Dec. 2, 1901.] THE TROFICAL 
AGRICITLTURIST. 
397 
distinguished by its own mark, and from each 
is taken a sample to bepacsed on to the "tasters" 
below. These gentlemen are engaged all day long 
in tickling their palates with little sips of tea, 
upon which they eventuallj pass judgments irom 
which there is no appeal. These judgments are 
afterwards communicated to the toreuian above 
by means ot little slips with hieroglyphics 
which none but the initiated may decipher. 
The contents of various chests are then poured 
in rapid succession into a huge mouth in the 
wooden floor. Some six or more of such 
mouths yawn all round the rooms, and down e.acii 
of them a black torrent is continually rushing 
like a little Niagara, from which rise clouds of 
tea-dust instead of foam. Empty tea-chests are 
sent out another way, and one man is employed 
all day long in stripping 'their leaden linings, the 
value of which amounts to about £5,000 a year. 
Descending to the next floor, the visitor pene- 
trates into the great stomach which is ied by the 
six gullets from above. Here a sort of 
digestive process goes on. The apparatus consists 
of great iron hoppers, with a marvellous faculty 
of deglutition, which devour cheerful little meals 
weighing about a ton. 
THE WHIRL OF THE BLENDING ROOM. 
When they have got as much as they can 
hold, they begin a wild whirl, which is 
kept up until the different sorts of tea 
are mixed up into a perfect blend. Here, too, 
is the tasting-room, with its nests of whitecups, 
and the big kettle always on the boil. The 
tasting is an affair of great moment, and over it 
arise frequent debates, carried on with all the 
solemnity of the National Palaver at Westminster. 
Some new flavour is suddenly discovered, or a 
quality, hitherto unsuspected, begins to develop in 
the cup which is, perhaps, less cheering to the 
professional taster than it is to the ordinary 
tea-drinker. This furnishes subject matter for 
investigation by a committee oi experts, whose 
profound and earnest mien is quite in keeping 
with the importance of the issues involved. The 
qualities that fit a man for becoming a successful 
tea-taster are given only to a privileged few, and 
these may be said to carry their fortunes in their 
mouths. 
When the tea is thoroughly blended, it is sent 
down to another floor, where we find a long array 
of tables and an army of girls in white "chef" 
caps, who are continually employed in packing it 
in appropriate canisters. Bins are placed at the 
ends of the tables, and at each table .«ixteen girls 
are engaged. Then there are four scalers, two "fun- 
nellers," two girls opening bags, seven more wrap- 
ping and packing, and one girl putting the parcels 
into boxes. The scalers weigh up the tea, and the 
funnellers receive it from them for the packets. 
All the operations proceed together, the speed of 
the whole table being dependent upon the manner 
iu which tlie various wjrkers assist each other. It 
is interesting to learn that a money bonus awards 
the smartest table weekly, and, in addition, de- 
pendent upon the aggregate output, a bonus iu 
tea, varying fiom ^ lb to 21b. to eael)|gir], is made 
when it has been fairly earned. There are busy 
workers, too, in the bonded department, wliere lea 
is packed in wooden cases exactly <itting, which 
then, duly marked and labelled, are put on it 
vans and waggons ready for export. In spite of 
the fluctuations of piices at public auctions, 
Jjipton's blends have continued to be offered to the 
public almost at the prices with which he started, 
namely, Is. Is 4d, Is 6d and Is 9d per pound. 
There are altogether some "-l-OO girls engaged in 
weighing out and packing dozens of different 
blends of tea, and at Christmas time their number 
rises to 600. The normal output is some fifty tons 
a day. 
Another building is given over to 
THE PREPARATION OF COCOA. 
The processes incidental to this are exceed- 
ingly complicated, but at Lipton's they are 
carried on with a degree of exactness and legu- 
larity that seems little short of the miraculous. 
Cocoais an increasing article of consumption, which 
has demanded the use of very powerful machi- 
nery. Fully £30,000 worth of steam presses, 
mills, and grinding apparatus are in oppration in a 
building that has been recently enlarged, and in 
Mhich work goes on ni^lit and day. Prominent 
features cf this department are the wholesale 
way in which chocolate cream is made, and the 
practical use of refrigerators. The process of 
cocoa manufacture ia of intense interest. We see 
the cocoa-nibs in tlieir raw state, watch them put 
in the great revolving metal globes over the fires, 
rested occasionally until the exact degree 
of loasting has been attained, then picked 
over carefully by hand before they go to the mills, 
from which presently we see them issue in more or 
less minute fragments. (This is an early stage. 
Much sorting ami sifting has yet to be done before 
the stiil semi-raw produce goes into a larse depart- 
ment, where strange-lookini' machines, combined 
with heat, are extracting the sujierfluous fat, 
though leaving just the right amount to ensure 
proper nutritive qualities. Hydraulic presses 
jcduce this fat into solid blocks, and it is put on 
little trollies and wheeled away, to find its way 
latter on to the wholesale chemists. There is no 
more ingenious machinery o,i the premises than 
that which separates and refines the cocoa as it 
swishes round the great receivers in a liquid state. 
As most of the products of the City 
Eoad establishment are carefully -packed in 
tin, it follows that an immense number of 
such packages are daily required, and most, if 
not all of these are made on the premises. One 
department deals AVith the coloured lithographs, 
which are printed directly on the tins such as 
adom ilie tea-canisters. In tiie basement of the 
huge block there are ponderous machines, which 
by sheer pressure block out and linish lids and 
portions of tins. On another floor of the same 
building more machinery, each apparatus doing 
its allotted part, is turning out the tins themselves 
— i lb., h lb. and 1 lb. and larger sizes still, to 14 lb, 
Then, too, there are coffee tins round, of ^ kilo, to 
20 lb. capacity. Some idea of 
THE COLOSSAL NATURE OF LIPTON'S BU.SINESS 
may be gathered from the tact that 
2.000 woikers are employed in the Cily Koad 
alone. The frontage building i,s only one amono- 
eight separate blocks. In addition to this Si"i- 
Thomas Lipton contro/s 'ea ptantations, stores, 
factories, buyers, agents, and upwards- of 400 
shops in vaiions |)ai-ts of the United Kingdom, 
And yet, so inexhaustible is the man's marvellous 
energy that, in the midst of ail this, he flnds time 
to attend to numejous schemes of pbilanthroiiy 
and industrial piogre&s. Arrong the latter may 
be menlioned ihe Alexandra Tiust, for supplying 
food to working classes at rery littls over cost 
price, andto \vhich he eoatrikuted i."10i,000. JToj- 
