THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [May 2, 1892. 
easily understood that a hard, sharply defined brick, 
would at once obtain the preference. With both 
methods of manufacturing brick tea, there is a 
drawback, and a serious one — the damping of 
the dust by steam, which robs . it of all its 
fragrance. To remedy this defect, a firm has 
imported a hydraulic press, which turns out small 
corrugated cakes, weighing a quarter of a pound 
each retaining the original aroma in all its freshness." 
It was considered very probable that the ordinary 
brick tea and the compressed tea would run side 
by side in friendly competition, the brick keeping 
its own position for use amongst the poorer, and (he 
compressed tea becoming popular amongst the better 
classes. At the time the article was written from 
which the preceding extract is made, there were 
six manufactories in Hankow, in three of which 
boilers were used either for steaming the tea, or 
both for that purpose and furnishing power for 
pressing. The dust from which brick tea is made 
conies principally from Ningchow in Kiangsi and 
Tsung yang and Yanglout'ung in Hupeh, and varies 
both in fineness and cost according as it belongs to 
the first, second, or third crop. 
The Commissioner proceeds to state that — 
"The first operation is to sift the dust and reject 
all the sand and rubbish contained in it, usaually 
amounting to about five per cent. It is then placed 
in a winnowing machine having three different sized 
sieves, with troughs corresponding, and passed into 
baskets. The residue, which is too coarse to 
pass any of the sieves, is taken out and trodden 
until it is reduced to the proper consistency, when 
it is placed in iron pans over a charcoal fire until 
it is sufficiently brittle, when it is a<^ain taken 
to be winnowed, and this operation is repeated 
until it has all been sifted to the requisite degree 
of fineness. Three sizes are produced, the coarser 
ones being employed to constitute the brick, 
while the finest dust is only used as a facing. 
The dust having been properly sifted the next 
step is to prepare it for pressing, and this is 
done by exposing it to the action of steam for 
three minutes, and it is this steaming that 
robs brick tea of its scent and flavour, and for 
which a remedy is eagerly sought. 
" The old fashioned native apparatus consists 
of six iron boilers heated by charcoal and ha.ving 
spaces above, which are fitted with rattan covers. 
When the dust is to be steamed it is spread out 
on a sheet of cotton cloth placed over the boiler 
and covered up ; but with the improved European 
apparatus the dust is simply put into iron boxes 
and the steam there passed through them. After 
having been sufficiently steamed to make it 
adhesive, the dust is put into a strong wooden 
mould, on the movable cover of which the trade 
mark of the ' hong ' or firm is engraved (so as 
to leave the corresponding inpression on the brick) 
and firmly wedged down. It is then pressed and 
placed on one side for two or three hours to 
cool. Each, brick should weigh one catty (Ig- lb.,), 
and all those that do not come up to the proper 
standard of weight or are defective in any way 
are rejected and re-made. For this ijurpose they 
are taken to a rotatory mill, constructed of two 
heavy circular stones moved by a horizontal 
wooden bar and working in a channel where 
the condemned bricks are thrown, and crushed 
as the wheels jiass over them. Having again 
become dust, the operation already described 
is in all its details repeated. The hand press 
turns out 60 baskets a day with 25 per cent, 
failure bricks, while the stream press produces 80 
baskets a day, with only five per cent, of bad 
work, and the saving by the employment of tha 
iiriproved machinery amounts to one lael a 
basket, or, according to the above stated outturn, 
eighty taols a day, or about 20/. The bricks 
found to be correct in weight and free from 
defects are stored in the drying room lor a week, 
when they are carefully wrapped, separately in 
paper, and packed in bamboo baskets containing 
01 biicks cacli. Grocn luick tea is mado in the 
same manner, but of leaf, not dust, and the bricks 
are larger, weighing two pounds and a half each, 
thirty-six going to a basket when packed for export." 
There is a sample of hard compressed brick 
tea in the Kew Museum such as was imported in 
quantities into London from Shanghai in 1863, 
for re-exportation to Russia, the cost of which was 
6d. per pound and duty. It seems from information 
kindly furnished by Mr. Henry Tuke Mennell, f.l.s., 
of St. Dunstan's Buildiugs, Great Tower Street, 
E. C, who presented the above-named specimen to the 
Museum, that this kind of tea is not now an article 
of commerce on the London market, though it is 
still an article of regular consumption in Russia, but 
is now chiefly, if not entirely, sent overland. 
Consul Allen, reporting on the trade of Hankow 
for the year 1887, says, "The trade m Russian brick 
tea seems to increase ' by leaps and bounds.' The 
bricks are prepared entirely by steam machinery. 
The brick tea factories, with the'r tall chimneys, 
are the most striking buildings in the European 
settlement." 
The brick tea of Tibet is an entirely different qua- 
lity of tea from the above described. The full grown 
leaves aroused, and are comparatively loosely pressed 
together into blocks about 10 inches by 10 inches, 
and 4 inches thick. 
Mr. Colbourne Baber, some time British Consul at 
Chungking, described the Tibetan teapot as a wooded 
churn, in which the boiling infusion is poured through 
a strainer ; a little salt is added, and some 20 
strokes applied with a dasher pierced with five holes. 
A lump of butter is then thrown in, and the com- 
pound is again churned with from 100 to 150 strokes 
administered with much precision. The tea is then 
ready for drinking. 
The use of compressed tea in this country has 
been attempted at different times, but never with 
complete success. A few years ago two companies 
were formed for working it, and at the present time 
there is a company in London which deals exclusively 
in this article, a sample of which is in the Kew 
Museums. It is claimed for this tea tVat it has many 
advantages over loose tea, the chief of which is that 
the leaves being submitted to heavy hydraulic pres- 
sure all the cells are broken, and the constituents of 
the leaf more easily extracted by the boiling v/ater 
thus effectng a considerable saving in quantity 
required for use. Its great advantages over loose tea 
however would sc c ui to be its more portable character, 
and in the case uf long sea voyages, or for use in 
expeditions, the reduction of its bulk to one-third. 
The compression of tea into blocks further, it 
is said, constiutes a real and important improve- 
ment in the treatment of tea. These blocks weigh 
a quarter of a pound each, and are subdivided into 
ounces, half ounces, and quarter ounces ; this 
insures exactitude in measuring, and saves the trouble, 
waste, and uncertainty of measuring by spoonfuls. 
It also ensures uniformity in the strength of the 
infusion. By compression it is claimed that the 
aromatic properties of the leaf are retained for a 
much longer period, and that it is better preserved 
from damp and climatic changes. — Kevj Bidktin. 
THE CORK INDUSTEY IN SPAIN. 
The cork tree is found in Spain in great abun- 
dance in the provinces of Gerona, Carceres, and An- 
dalusia, especially in the provinces of Huelvas, 
Seville, and Cadiz, and, although in less quantity, 
in the provinces of Cuidad Real, Malaga, Cordoba, 
Toledo, and some others. .The United States Con- 
sil at Barcelona says that, according to a calcula- 
tion male by the administration of forests, the ex- 
tent of cork forests in Spain is about 255,000 
hectares (heotare=2'47 acres), distributed as follows : 
—80,000 in the province of Gerona, 45,000 in Huelvas, 
32,500 in Carceres 28,000 in Seville, 20,000 in Cadiz, 
11,500 in Ouidad Real, and 9,500 in Cordoba. In 
the localities exposed to the north the cork is better 
than in those exposed to the south, and it is seldom 
found in calcareous soil, preferring always that o 
tlio felspar, this being found principally in the pro 
