I^OVEMBER 2, 1891 ] THE TROPICAL AQRlOULTURlSTJ 
355 
BLACK TEA AND GREEN. 
What is the difference between black tea and green 
teai" Are they produced by different plants or merely 
by different methods of treating the leaves 'i And 
are the Oolong and Japanese teas, so popular in this 
country, really {,'reon teas cr black ? One so often 
bears these questions usked, and so seldorn gets a 
reliable answer, that our readers may be interested 
in the following account of Japanese tea-produclion 
whioh we quote from Mrs. Soidmore's "Jinrikisha 
Days in Japan." 
The Tea-plant, aa every one knows, ia a hardy 
evergreen of the Camellia family. It grows a 
thick and solidly massed bush, and at first glance 
at a field regularly dotted and bordered with the 
round bushes setting close to the ground, one might 
easily mistake it for Box. In the spring the yonog 
leaves crop out at the ends of the shoots and 
brsnche", and when the whole top of the bush is 
oovored with pale, golden-greun t ps, generally in May, 
the first picking tabes place. Tlia second picking 
belongs to the fire-fly season in June, and after that 
green festival tea comes in from the plantations in 
decreasing quantities, until the end of August. The 
choicer qaalities of tea are never exported but consumed 
at home. Choice baeket-fired tea, such as is used in 
the homes of the rich and well-to-do Japanese, sells 
for one or two dollars a pound, There are choicer, 
moae carefully grown and prepared teas which cost 
as high as from seven to tea dollars a pound, but 
such teas are shaded from the hot suns by matted 
awnings and the picker, going down lines of those 
oirefully tended bushes, nips off only the youngest 
leaves or buds at the tip of e«ch shoot. The average 
tea brought by the exporters for shipment to the 
United States and Oanade, ia otthe commonest quality 
and, according to Japanese trade statistics, the ave- 
rage value ia eleven cents a poun 1, as it stands, subject 
to the export duty and ready for ehipmont abroad. 
Japan tea came into market aa a, cheaper sub- 
stitute for the green teas of China, those carefully 
rolled Yonug Hysons and Gunpowders of our grand- 
mothers' fancy. Europe has never received the Japan 
teas with favour, but the bulb of American importa- 
tions is Japanese. . . ; For green tea, the leaves 
are dried over hot fires almost immediately after 
picking, leaving the theine or activa principle of the 
leaf in full strength. For black tea, the leaves are 
allowed to wilt and ferment in hea#3 for from five 
*o fourteen daya, or until the leaf turns red and he 
harmful properties of the theine hive been partly 
destroyed. The Oolong tea of south Chiaa is nearest 
to green tea, its fermoutatiou being limited to three 
or five days only while ihe richly tiivoied black 
teas of north China are allowed to ferment for twice 
that period, to prepare them for the Kussian and 
English markets. . . . The Japanese government 
made experiments in the manufacture of black tea 
in the province of Ise, but the results were not 
sotisfaotory, and no further efforts have been made 
to compete in that line with China. Japan will continue 
to famish the world's supply of green tea. . . . 
The young tea-leaves, picked in May and early June, 
comprise more than half the whole season's crop, 
ancceeding growths of leaves being coarser and hav- 
ing less flivor. Tea which is to be exported is 
treated to an extra firing, to dry it thoroughly before 
the voyage, and, at the same time, it is "polished," 
or coated with indigo, Prussian blue, gypsum and 
other things, which give it the gray lu;,tro that no 
dried _ tea-leaf evtr naturally wore, but that American 
tea' drinkers inaifit on having. Before the tea-loaves 
are put in the pans for the second tiring, men wliose 
arms are dyed with indigo to the tlbowa, go down 
the lines and dust a little of the powder into each pin. 
Then the tossing and stirring of the leaves follows, 
and the dye in worked thoroughly into them. . . . 
This skille I labor ia paid tor at rates to make the 
Knights of Libor groau, the w.ige-list ahowiug 
how impossible Tea culture is for the United St'ites until 
proleolioniHt tea-drinkers are ready to pay tendoL 
lars a pound for the oommoiiest gurdons. During the 
four busy moutba of the tea-Boasort the firors are 
paid the equivalQnt of eleven and four-tenths cents, 
United States gold, for a day's work of thirteen houra. 
Less expert hands, who give the second firing, or 
polishing, receive nine and six-tenths cents a day. 
Those who sort and finally pack the tea and who 
work as rapidly and automatically as machines, get 
the immense sum of fifteen cents. . . . Each year 
the United States pays over §7,000,000 for the nerve- 
racking green tea of Japan. — Garden and Forest. 
[Mrs. Seidmore must surely have been sadly mis- 
informed as to length of fermentation and as to harmful 
qualities in theine : this is the first we have heard 
of them.— Ed. T. A.'\ 
WOOD PULP INDUSTRY. 
Extract from the Report of the Chief of the DiTision 
of Forestry, U. S. A. for 1890, by E. Pernow. 
It can be said, without fear of contradiction, that ia 
no field of industrial activity has a more rapid develop- 
ment taken place within the last few years than in that 
of the use of wood for pulp manufacture. The impor- 
tance of this comparatively new industry for the pre. 
sent, and still more for the future, can hardly be over- 
estimated. Its expension during the next few deosdea 
may bring revolutionary changes ia our wood consump- 
tion, due to the new material, cellulose, fiber or wood 
pulp. 
Though rapid in its growth, the industry baa by no 
means reached its full development. Not only ia there 
room for improvements in the processes at present 
employed, but there are all the time new applications 
found for the material. While it was in the first place 
designed to be used in the manufacture of paper only, 
by various methods of indurating it, its adaptation 
has become widespread ; piiils, water pipes, barrels, 
kitchen utensils, washtubs, bath tubs, washboards, doora, 
caskets, carriage bodies, floor coverings, furniture and 
building ornaments, and various other materials are 
made of it, and while tUe use of timber has been super- 
seded iu shipbuilding, the latest torpedo ram of the 
Australian navy received a protective armor of celln- 
lose, and our own new vessels are to be similarly pro- 
vided. While this armor is to render the effect of 
she's less disastrous by stopping up leaks, on the other 
hand bullets for rifle use are made from paper pulp. 
Of food products, sugar (glucose) and alcohol can be 
derived from it, and materials resembling leather, clotb, 
and silk h»ve been successfully manufactured from it. 
An entire hotel has beea lately built in Hamburg, 
Germany, of material of which pulp forms the basis, 
and it also f«rma the basis of a superior lime mortar, 
fire and water proof, for covering and finishing walls. 
Ten yeirs ago there were in Europe about five hun- 
dred woodpulp establishments, making in round figures 
15,000 tons of ground pulp, valued at over $5,000,000. 
With the development of the chemical procestea since 
then, it is hardly possibly to tell from day to day how 
fast the production increates. — Indian Forester. 
^ 
Transactions in jute fell ofi to a remarkable ex- 
tent in Tippera last year. The Commissioner of the 
Chittagong Division writes that the price of jute in 
Tippera fell from K5 8 to Iil-8 per mauad, and that, 
in consequence, the cultivators were reported in some 
places to have left the jute uncut. No actual distress 
was felt, though the extraordinary fall is said to have 
largely aflected the revenue administration of the 
district, — Calcutta Englishman. 
Insecticides, etc. — Our growers, whose general 
apathy with regard to the employment of remedies, 
oven for experimental purposes, ia profound, and who 
appear to leave unread the evidence that is put be- 
fore them, are, at any rate, not the only persona 
similarly affected. This is what ia said by the 
Colonial Botanist at the Cape ; — " I have urged several 
importers to speculate in a sample, and done every- 
thing except thump them over it. But they, one and 
all, seem to think the Cape fruit grower will not bother 
over his fruit trees, or put either money or elbow- 
grease into the protective nicasnros which the Yankee 
fruitist tiuda to pay hand over hand. Ijet U3 hope 
they are wislaken,'^'— (7rt)'(?c!it,rj' QlumkU, 
