5 §4 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January 2, 1882. 
Colonel Beddome says that he had not the good for- 
tune of seeing any good officinalis plantations which 
are si'uated at Haputale and Uva ; but at o her places 
some large plantations inspected looked exceedingly 
well. Ou oue estate at Upper Ramboda, called Frotoft, 
45 acres of officinalis had been uprooted at 4£ years 
of age and the trees yielded 25 tons of dry bark 
which was sold for £11,200. Many of the estates are 
considerably below 5,000 feet and consequently at an 
elevation much below t'oat on which the local Govern- 
ment grow officinalis on the Nilgirie. On another 
estate the own r with a view to protect the cinchona, 
put down Eucalyptus which acted as a sort of break- 
wind for the plants and the growth was very fair. 
Colonel Beddome tuinks that this plan may be adopted 
■w ith success on the plantations at Dodabettah Neddi- 
wu turn and Pykara. The more valuable species of 
cinchona, the hdgeriana succes fully grown in Java by 
Mr. Aloens who visited Ceylon, induced many of the 
planters to grow the species. Mr. Moens obtained 13 
per cent of pure quinine from a tree of this species 
— in Ceylon no analysis of the bark could be com- 
pared with the results obtained in Java. Colonel 
Beddome suggests the appointment of a competent 
analyser to the Nilgiri plantations and he thinks that 
a subject of such importance should not be allowed 
to be postponed on the score of expense. At the 
suggestion of the Conservator of Forests, one hundred 
c >pies of Mr.- T. C. Owen's cinchona planters' manual 
will be procured from Ceylon and distributed among 
the officers in charge of the Government plantations 
on the Nilgirie. Colonel Beddome considers it a care- 
fully compiled publication full of useful and interest- 
ing information about cinchona. It is probable that 
the Government will address the Secretary of State on 
the appointment of a qualified Chemical Analyser for 
the Niigiris. — Madras Standard. 
THE TEA HARVEST IN DARJEELING. 
The Darjeeling Tea Harvest extends throughout the 
greater part of the year. Leaf is plucked from March 
to November, but. the midsummer mouths are the 
most produc'ive. The tea- plants are trimmed down 
to a broad, almost flat top. When there is a "flush," 
the new bright-green shoots rise above the level of the 
bush, and are quickly noticed. Flush is the planter's 
name for the new tender shoot of three or four leaves 
which the tea tree sends out at intervals through 
the year. When there is no flush, the planter can 
make no tea — the old leaves are worthless — and when 
there is a flush, it must be plucked at the right 
time, or it will be lost. I know of no crop, unless 
it be the peach or strawberry, which so imperatively 
requires to be plucked at the right time. Good grow- 
ing weather is, of course, most productive of flush. 
Drought or extreme rain or cold keeps back the trees 
It thus happens that for weeks the factory will be 
idle, and then a season of fine weather will briug a 
large part of the garden into flush at the same time, 
and the tea-makers must work night and day to take 
care of the maunds of nieen leaf that daily pour in 
upon them When the flush is about four inches long,* 
and ha3 two or three leaves besides the terminal un- 
op' nod one, it is ready for plucking. The pickers 
rarely take a single leaf, but nip off the shoot just 
above the axil of the lowest leaf, so that the unin- 
jured bud will sooner produce another shoot. 
The bright yellow green terminal leaf of the flush 
is the most delicate and fragrant part. It retains its 
brighter colour during the process of manufacture, 
and becomes that small whitish leaf in tea which is 
called ' tip.' 
* Leaves f^iir inches long arc certainly not picked for 
tea making.— El). 
Tip is the planter's idol. Its bright face in his 
tea-bins promises golden returns. Tip is the broker's 
delight; for it is in demand by merchants. Tip is 
the drinker's joy ; its delicate aroma is the distilled 
sweetness of fragrant flowers." 
There are five operations in tea-making as carried 
on in Darjeeling — wilting, rolling, fermenting, tiring, 
and sorting. The green leaf, as it comes in from the 
garden, is spread out in the drying-loft to be wilted. 
This loft is usually over the firing-room, and the 
beat from below, coming up through the open wooded 
and matted floor, soon wilts the leaves. The wilting 
process requires careful watching by experienced tea- 
makers, who stir it about on the mats until it is 
ready to be rolled. 
In small factories the rolling is done by hand. 
The wilted leaf is piled on a large table, usually 
covered « ith bamboo matting. The roller takes a 
double handful of wilted leaf, rolls and kneads it into 
a ball, pressing and bruising it all he can until his 
ball becomes a wet, cohesive mass. When his ball 
of bruised leaves will retain its shape, it is sup- 
posed to be sufficiently rolled, and is then set aside 
for fermentation. 
The fermenting process is one of the most de- 
licate and important par;s of tea-making. Let the 
balls of bruised leaf be either too much or too little 
fermented, and the quality of the tea suffers. An 
hour's delay in getting the fermenting tea to the fire, 
we sa% lessens the value of the tea 50 per «»ent. 
Experience, intelligence, and carefulness are absolutely 
requisite ; and it is surprising to see the instinct with 
which these tea-makers in Darjeeling manage this 
part of their work. But they are sometimes caught 
napping ; and I remember a pile of over-fermented 
tea on the floor of a certain factory which led me 
to pity the owner, and express the hope that none 
of that tea would find its way to my grocer. 
When sufficiently fermented, the bulls of tea are 
broken up, the leaf is spread out on large sieves of 
wire or cane, and set over a charcoal fire for roast- 
ing or firing. The charcoal lies at the bottom of a 
square, funnel-shaped furnace, a yaid square, and 
two and a half feet deep. The sieve with the tea 
is placed over the fire a few minutes, then taken off, 
stirred about with the hands, and replaced. This pro- 
cess is repeated several times, changing the sieve to 
furnaces of greater or less heat, as the need may 
be, until at last it is thoroughly dried, and thrown 
into the bin for sorting. The firing process is the 
most difficult part of the tea-making. It is so easy to 
get the fire a little too hot and burn the tea, or leave it a 
moment too long, when that one moment may change what 
was fragrant tea into tasteless, priceless, chips. 
■ The proper manufacture of tea ends with the 
firing. The tea is made. It is just as the consumer 
gets it. The sorting and sifting simply separate the 
coarse from the fine varieties. A new machine — a 
sort of tea crusher — has lately been introduced, which 
grinds up the coarse leaves into beautiful fine Pekoe. 
But it cannot make " tip," and my opinion is that 
the crusher is a mistake. Makers will not take ex- 
tra pains to produce fine tea when the crusher makes 
all so much alike. The sifter is like a common grain 
winnowing-mill. The different varieties of tea, which 
ordinary mortals suppose are grown at different sea- 
sons and separately plucked, are but one promiscuous 
mass in the hopper of the machine. The sieve does 
the sorting, and though all did grow on one bush, 
and was plucked at one time.and made iu one batch, 
yet it is true that a finer flavour is in the fine leaf; 
and the tea factory fanning mills but confirms the 
old proverb, that valuable goods are put up in small 
parcels. The sorting process complete* the manufact- 
ure of the tea. It is then packed in boxes, contain- 
ing from 80 to 100 lb. of tea, and stout Bhcotia 
