334, THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 1, 1898. 
carried out his orders admirably, but it was not 
'* bufiinesB." Time isof theutinost importance to us. 
We must take steps to erialjle us to place ilie 
required bulk of tea on tlie American market 
111 a short time, the Association must canvass 
for support, and awakeu the interest of proprietors 
and tea planters. 
The Association will ([ feel sure) publish a 
pamphlet showing the admirable succe-js of the 
small attempts made up to date. It will show 
how to make the tea wliich is required, and will 
circulate the pamphletgratis to every oue concerned. 
The Association has two works to carry out. It 
has to induce Planters to make 40 million pounds 
of tea, and it ha.s to induce the dealers to take 
this enormous mass of lea. 
Common sense will dictate that by leaving the 
venture entirely to private, and unguided enter- 
prise, the reiiuired bulk of new tea cannot be made 
within a reasonable time. Also it is very evident 
that we shall have to afford the dealers every 
facility, and give them tea, not only of the le- 
quired quality, but in the quantities and packages 
tney have been used to, and also under the same 
trade conditions as regards credit, &c. , &c, 
I heard of "Norwood" tea for the lirst time 
in the report of an Association meeting held in 
July, and by this time instructions how to make 
it, and any other sort of ''American" lea should 
have been in the hands of every Planter. Calculate 
the amount of " new " tea already sent to America 
in proportion to the time we have (2 years) within 
which our task must be accoinplislied. Take the 
time— 24 months — and the quantity — 10 million 
pounds— and consider that as yet »w step has 
been taken to place suitable British tea on the 
market. 
Here am I, and hundreds of other planters reatly 
to help; why have we not as yet been a.sked 
for help ? Are any of you going to keep this 
show private? Are any of you going to Htid out 
how to make Norwood tea so as to benelit by 
high prices before the ruck of us come to spoil 
your game ? 
" THE ADVANTAGES OF MAKING 
GREEN TEA." 
The chief advantage will be that with the same 
quality of leaf from which you now make 50 
per cent of tea which will pass through a No. 
12 sieve, you will get at least 80 per cent oi 
the new tea through the same sieve. 
In other words you will have 80 instead ot 50 per 
cent of " Pekoe" grades, and 20 instead of 50 per 
cent of Souchong grades wiiich include the broken 
tea. The reason of this is that the lightly fermented 
and green teas are rolled while hot. The rolling 
and tiring are alternate, and the leaf gets more 
and more sticky. At length it gets so sticky 
or guitimy that each folding of the leaf is firmly 
held. 
In cold rolling (as in black tea) there is not 
sufficient gum developed, or rather the gum is 
too diluted with water, to make each folding 
stick tightly. Consequently in hot rolling the 
leaf, becomes very much more tightly folded up, 
and of smaller grade than in cold rolling. 
1 once made a sample of hot rolled tea which 
sorted out 80 per cent of Orange Pekoe, i.e. of tea 
which went through a No. 14 sieve. But the 
ordinary cold rolled black tea, from the same 
leaf gave me only 18 to 20 per cent of tea of 
No. 14 grade ; but at that time there was no 
tteuts^ndfor thevt siort of tea. 
Another advantage i« that by tiiehelpof warm 
.air the leaf takes much less power to make up 
with tightly curled and twitted tea. 
I anticipate that within a few months (nay 
15 from now) we shall see the first ereen tea 
making niacliiue ; which will probably take the 
form of some way of supplying hot air into our 
present roller-. And for teas wliich are made by 
panning Fome form of alternate R<jueeziDg (or 
washing) and throwing the leaf against reiu hot 
vertical lion plates, or forcing the leaf along an 
incline of red-hot iron, by means of an air 
draught. 
I ha<l a sample of Oolong tea (about five 
years ago) which slioued erident marks of having 
ueen made on red-hot iron. Patches of brown 
could be seen on most of the leaves wbich were 
otherwise various shades of green. (I mean of 
course the infused leaves). 
It is highly probable that most of u« will be 
able to make •' Green " teas in unsuitable weather, 
and black tea in goo<l weather. At the present 
time this is just about the proportion of tea 
which we want to sell to America. Aliout ooe-iifth 
of our leaf is sjwilt for want of withering aecoiiimo- 
datlon and the "New" teas do not re<|uire to be 
withered as the first process. The withering is 
done by heal, and the whole process of rolling 
and hring is much shorter than for black tea. 
At pre.-'ent, Klack tea made from half-withered 
leaf is mixed up with lea made from well- 
wilhered leaf ; and thus many of our biggest in- 
voices are spoilt, if we can disi)ose of our un- 
Mithere<l leaf as green teas, our black teas will 
be much improved in qualitj'. If this is true 
there is a bad time coming for London dealers ; 
because they will have to pay us for improved 
quality and also for decreased quantity. J 
would .solemnly advise the buyers to pay an 
anna or two more now, when our teas are cheap. 
The greatest of all advantages in making silver 
tip tea will be that we shall not be able, at the 
beck and call of London, to withdraw the 
tea from America an I sell it in London. 
Every rise in prices has caused a deficiency of 
supply for foreign markets. 
London wants tea, offers higher prices, and 
the supply of foreign markets is withheld. Now 
that we are going to make tea for America, 
every pound that is made irill go there. And 
so the American demand will probably rise by 
leaps and bounds instead of up one step and down 
two steps as before. 
The Bombay markets are supplied by estates 
whose tea is not saleable in London. 
Bombay offers better prices for these teas, and 
gets all it wants, and the demand increases steadily. 
"GREEN" TEA. 
Most "green" teas are "faced," or painted 
with a surface colour to make them look green. 
The rea-son for this must be that there is a 
superfine tea which is really green, and the 
price of this is so very high that the 'cute 
Chinaman (rather Jap.) painted ordinaiy teas of 
good quality to induce purchasers to pay more for 
them. If you place a tea leaf, fresh from the 
bush in perfectly dry hot air of about 150* 
to 180°, it will become desiccated and remain 
a vivid green colour. If you bruise the leaf 
it will dry up with various shades of green to 
black according to the severity of the bruising. 
And so I imagine that real green tea is made 
from fine leaf, treated so very delicately that it 
becomes rolled up like tea without being much 
discoloured. And then if you happen to hav^ 
