14 RESEARCHES ON THE MANUFACTURE 
thick paper placed upon the furnace. There the leaves are left 
until the next morning. The temperature in the furnace should 
be rather low; viz. 35—4o c C. One workman can prepare, as a 
day’s work, 4 kwamme of a fine tea, 5 kwamme of a medium, 
and 6 kwamme of an inferior tea. From 1 kwamme of fresh 
leaves generally 0.23 kwamme of tea is obtained. 
Sortimenting. The tea thus prepared is subjected to sifting 
with an ordinary Japanese sieve of large meshes. The latter is 
suspended from the ceiling by a long cord and moved back¬ 
wards and forwards lightly pressing the tea therein with the 
palm of the hand. By this means the petals are separated from 
the blades, both passing through the sieve, while the large open 
or untwisted leaves remain behind. The leaves, together with 
the petals, etc., are winnowed by a sort of shallow basket, by 
which dust as well as open leaves are blown off. Finally the 
remaining rubbish is picked up by hand. Now comes the use 
of a set of sieves of the following description. 
No. 
Diameter in shaku 
Size of meshes 
in bu 1 
2 
2.2 
3.0 in 
square 
3 
2.1 
2.2 
n 
4 
2.0 
2.0 
>> 
5 
Ii 9 
1.8 
jj 
6 
1.8 
i -5 
>> 
The depth of all these sieves is equal, being 3.8 sun. 2 One or 
other of these sieves is used according to the quality of tea. 
For an inferior sort, the sieves No. 2, 3, and 4 are used, the 
sifting with these sieves being repeated twice or even thrice with 
each. For a medium sort, the sieves No. 4. and 5. are em¬ 
ployed, and the sifting with each sieve is performed twice. For 
a superior sort, the sifting with the sieve No. 6 is repeated 
twice. The sieve No. 1 is only used for quite an ordinary tea, 
while for an extra-fine sort, the sieves No. 7, 8, 9, and 10 are 
sometimes employed. The tea thus sortimented is once more 
fired at a moderate heat for a few minutes (about 7 minutes) 
1 I bu= 0.01 shaku. 
2 i suit = 0,1 shaku. 
