AGRICULTURE OF THE CHINESE.-NO. 10. 
303 
the latter of which is of some importance in a coun¬ 
try so ill provided with fuel. 
The tea prepared in the manner which I have just 
described is greenish in color, and of a most excel¬ 
lent quality. It is called by the Chinese, in tha 
province of Chekiang, Tsaou-tsing. or the tea whick 
the last time, upon a large sort of screen, also 
made out of split pieces of bamboo, and are exposed 
to the action of the air. The best days for this pur¬ 
pose are those which are dry and cloudy, with very 
little sun. The object being to expel the moisture 
in the most gentle manner, and, at the same time, 
to allow the leaves to remain as soft 
and pliable as possible. When the 
sun is clear and powerful, the moisture 
evaporates too rapidly, and the leaves 
are left crisp, coarse, and not in a pro¬ 
per state to undergo the remaining part 
of the process. There is no stated 
time for this exposure, as much de¬ 
pends upon the nature of the weather 
and the convenience of the work peo¬ 
ple ; sometimes I have seen them go 
on with the remaining part of the ope¬ 
ration without at all exposing the 
leaves to the air. 
Having in this manner got rid of a 
certain part of the superfluous mois¬ 
ture, the leaves, which are now soft 
and pliant, are again thrown into the 
drying pans, and the second heating 
commences. Again one individual 
takes his post at the furnace, and 
keeps up a slow and steady fire. 
Others resume their places at the dif¬ 
ferent drying pans, one at each, and 
commence stirring and throwing up the leaves, so 
that they may all have an equal share of the fire, 
and none get scorched, or burned. The process of 
drying thus goes on slowly and regularly. This 
part of the operation soon becomes more easy; for 
the leaves, as they part with their moisture, twist 
and curl, and consequently take up much less room 
than they do at first, and mix together more readily. 
The tea leaves being now rather too hot for the 
hand, a small and neat brush, made of bamboo, is 
used instead of the fingers for stirring them up from 
the bottom of the pan. By this means, the leaves 
are scattered about on the smooth chunam work, 
■which forms the back of the drying pan, and, as 
they roll down on this heated inclined plane they 
dry slowly, and twist at the same time. During 
this operation, the men and women, who are em¬ 
ployed, never leave their respective stations, one 
keeps slowly feeding the fire, and the others con¬ 
tinually stir the leaves. No very exact degree of 
temperature is attempted to be kept up, for they do 
not use the thermometer, but a slow and steady fire 
is quite sufficient ; that is, the pan is made and kept 
so hot, that I could not place my hand upon it for 
a second of time. In order to get a correct idea of 
the time required to complete this second part of the | 
process, I referred to my watch on different occa- j 
sions, and at different tea farms, and always found 
that it occupied about an hour; that is, from the 
time the leaves were put into the pan after exposure 
to the air, until they were perfectly dry. 
When the operation of drying is going on large¬ 
ly, some of the pans in the range are used for fin¬ 
ishing the process, while others, and the hottest 
ones, are heating and moistening the leaves before 
they are squeezed and rolled. Thus a considerable 
number of hands can be employed at once, and the 
work goes on rapidly without loss of time or heat, I 
The Rolling Process.—Fig. 82 . 
is dried in the pan , to distinguish it from the Hong - 
tsing, or that kind which is dried in flat bamboo 
baskets over a slow fire of charcoal. 
This latter kind, the Hong-tsing, is prepared in 
the following manner:—The first process, up to the 
period of rolling and exposure to the air, is exactly 
the same as that which I have just described, but 
instead of being put into the drying pan for the 
second heating like the Tsaou-tsing, the Hong- 
tsing is shaken out into flat baskets, which are 
placed over tubs containing charcoal and ashes. 
The charcoal, when ignited, burns slowly and sends 
out a mild and gentle heat. Indeed, the only dif¬ 
ference between the two teas consists in the mode 
of firing, the latter being dried less and more slowly 
than the former. The Hong-tsing is not so green, 
in color as the Tsaou-tsing, and I believe has rarely 
been exported. 
After the drying is completed, the tea is picked, 
sifted, divided into different kinds and qualities, and 
prepared for packing. This is a part of the opera¬ 
tion which requires great care, more especially 
when the tea is intended for the foreign market, as 
the value of the sample depends much upon the 
“ smallness and evenness” of the leaf, as well as 
upon its other good qualities. In those districts 
where the teas are manufactured solely for expor ta¬ 
tion, the natives are very particular in the rolling 
process, and hence the teas from these districts are 
better divided and more even—although I should 
doubt their being really better in quality — than they 
are in the eastern parts of the province of Chekiang. 
When they have been duly assorted, a man puts on 
a pair of clean cloth or straw shoes, and treads the 
tea firmly into baskets, or boxes, and the operation 
is considered complete, in so far as the grower is 
concerned. 
I have stated that the plants grown in the dis 
