366 
CULTIVATION OF THE COMMON LOCUST TREE. 
three thousand chests in all. The word hyson is 
corrupted from the Chinese name, which signifies 
“ flourishing spring,” this fine sort of tea being of 
course gathered in the early part of the season. 
Every separate leaf is twisted and rolled by hand, 
and it is on account of the extreme care and labor 
required in its preparation, that the best hyson tea 
is so difficult to procure, and so expensive. By 
way of keeping up its quality, the East-India Com¬ 
pany used to give a premium for the two best lots 
annually presented to them for selection; and the 
tea merchants were stimulated to exertion, as much 
by the credit of the thing, as by the actual gain in 
price. 
Gunpowder , as it is called, is nothing but a more 
carefully-picked hyson, consisting of the best 
rolled and roundest leaves, which give it that gran- 
ular appearance whence it derives its name. For 
a similar reason, the Chinese call it CAooca, “ pearl 
tea.” 
Young Hyson , until it was spoiled by the large 
demand of the Americans, was a genuine, delicate 
young leaf, called in the original language Yu-tsien , 
“ before the fains,” because gathered in the early 
spring. 
The remission of the tea duties in the United 
States occasioned, in the years 1832 and 1833, a 
demand for green teas at Canton which could not 
be supplied by the arrivals from the provinces. 
The Americans, however, were obliged to sail 
•with cargoes of green teas within the favorable 
season ; they were determined to have these teas; 
and the Chinese were determined they should be 
supplied. Certain rumors being afloat concern¬ 
ing the manufacture of green tea from old black 
leaves, the writer of this became curious to ascer¬ 
tain the truth, and with some difficulty persuaded 
a Hong merchant to conduct him, accompanied by i 
one of the inspectors, to the place where the ope¬ 
ration was carried on. Upon reaching the oppo¬ 
site side of the river, and entering one of these 
laboratories of factitious hyson, the parties were 
witnesses to a strange scene. 
In the first place, large quantities of black tea, 
which had been damaged in consequence of the 
floods of the previous autumn, were drying in bas¬ 
kets with sieve bottoms, placed over pans of char¬ 
coal. The dried leaves were then transferred in 
portions of a few pounds each to a great number 
of cast-iron pans, imbedded, in chunam or mortar, 
over furnaces. At each pan stood a workman stir¬ 
ring the tea rapidly round with his hand, having 
previously added a small quantity of turmeric in 
powder, which, of course, gave the leaves a yel¬ 
lowish or orange tinge; but they were still to be 
made green. For this purpose some lumps of a 
fine blue were produced, together with a white sub¬ 
stance in powder, which, from the names given to 
them by the workmen, as well as their appearance, 
were known at once to be prussian blue and gyp¬ 
sum (sulphate of lime). These were triturated 
finely together with a small pestle, in such propor¬ 
tion as reduced the dark color of the blue to a light 
shade; and a quantity equal to a small tea-spoon¬ 
ful of the powder being added to the yellowish 
leaves, these were stirred as before over the fire, 
until the tea had taken the fine bloom color of 
hyson, with very much the same scent. To pre¬ 
vent all possibility of error regarding the substan¬ 
ces employed, samples of them, together with spe¬ 
cimens of the leaves, in each stage of the process, 
were carried away from the place. 
The tea was then handed in small quantities on 
broad shallow baskets, to a number of women and 
children, who carefully picked out the stalks, and 
coarse or uncurled leaves; and, when this had 
been done, it was passed in succession through 
sieves of different degrees of fineness. The first 
sifting produced what was sold as hyson skin, and 
the last bore the name of “young hyson.” As 
the party did not see the intermediate step between 
the picking and sifting, there is reason to believe 
that the size of the leaves was first reduced by 
chopping or cutting with shears. If the tea has 
not highly deleterious qualities, it can only be in 
consequence of the coloring matter existing in a 
small proportion of the leaf; and the Chinese 
seemed quite conscious of the real character of the 
occupation in which they were engaged; for, on 
attempting to enter several other places where the 
same process was going on, the doors were speedily 
closed upon the party. Indeed, had it not been for 
the influence of the Hongist who conducted them, 
there would have been little chance of their seeing 
as much as they did. 
CULTIVATION OF THE COMMON LOCUST 
TREE, ? 
The soil in which the locust ( Robinia 
pseudacacia ), appears to grow best, is a light and 
somewhat sandy loam, rich rather than poor ; and 
to attain any considerable size, it requires much 
room, and an airy, but at the same time, a shelter¬ 
ed situation, free from the fury of the winds. It 
has the quality of thriving for a time on poor, shal¬ 
low soils, which, no doubt, is owing to its power 
of rapidly abstracting whatever nourishment such 
soils may contain, by its large, succulent roots, 
that run near the surface ; but after a few years it 
becomes stunted and unhealthy, decays at the heart, 
and never attains a size sufficient for any useful 
purpose, except for fuel. 
Propagation and Culture .—The locust may 
readily be propagated by seeds, which maybe sown 
as soon as they are ripe, in October, or the opera¬ 
tion may be deferred until the March or April fol¬ 
lowing. Whether they are sown in autumn or 
spring, however, they will come up the ensuing 
summer, and the plants, by the end of the season, 
will be fit either for transplanting into nursery 
lines, or to the places where they are finally to re¬ 
main. The seeds, if exposed to the air two years, 
after being gathered, lose their power of vitality ; 
but if they be kept in their pods, and buried a con¬ 
siderable depth in dry soil, they will remain good 
for five or six years, or perhaps longer. As seed¬ 
bearing trees seldom produce two abundant crops 
in succession, a reserve should be kept from one 
year to another. The great difficulty experienced 
in causing locust seeds to vegetate, operates as a 
discouragement with many, as they require to be 
repared before sowing, in order to soften their 
ard and shelly pericarps, or hornlike envelopes, 
in which nature has deposited their germs. A wri¬ 
ter in the “ Maine Cultivator,” recommends pour¬ 
ing water over the seeds, previously heated to the 
