ of their stomaohs no wonder 
of a revolt against East India teas should take place. 
Many medical men denounce today East India teas as 
positively injurious. 
The attention of Dr. Hale White should be called 
to our more delicate highgrown Ceylon teas and also 
to the importance of proper infusion, so as to get 
him and other medical authorities to remove their 
ban, at least, against ' Ceylon ' as compared even with 
the poorest China. 
BADLY WANTED. — The World's model tea 
canister, for daily use (say 1 and 2 lb.), lettered 
in black on bronze ground now so beautifully and 
cheaply done on tin, and so always readable as long 
as the canister lasts, on its four sides with brief 
instructions in the four principal European languages 
— Yours, D. L. G. 
7th Feb. 1889. 
jP.S. — HOW THE "MILLION" SHOULD BUY TEA. 
These smaller canisters (after being first sea- 
soned) to be replenished from the larger cinisters 
by those who may buy their Tea in chests ; and to 
be also availed of by the buyers of a pound or two 
by being sent to the grocer to be filled from his 
TEA BINS— a la "Wines from the Wood," thus 
saving the fragrance of the TEAS through the streets 
en route HOME. Damp railways, damp omnibuses, 
and damp streets simply murder TEA packed only 
in paper in damp climates. About a year ago I made 
my brother in Lancashire— a damp enough spot as 
probably everyone knows— a present of a half -chest 
of Imboolpittia broken pekoe and at my suggestion 
it was placed in 8 lb. seasoned canisters. When after- 
wards the GREAT ROW about Tea in the London 
"Standard" was going on, my brother wrote to me 
spontaneously to say that he had no complaints to 
make about his Tea. Each canister as it was opened 
up being equal to if not superior to the preceding 
one. Of course the canisters were stored in a DKi 
place in the kitchen. jj_ l_ q 
TUNISIAN DATES AND THE PRODUCE 
OF THE CORK FORESTS. 
The British Consul at Tunis describes the Dates 
of that country as much superior to those produced 
in any other part ; " and yet," he says, " they are 
little known in England. Their great abundance and 
their cheapness make it difficult to understand why 
a large commerce is not carried on in this fruit. 
They are the produce of the extensive oases in the 
south of Tunis, those of Jerid and Tuzeur being the 
most extensive. The Date Palm grows all over the 
Regency, but the few trees met with in the north do 
not ripen their frnit from want of the requisite heat. 
Even the Palm Trees of the oasis of Gabes, situated 
in lat. 34°, produce an indifferent fruit, owing to 
its proximity to the sea, which reduces the temper- 
ature of the air. The Arab saying is that the Date 
Palm loves to have its feet in the water and its head 
in the fire, which graphically expresses the craving of 
this tree for moisture and heat. The best quality 
of Date is that known by the name of Degla, which 
is large, tender, very sweet, with skin unwrinkled, and 
of a golden brown. These are exported chiefly to 
France. In the market at Tunis this quality sells 
retail at Zd. a pound. 
