122 THE TROPICAL AGL'ICULTURLST. fAro. ], i900. 
tlie contents — exactly reseniWing in appearance ilie 
Cairigean moss nsed in Ireland in boilinfj linens 
— transferred to the storing hins, wliere tlie tea will 
keep in this state for a Ion? time. To complete 
the process, as soon as the facr.oiy hands have 
leisure, a slow fi'e is lighted in the furnaces under 
the deep pans, which are filled about one-third, 
full of the unfinished tea, and an operMtor then 
proceeds to work the tea to and fro in each pan 
with his bare hand as hani as ever he can for 
about an hour, until the combined friction and 
heat have caused each individual partic e of tea to 
assume ilie beautiful {^reen Idoom ihat distin- 
.qnishes fjieen from bhick tea. It is m this point 
that the Chinese colour their teas with foreign 
substances, a«, unless the tea has been made from 
young succulent leaf, it will now appear of a dirtj' 
yellow colour, instead of being greyish green. [ 
never Ijnew Indian green tea to b^ adulterated 
■with any deleterious colouring matter, although 
we have sometimes been asked by the Central 
Asian merchants to put a little ground soapstone 
in to give tlie deep green colour that their cus- 
tomers appreciate. 
After this colouring |>rocess the tea is sieved 
into different classes and is then ready for packing. 
It is usually pvib into 2ii0 lb. cloth and gunny 
bat's, as it does not require lead-line chests like 
bhick tea. 
Green tea-making, although taking a longer 
time than black tea, is a comparatively simple 
process, and does not require the anxious attention 
which must be given to the manufacture of black 
tea to make one a successful manager. 
IN JAPAN. 
The following explains the 'mode of preparation 
of green tea in Japan. "The firing and preparation 
of tea for market, as practised in Japan, is as 
follows: — The Japanese green tea may be divided 
into three general classes; coloured, uncoloured, 
and basket fired. The leaf used for all these is 
from the same plant, differing only in quality, 
condition, etc. All teas used by foreigners are first 
fired by the natives in the places where grown. 
If a grade of coloured tea is to be made this fired 
leaf (four or five pounds) is taken and put into iron 
pans or bowls, which are heated sometimes up to 
a temperature of 212° Fahrenheit. The leaves aie 
then ra))idly stirred by hand against the.smootli 
iron surfaces some twenty miiiuies. A teaspoon- 
ful of thorouglily pulverised soapstone (sapo- 
nite) and five grains, or so, of powdered Chinese 
indigo at e placed in the pan, and thoroughly rubbed 
into'the leaf for about 20 minutes n)ore, when half 
a teaspoonful of soapstone or gypsum and pulve- 
rised tamarack bark (a species of larch) is added, 
and the stirring and rubbing is continued for 20 
minutes more. It is then put into cold pans and 
simply cold rubbed against the iron surfaces until it 
lias the required polish, which is arrived at in from 
40 minutes to an hour. This is the ordin iry way of 
preparing coloured tea. Other materials are per- 
haps sometimes u.sed, but, so far as I can !eMrn, all 
are as harmless as these mentioned. The dilFerent 
manufacturers, of course, vary the process a little 
now and then to produce slight changes of colour. 
The leaf is then run through three to live sizes of 
sieves, till all the dust and loose colouring matter 
IS separated. The shrinkage is about 12 per cent. 
This colouring process is considered beneficial to 
the leaf, tending to preserve its shape and flavour. 
There can l e no doubt that the Japanese luepared 
teas are far superior in purity to the Chinese. In 
colouring Chinese teas various drugs are us^d that 
are deleterious to health, unless it be that the 
heat to which they are subjected render them in- 
nocuous. Pru^sian blue is frequently used instead 
of indigo in their green, and black lead in their 
black teas. Uncoloured teas are made in the 
same way and quanlities, and rubbed aL'ainst the 
iron pans until the surfaces have the desired 
polish, and are then sitted until nothing but the 
whole leaves areleft. B isket-liringis done inbamboo 
bHskeis, sliaped something like oui' hour glasses, 
which are shaken over hot pans. The leaf is put 
into the upper lobe of the basket and worked 
into the lower, ami so, back and forth, until 
finished. The loss of weight is about 3 pei cjnt." 
— T/ie Planter, July 14. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
A Plague of Catkkpd.lar.s in Jamaica. - 
Specimens of a large caterpillar fioni ilie tobacco 
plantations of Jamaici were exhibited at theKoyal 
Botanic Society on Siturday. During \\\'. past 
year or two they have increased so rapidly that 
negro children are emidoyed to cullict ihein, and 
on one plantation where 5,000,00(1 have been 
destroyed. — Daily Chronicle, June 25. 
Empire of India and Ceylon Tea Com- 
P.VNY. - The working; of tliis Company during 
the past year has not been so successful ;is 
anticipated, but in the circumstances a 
dividend of -i^- per cent must be considered 
satisfactory. The properties in Assam are 
reported to be in good condition, but the 
Ceylon gardens are said to require very 
areful looking into. 
FoRiiST Trek Culture in Mysore.— From a 
Mysore Forest Conservancy Keport some time 
ago we take a suggestive [lassage. Close planting 
is pr perly advocateil and it is indicated that 
the cnsuaiinas m India, like the latches in 
Biitain, rapidly a'ld largely improre poor soil 
by ik". deposits of their foliage and the elfects 
of shade and moisture. Mr. Hutchius also 
advocates close planting. His remarks on the 
subject are extracted below : — • 
" With the exception of two plantations, Kadgudi 
and Benganur, now the best, alt the old planting was 
done at five yavd.s apart. All the planting is now 
being done at three yards apart which gives 538 trees 
to the acre. I estimate that the fiist thinnine; 
would be necessary iu about eleven years, when a 
quarter of the stock would be taken out and that the 
yield of the poles at that age would reimburse the 
ettra cost of thick planting. From a cultural poiijt of 
view, there is no doubt of the great superiority of 
dense over sparse planting. Many trees on ordinary 
soil in this climate remain bushes unless planted close. 
Cussi Florida is an example of this. This is the beat 
tree I am acquainted with for sowings and one of the 
worst for planting. In the growth of a plantation, the 
point at which the trees meet in a mass overhead and 
kill the ground herbage, is well marked, and the sooner 
it is arrived at, for many obvious reasons, the better. 
This is the more to be striven for with casnarina on 
account of the excellent forest toil which forms rapidly 
as soon as this stage is reached. When planting on 
inferior soils, no satisfactory growth can be expacted 
till th;s soil is forined The piactations east of Ban- 
galore are on soil good, bii'l and indifferent. Most of 
it belonss to the last class, but there is a great deal too 
bad to plant, and here seed is being sown. As yet 
this closing overhead has only been quite reached in 
the Bengauur pluiitation. The above remaiks appty 
to forest trees, especially those raised by sowing the 
seeds broad-cast or in shallow pits, as distingiiishfd 
from fruit trees regularly planted in deep pits auc| 
watered." 
