68o 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [April  i,  1897. 
oil  and  the  resins  in  tea  being  insoluble  in  water 
have  no  ellect  on  the  strength  of  the  liquor. 
Tn  the  manufacture  of  tea  Mr.  Crole  spoke  of  tlie 
various  mistakes  that  might  be  made  hy  inex- 
perience such  as  allowing  the  concentration  of 
the  sap  in  withering  to  go  too  far,  which  would 
prevent  the  cells  bursting,  impair  the  colour  in 
fermentation  and  so  forth  ; the  bruising  of  the 
fresh  leaf  which  gave  the  air  access  to  the  sap 
during  withering,  causing  consequently  inferior 
quality  and  appearance  of  tlie  tea;  the  exposing 
of  the  tea  to  tiie  direct  rays  of  tlie  sun,  or  to 
excessive  temperature  otherwise  ; the  allowing 
the  rolled  tea  to  lie  about  heaped  up  for  any 
length  of  time,  inducing  a secondary  fermenta- 
tioii,  which  last  he  ascribes  to  a living  germ  similai 
to  that  in  the  yeast  plant,  and  desirable  in  the 
extreme  to  arrest  at  the  very  outset,  its  action 
being  deleterious  to  tlie  quality  of  tlie  tea.  Four 
points  he  laid  great  stress  on  • — 1st,  tlie  leaf  when 
withered  and  rolled,  should  be  sieved  to  sort  out 
the  fine  leaf  from  the  coarse,  as  it  is  impossible 
to  obtain  an  even  fermentation  if  the  twi^  kinds 
are  not  separately  ilealt  with. 
2.  A clean  cenieut  floor  on  which  the  leaf 
may  be  spread  out  evenly,  not  too  thickly,  and 
kept  moist. 
3.  A dark  cool  airy  room  with  a moist 
draught  of  air  if  possible. 
4.  The  temperature  of  the  leaf  should  be  kept 
under  85°  F.  if  po.ssible. 
After  which  .\Ir.  Crole  explained  his  theory 
that  tea  should  be  I'ermcnted  under  such  reduced 
temperature  as  can  only  be  obtained  in  a tea 
factory  by  the  artificial  use  of  a refrigerator, 
and  added  somewhat  ruefully  that  having 
circulated  this  idea  rather  rashly  a year 
ago,  a machine  had  since  been  brought  out 
forestalling  his  own  invention  on  these  lines.  He 
has,  however,  gone  on  with  his  own  and  considers 
it  embodies  all  the  points  his  practical  experience 
and  scientific  knowledge  have  suggested. 
The  disagreeable  cheesy  smell  occasionally  per- 
ceptible on  opening  tea  chests,  arrived  at  tlie 
docks,  he  attiibuted  neither  to  the  lead  lining 
round  the  tea  solely,  nor  to  the  green  wood 
used  in  the  boxes,  but  to  both  conjointly,  and 
that  some  emanation  of  the  green  wood  coriodes 
the  lead,  and  then  either  itself,  or  its  compound 
with  lea<l,  acts  on  .«ome  uonstitueiiD  of  the  tea. 
In  steel  chests,  the  remedy  might  be  found, 
although  of  cotuve  that  was  merely  a surmise. 
The  foregoing  is  a .summary  of  the  more  jirae- 
tical  points  in  the  lecture.  What  my  boiling 
down  of  it  loses  in  scientilic  language,  I ho])C 
will  be  forgiven  for  the  .sake  of  evciyday  English 
which  is  perhaps  mure  intelligible  to  the  world 
in  general. 
In  iiiatLcrs  spcci.ally  connected  with  Ceylon, 
perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  item  of  the  week  is 
the  i.s:?uingof  the  prospectus  of  iio‘  new 
TKA  COMPANY. 
The  Company  style  themselves  the  Ceylon  Pro- 
prietary Tea  Estates  Company,  Limited,  with  a 
share  capital  of  £160, OtX),  divi<led  into  40,000  £.o 
per  cent  preference  shares,  and  120,000  ordinary 
shares  of  £1  each.  The  Diiectois  are : II.  K. 
Kutherford,  G.  A.  Talbot,  of  the  Ceylon  'I’ea 
Plantation  Comp  iny.  Limited,  and  11.  A.  (lameion, 
(Director,  Eastern  I’roduce  and  Estates  Company, 
Limited),  and  F.  II.  Wiggiii  (late  Chairman, 
Ileaumont  Tea  Conqiany  of  Ceylon,  Linuted). 
'I’he  Hankers  are  the  Commocial  Ha.nk  of  .Scot- 
land ; ar.a.l  the  oHices  of  the  new  Company  ;ire  in 
21  Mincing  Lane,  E.C.  I'lie  Conqi.any  is  formed 
withttio  objects  of  buying  and  working  thcHcau' 
mont  Group  of  estates  in  Pussellawa,  the  Forres 
and  Warpurton  estates  in  Maskeliya,  the  Summer- 
ville estate,  Dikoya,  the  Troy  estate,  Kelani, 
and  the  Kadella  estate,  seven  light  shares,  Dim- 
bula- 
^ 
THE  CHEMISTRY  OF  TEA. 
(From  the  /C.  tO  C,  Mail,  Feb.  12.) 
An  interesting  but  highly  technical  paper  on  “The 
Chemistry  of  Tea”  was  read  by  Mr.  David  Crole  at  the 
Society  of  Arts  on  Wednesday  evening.  Sir  Stewart 
Biyley  was  in  the  chair  and  in  introducing  the  lec- 
turer slated  that  besides  being  an  expert  chemist  he 
had  also  been  a tea  planter  in  Assam. 
Mr.  Crole  began  by  describing  the  various  chemical 
constituents  within  the  tea  plant  and  their  action 
there  so  far  as  that  action  was  yet  known.  The 
chemical  constituents  of  tea  make  a list  of  most  porten- 
tous names— tannic,  gallic,  and  boheic  acids;  benzene, 
phlorogliicin,  oxyhyaro-quinoue.  Meat  tea,  said  the 
lecturer,  was  a horrible  meU.  dear  though  it  was  to 
the  hearts  of  certain  English  folk,  because  the  tannin 
of  tea  then  taken  into  the  system  in  conjunction  with 
albuminoid  matter  was  converted  into  a leathery 
compound  which  took  all  the  time  of  a powerful  diges- 
tion to  tackle.  In  fact,  the  meat  tea  meant  dyspepsia. 
Besides  theine  the  other  alkaloids  found  in  tea  were 
theopylin,  theobrimine,  assumin,  quercitrin,  and  some 
other  underterrained  ones,  which  . the  lecturer 
thought  should  be  investigated. 
Mr.  Crole,  after  dealing  at  length  with  the  chemistry 
of  tea  and  its  organic  constituents,  came  to  the  ques- 
tion of  the  chemistry  of  the  process  of  manufacture. 
He  said  : — 
Whilst  the  leaf  is  withering  little  chemical 
change  takes  place,  beyond  an  incipient  oxi- 
dation of  some  of  the  constituents  of  the  sap. 
Withering  is  brought  about  by  the  evaporation 
of  a certain  variable  amount  of  moisture,  but 
generally  about  one-quarter  of  the  original  weight 
of  the  freshly-plucked  leaf.  This  loss  of  moisture 
occasions  a concentration  of  the  sap  : if  this  pro- 
ceeds too  far,  however,  (1)  the  cells  will  not  burst 
in  rolling  ; (2)  some  of  the  constituents  of  the  sap 
will  no  longer  remain  in  solution  ; and  (3)  the  colour 
during  fermentation  will  be  uneven,  owing  to  there 
being  insufficient  sap  to  spread  over  the  whole  sur- 
face of  the  rolled  leaf. 
If  the  fresh  leaf  is  bruised  the  air  gains  access  to 
the  sap  during  the  withering  process,  and  the  tea 
is,  in  consequence,  inferior  both  in  quality  of  li- 
quor and  also  in  appearance,  owing  to  decomposition 
and  premature  oxidation  having  set  in. 
If  the  leaf  is  exposed  to  a temperature  which  is 
excessive  under  the  circumstan  ;es — as,  for  instance, 
exposure  to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun — an  untimely 
oxidation  will  set  in  which  will  spoil  the  leaf  for 
m inufacture. 
The  object  of  rolling  is  to  give  a twist  or 
roll  to  the  leaf,  and  also  to  break  the  cells  of 
the  leaf  and  thius  liberate  the  juices  they  contain, 
so  that  they  may  be  further  acted  on  during  the 
next  process,  and  also  that  they  may  be  more 
capable  of  o.xbraotion  with  water, 
t)n  the  cells  being  broken  the  sap  escapes,  and 
during  the  coiuin nance  of  the  rolling  is  spread  all 
over  the  surface  of  the  rolled  leaf,  where  it  is  in  a 
very  favourable  position  for  the  oxygen  to  act  on  it 
during  the  next  stage  of  manufacture — viz.,  fermen- 
tation. Some  of  this  exuded  sap  is  acted  on  by  the 
hot  air  contained  within  the  box  of  the  rolling-machine, 
and  in  consequence  a portion  of  the  organic  acids 
(chiefly  the  tannin)  undergo  partial  oxidisation.  Some 
of  the  tannin  combines  with  the  oxygen  to  form  phlo- 
baphene  (Hamber),  and  also  glucose  and  gallic  acid, 
assuming  a dark  insoluble  form  during  the  process, 
while  part  also  combines  with  some  of  the  albuminoid, 
matter,  an  insoluble,  loather-like  substance  resulting. 
These  two  last  reactions  are  only  incipient  at  this 
stage,  but  are  more  fully  developed  during  the  next 
process  (fermentation). 
