3 S 6 
THE TROPICAL AQRiCULTURISt 
[November i, 1890, 
foliaged P/hus swifijisis which I mentioned as having 
been obtained from Hakgala and as growing 
luxuriantly near the Bund of the Nuwara Eliya 
Lake. Fortune, in his book on the tea districts of 
India, notices its occurrence without describing it. 
Gamble does not mention it in his Manual, so that 
it does not seem to be amongst the foreign plants 
established in India. Still more strange is it, 
that neither in Lindley’s Vegetable Kingdom nor in 
the Treasury of Botany is it mentioned. By the 
name which indicates the tree as specially in- 
digenous to China, I have failed also to find it in 
that valuable and comprehensive book, Baron von 
Mueller’s “ Select Extra Tropical Plants.” But I 
suppose it really is the tree there given as Finns 
Massoniana (Lambert), which is referred to China 
and of which it is said that it is “ a good sized pine, 
with widely spreading ramifications. The wood is 
durable, and when well seasoned, is much employed 
as material for tea boxes.” The Baron adds; — 
‘‘Professor C. Koch regards P. Sinensis (Lambert) 
as a distinct species.” Whether identical with F. 
■massoniana or not, P. sinensis must certainly be a 
valuable tree, for it is of this species that Mr. Ford, 
the Botanist and Forester of Hongkong, has planted 
out hundreds of thousands in the process of 
afforesting the British-owned island on the borders 
of China. Perhaps Dr. Trimen may possess and be 
ready to impart more definite information regarding 
F. sinensis and its utility as a limber tree to be 
cultivated on the mountains of Ceylon. Of the 
exceeding beauty of its foliage there can be no 
possible question : provided the specimens I obtained 
from Hakgala were, as 1 suppose they must have 
been, correctly identified as the Chinese fir. 
From a tree which is associated with the tea plant 
in China and which yields timber suitable for tea 
chests,* the transition to tea is ecsy. In tbe 
large and well appointed factory here, this morning, 
I witnessed every process connected with the 
manufacture of the fragrant leaf, including sizing 
of the gr en leaves, withering, rolling, breaking the 
roll, re*rolling, ‘‘ fermenting,” roasting and binning, 
— with the bulking and final firing and packing 
into lead-lined and hermitically dosed boxes of tea 
accumulated in the bins, while still hot from 
the final firing. For roas ing or drying the tea, 
•we have a Davidson’s hirocco, a Jackcon’s original 
Drier and a Jackson’s Venetian. When we n quire 
an additional tea drier, es it seeuis probab e we 
soon will, we are strongly advised by those whose 
judgment is worthy of respect to supply the factory 
with a Brown’s Desicca or. Whut was new to me 
this morning was the process of breaking up “ the 
roll” by means of a noisy but elfective machine 
manufactured by Walker & Greig. With the 
attendance of one man it v.oes the work which 
formerly required the manual labour of four coolies. 
It has also removed so much necessity for handling 
the moist leaf, of which no doubt the less the 
better. For the bens fit cf the uninitiated I may 
say that the green loaf, after undergoing a wither- 
ing process, piolonged or shortened according to 
the prevalent weather, is rolled by a machine which 
beautifully raitates while it has happily superseded 
the motion ol multitudinous human haivfs. In this 
process the juice expressed iu the squeezing and 
twisting of the leaves causes masses of them to 
adhere, — masses which, previously to tbe introduction 
of the roll-breaker, bad to be separated by rhe 
human hand, preparatory to being fermente-l, or, as 
is now the praotice, to a second rolling before the 
leaf iii finally broken up and left to be fermented or 
rather oxygenized, for true f.;rm> ntation would mean 
destruction of the leaf or at any rate of all 
tbe properties which make the leaf pleasant and 
profitable. The second process which specially in- 
terested me was that of “bulking” the tea. This 
is still done here by human agency ; and although 
the handling by the coolies of the dried leaves, 
which are subsequently submitted to the effects 
of a final tiring, may not be objectionable, yet I 
can quite conceive of a bulking machine which, 
while mixing the 1 aves eft'- ctually, would be ap- 
preciably labour-saving. The “bulking” of the 
leaf means such a mixing together of teas made day 
by day and stored in metal-lined and closely shut- 
ting bins, for a week, a fortnight, or a month as 
the case may be, as will secure a uniform quality 
throughout, so that, if a sample of one chest is 
tasted, that sample will fairly r- present the con- 
tents of the whole of tbe boxes of the particular 
description of tea, — broken or orange pekoe, pekoe, 
or pekoe souchong, our three staple grades in Cey- 
lon. I saw a pyramidal heap of the latter quality 
operated on this morning. It rested on cloth 
spread on the floor considerably beyond the base 
of the heap of tea. At a signal, the dozen of coolies 
who surrounded the heap drew the tea with their 
ha-'ds onwards on the cloth until a vacant space 
was left in the centre. Into and over this space 
the tea was then thrown back, until the pyramid was 
restored. Then the pulling down and th building up 
processes were repeated, so that the whole of the daily 
makings of tea were thoroughly amalgamated. If 
this process is always as carefully carried on 
as it was this morning, I cannot unoerstand why 
our invoices are not invariably accepted as “factory 
bulked,” instead of an exception being occasion- 
ally made, as recently, “ ail except the pekoe 
souchong,’’ which ‘of course ’ had to be subjected to 
the damaging effects ot being turned out of the 
boxes on the pi rhaps damp floor of a London 
warehouse and repacked luto packages the lead 
of which was probably torn and some of the wood 
broken. We are inclined to think that London 
objections to the bulking here are often capri- 
cious, but, of course, the varied moods of coolies 
differ from the uniform action of material ma- 
chiD'^ry; and it seems lO me that a really good 
bulking machine wouU be a useful addition to 
our factory appliances. I have never seen such a 
machine, but I have been tolu of one which some- 
what resembles an hour-glass, the leaf being 
inserted in an orifice at the top and being spread 
out as it descends. Perhaps a correspondent of the 
Observer will describe a bulking machine in use 
and its action, — whether quite effective while ap- 
preciably labour-saving. The.e is one operation 
of which I have omitted to mention, although I 
•vitnessed it this morning, and which uureasoniDg 
machinery can never effect. That is the picking 
out of “red leaf,” stalks, bits of coir and other 
foreign substances from the roasted tea, in 
which necessary although slow and expensive 
work women are chiefly employed. By the recom- 
mendation of a competent a thority the tea cutter 
has recently been superseded by a process of 
breaking in which also hand labour is employed. 
The whole of the processes of tea mauuiaoture, 
much of which consists of chemical action, are 
complicated and exceedingly nice in their nature, 
and require intelligent and constant, and I may add 
unremitting, attention from year's end to year’s end, 
forming a complete contrast to the pulping, wash- 
ing and partial drying of coffee, crowded into a 
few montus ot the year and leaving room for a 
holiday or comparatively easy work during the re- 
maining months. We in Ceylon have not even the 
winter during which tea is inert and planter 
active in hunting, visiting or holiday-making in 
India and Assam. It is curious, now that Ceylon 
tea has obtained so high a place in the world’s 
esteem, to recall the prt gnosiicatious ol Assam 
