three millions in the population of the country, and notwithstanding
the impetus given to the tea-trade by the abolition of the East India
Company's monopoly in 1833, the increased consumption was only
6,675,566 lbs. Great as the increase has been of late years, however,
it is very far short of what we might expect to see were the duty
reduced to a moderate per centage on the value of the article as it
comes from the Chinese merchant. In Jersey and Guernsey, where there
is no duty on tea, the average consumption is 4½ lbs. per head per
annum. The same rate for the United Kingdom would require an annual
importation of nearly 150 million lbs. I asserted, many months ago, if
the duty could be gradually reduced from its present exorbitant amount
to 1s. per lb., the revenue would not suffer much, whilst the comfort
of the people would be much increased, and our trade with China
greatly improved.
Years. Teas Imported, lbs. Entered for Home Consumption, lbs.
1843 42,779,265 35,685,262
1844 50,613,328 41,176,00
1845 53,570,267 44,127,000
1846 57,584,561 46,554,787
1847 55,255,000 50,921,486
1848 47,774,755 48,735,696
1849 53,460,751 50,024,688
1850 50,512,384 51,178,215
1851 71,466,421 53,965,112
1852 66,361,020 54,724,615
Amount of duty received on tea:--
£ Prices of Sound Common Congou per lb.
1841 3,973,668 1s. 7d. to 2s. 0d.
1842 4,088,957 1 7 1 10
1843 4,407,642 1 0 1 2
1844 4,524,093 0 10 1 0
1845 4,833,351 1 0 1 9½
1846 5,112,005 0 9 0 9½
1847 5,066,860 0 8½ 0 9½
1848 5,330,515 0 8 0 8½
1849 5,471,641 0 8½ 0 9½
1850 5,597,708 0 10½ 1 1
1851 5,902,433 0 8 0 8½
1852 5,986,482 0 7½ 2 2
Mr. Montgomery Martin, in his work on China, published in 1847, gave
the average annual consumption of tea, the produce of China, as
follows:--
lbs.
Great Britain and Ireland 45,000,000
British North America and West Indies 2,500,000
Australasia, Cape of Good Hope, &c. 2,500,000
British India and Eastern Islands 2,000,000
----------
Total used throughout the British Empire 52,000,000
----------
United States of North America * 7,000,000
Russia 10,000,000
France and Colonies 500,000
Hanse Towns, &c. 150,000
Holland and its Colonies 1,000,000
Belgium 200,000
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway 250,000
The German States 500,000
Spain and Portugal 100,000
Italian States 50,000
South American States 500,000
-------
Total consumption in foreign countries 20,250,000
[* This is only one-third the actual consumption.]
According to this statement, it would seem that the English consume
twice the quantity of tea that is used by all the other countries
excepting China and Japan.
The consumption of tea in Europe and America I estimated a year or two
ago as follows:--
lbs.
Russia 15,000,000
United States of America 18,000,000
France 2,000,000
Holland 2,800,000
Other countries 2,000,000
Great Britain 50,000,000
----------
Total 89,800,000
The estimated consumption, at the rate of consumption found where
taxation is favorable (as for instance 1½ pounds--the average of this
country) would give the following:--
cwts.
England 400,000
France 510,000
Germany 400,000
Austria 500,000
Prussia ...
Belgium 63,000
Russia 900,000
Rest of Europe 750,000
The total exportation of tea by sea from China, was estimated by Mr.
Martin in 1847 at 76 millions of pounds, viz.:--
England 50,000,000
United States 20,000,000
All other countries 5,000,000
----------
75,000,000
which, at 20 taels per picul (133 lbs.) amounts to 11,280,000 taels of
silver at 80d. per tael, £3,760,000. The present Chinese duty of two
taels five mace, does not include shipping and other charges; the old
duty was five taels, and included all charges paid the Hong merchants.
The export by sea is now about 97 millions of lbs.
The following was the returned value of the tea exported from the five
Chinese ports in 1844 and 1845:--
1844. 1845.
Canton £2,910,474 £3,429,790
Shanghae 67,115 462,746
Ningpo 2,000 2,000
Amoy 544
Foo-chow-foo 638
--------- ---------
£2,979,589 £3,895,718
The average cost of tea in China at the ship's side is 10d. per pound,
while it is confidently asserted that it could be produced in many
parts of America at 5d. the pound. The great cost in China is owing to
the expensive transportation, the cultivation of the fuel used, the
absence of all economy of machinery, &c. It is only by adulteration
that tea is sold in China as cheap as 10d. In America the beating and
rolling of the leaves (one half of the labor) could be done by the
simplest machinery, fuel could be economised by flues, &c.
The Russian teas, brought by caravans, are the most expensive and best
teas used in Europe. The Chinese themselves pay 7½ dollars per pound
for the "Yen Pouchong" teas.
Full chests were exhibited in 1851, by Mr. Ripley, of various Pekoe
teas, some of which fetch 50s. per lb. in the China market; whilst 7s.
is the very highest price any of the sort will fetch in England, and
this only as a fancy article. The plain and orange-scented Pekoes now
fetch little with us; but as caravan teas, are purchased by the
wealthier Russian families. The finest, however, never leave China,
being bought up by the Mandarins; for though the transit expenses add
3s. to 4s. per lb. to the value when sold in Russia, the highest
market price in St. Petersburg is always under 50s. Among these
scented teas are various caper teas, flavoured with chloranthus
flowers and the buds of some species of plants belonging to the orange
tribe, _magnolia fuscata_, olea flowers, &c. The Cong Souchong, or
Ning-young teas, are chiefly purchased for the American market. Oolong
tea is the favourite drink in Calcutta, though less prized in England,
its delicate flavor being injured by the length of the voyage. For
delicacy, no teas, approach those usually called "Mandarin teas,"
which being slightly fired and rather damp when in the fittest state
for use, will bear neither transport nor keeping. They are in great
demand among the wealthy Chinese, and average 20s. per lb in the
native market.--(Jury Reports.)
The consumption of tea in the United Kingdom may now be fairly taken
at fifty-four million pounds yearly, and sold at an average price to
the consumer of 4s. 6d., per pound. The money expended for tea is
upwards of twelve millions sterling.
The expenditure of this sum is distributed as follows, in round
numbers:--
Net cost of 54,000,000 pounds, average 1s. per pound £2,700,000
Export duty in China of 1½d. a lb. 337,500
Shipping charges, &c., in China 25,000
Freight, &c., China to England, about 2d. per lb. 450,000
Insurance, ½d. per lb. 112,500
Commission, about ¼d. per lb. 56,250
Tasting charges, &c., about 1/8 of a penny per lb. 28,125
Interest for 6 months on £3,709,375 at 5 per cent. 92,734
---------
Total outlay in China £3,802,109
Profit to exporters in China,(about 12 per cent.) 445,116
Landing charges, &c., in England 39,000
----------
Cost price in bond in England £4,286,225
Duty received by government at 2s. 2½. per lb., about 5,985,482
----------
£10,271,707
Profit divided among tea-brokers, wholesale and retail
dealers, &c 1,878,293
----------
Total outlay by British public for tea, at 4s. 6d. per lb. £12,150,000
The tea imported into England in 1667 was only 100 lbs., while for the
year ending June 30, 1851, the export from China to Great Britain was
64,020,000 lbs., employing 115 vessels in its transportation; and to
the United States, during the same time, 28,760,800 lbs., in
sixty-four vessels. Within the last five years, the export has
increased 10,000,000 lbs. to the United States, and 17,000,000 to
Great Britain. These statistics will show the immense importance of
this article to commerce, and the vast amount of shipping it supports.
But let us follow out the statistics a little more in detail.
The population of the Chinese provinces, as quoted by Dr. Morison,
from an official census taken in 1825, was 352,866,012, and we may
fairly conclude that during the last twenty-eight years this
population has extensively increased. If we assume the annual
consumption of tea at four lb. per head on the above population; and
this is no unreasonable assumption in a country, where, to quote from
Murray's valuable work on China, tea "is the national drink, which is
presented on every occasion, served up at every feast, and even sold
on the public roads;" we shall have a tolerably accurate result as to
the total consumption in the empire. Indeed this computation falls
short of the actual relative consumption in the island of Jersey,
where, as we have seen, nearly five lbs. is the annual allowance of
each individual.
If we multiply the population of China by four, we have--
lbs.
Total consumption of tea in China 1,411,464,048
Export of Great Britain and Ireland, for the year ending
June 30, 1851. 64,020,000
Export to the United States, same period 28,760,800
Export to Holland, returned at 2,000,000 in Davis's
"China" 3,000,000
Inland trade to Russia 15,000,000
Export to Hamburg, Bremen, Denmark, Sweden, &c.,
seven cargoes, about 3,000,000
Export to Sydney, and Australasian Colonies, at least 6,000,000
Export to Spain and France, four cargoes 2,000,000
---------
Total lbs. 1,533,244,848
The above is exclusive of the heavy exportation in Chinese vessels to
all parts of the east where Chinese emigrants are settled, such as
Tonquin, Cochin China, Cambodia, Siam, the Philippines, Borneo, and
the various settlements within the Straits of Malacca. In comparison
with such an enormous quantity, the 54 million lbs. consumed in the
United Kingdom sink into insignificance.
£
The cost of tea to America, at the ship's side in China,
say 29,000,000 lbs., at an average of 1s. per lb.,
would be 1,450,000
The cost to England, 64,000,000, at the same price 3,200,000
The cost to other places, say 25,000,000 1,250,000
Russia, 15,000,000 750,000
----------
Total £6,650,000
It is therefore clear, that were the demand to be doubled from Great
Britain, it would make very little difference in the Chinese market;
since it would be only a question of letting us have six per cent, of
their growth of the article, instead of three.
When we remember that the tea plant attains to maturity in three
years, and its leaves are then fit for picking; and that there is a
vast extent of country to which it is indigenous, growing in every
climate between the equator and the latitude of 45 degrees, it is
evident that, were there a necessity for it, the actual production of
tea in China could be increased to an almost unlimited extent in the
space of three or four years, an extent far more than compensating for
the extra three per cent., which might be, in the first instance,
required by the British.
The certainty of an increased consumption following upon a reduction
in the price of tea to the actual consumers of it, is so obvious as to
require demonstration to those only who have not considered the
subject. The population of Great Britain and Ireland is, say in round
numbers 30,000,000, the actual consumption of tea is only 54,000,000
lbs., or little more than one pound and three quarters for each
individual. In the neighbouring island of Jersey, there are nearly
five lbs. of tea consumed by every inhabitant yearly; and as we may
fairly infer from analogy that similar results would arise from a
similar cause, the consumption in the United Kingdom in the same ratio
would amount to no less than 150 millions of pounds annually.
Tea, observes a most competent authority (Mr. J. Ingram Travers), is
the favourite drink of the people: all desire to have it strong and
good, and none who can afford it are without it. But in the
agricultural districts the laborers use but little; numbers of them
"make tea with burnt crusts, because the China tea is too dear." In
Ireland the consumption is greatly below that of England; there are
comparatively few people who do not, on company occasions, make their
tea stronger than for ordinary use, and the general economy in the use
of tea forms an exception to almost every other article of
consumption. As to the working classes in the manufacturing districts,
Mr. Bayley, President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, himself a
very extensive manufacturer, and therefore well qualified to speak to
the fact, says:--"The common calculation of two ounces per head per
week I should think is very much in excess of what the working classes
consume. Domestic servants, I believe, have that quantity allowed
them, but I should say that the working classes do not consume one
quarter of that." And yet it is these classes who are the great
consumers of everything cheap enough to be within their reach. It is
this consumption that, under better earnings, has sustained the steady
increase of nearly two million pounds of tea per annum for the last
eight years, and still there is such ample room for increase that
domestic servants are allowed at least four times as much per head as
those working people who value, more than any other class, the
cheerful refreshingness of tea, but who, stinted in its use by the
exorbitant duty, are tempted and almost driven to the use, instead, of
degrading drinks.
And if the general consumption of the population should rise to even
half servants' allowance, or one ounce per head per week, the
consumption of tea would reach 97,500,000 lbs. per annum. And as to
what might be used if the taste for it had free scope, some idea may
be formed from the fact that the consumption of such people as have
found their way from these countries, where the consumption is 1 lb. 9
ozs. per head, to Australia, has there risen to 7 lbs. per head, at
which rate the consumption of the United Kingdom would be about
210,000,000 lbs. per annum, and which, even at a 6d. duty, would
produce five millions and a half. There is nothing in the air of
Australia to give any especial impulse to tea drinking: on the
contrary; in this comparatively cold, damp climate, people would
naturally use a hot beverage more largely than in the dry warm climate
of Australia; and, after all, great as the Australian consumption
seems, it is scarcely more than a quarter of an ounce per head per
week above the allowance to English domestic servants.
The consumption of tea, notwithstanding the dicta of Mr. Montgomery
Martin, is destined to a prodigious increase. Nor is it solely to an
increase in the consumption of tea, that we must look to prevent any
deficiency in the revenue, as there is no doubt that a reduction in
the price of the article would lead to a prodigious increase in the
quantity of sugar consumed, especially by the lower classes, who
seldom take the one without the other.
It is not, however, merely that they would buy sugar in proportion to
the quantity of tea that they consume; the circumstance of a smaller
sum being requisite for their weekly stock of tea, would enable them
to spend a larger amount in other articles, among which sugar would,
undoubtedly, be one of the most important. The merchant, shipowner,
manufacturer, and all connected with the trade between Great Britain
and China, are in a position to see the prodigious advantages that
such a measure as an extensive reduction of the impost on tea would
occasion to the general trade of the country; and the public at large,
who are not practically familiar with the subject, only require it to
be brought before them in a distinct point of view, when the important
results of such a reduction cannot fail to be apparent to them.
Tea is not now within the reach of the poor man. A person taking tea
once a day, will consume about 7½ lbs. a year.
lbs.
Say 500,000 persons take tea twice a day, or 15 lbs. a year, is 7,500,000
Say 4,000,000 persons take tea once a day, or 7½ lbs. a year, is 30,000,000
Say 12,000,000 persons take tea once a week, or 1 lb. a year, is 12,000,000
----------
49,500,000
Which shows that, at present, only one person out of every sixty can
have tea twice a day; one of every seven only once a day; and that out
of the remaining 13,500,000 persons, only five millions and a half can
procure it once in the week. The exact state of the case shows that
only eight millions of the people of the United Kingdom enjoy the use
of tea, leaving the other twenty-two millions excluded. A Chinese will
consume thirty pounds of tea in the year.
But it is said we must not, if our accumulated stocks be drank off
this year, expect the Chinese to meet at once so huge an increase in
the demand as to supply us with as much next year.
Now on no point of the case is the evidence so clear as upon the
capacity of the Chinese to furnish, within any year, any quantity we
may require. The Committee of 1847, on Commercial Relations with
China, state--"That the demand for tea from China has been
progressively and rapidly rising for many years, with no other results
than that of diminished prices:"--a fact to be accounted for only upon
the supposition that our ordinary demand is exceedingly small in
proportion to the Chinese supply. Nor is it an unreasonable inference,
that if so much more than usual was to be had at a less price than
before, any rise of price, however trivial it might be, would bring
forward a much larger quantity:[8] a supposition which is completely
confirmed by a review of prices here, and exports from China within
the last four years; and in considering which it is important to bear
in mind--1st, that our tea trade year, on which our account of import,
export, home consumption, and stock on hand is taken, is from January
to January, and the Chinese tea year from July to July; 2nd, that a
rise at the close of the last months of the year in England,
influences the next year's exports from China; and 3rdly, that of late
years, since something of decrepitude has fallen upon the Chinese
Government, smuggling there, to escape the export duty, has been
carried on largely and at an increasing rate, so that the return is
considerably below the real export.
In the Chinese tea year, July to July, 1848-9, the price of good
ordinary congou, the tea of by far the largest consumption here, and
which, in fact, rules the market, was 8½d. to 9-1/3d., and the export
from China 47,251,000 lbs. The year closed with the higher price, and
the Chinese export from July 1849, to July 1850, was 54,000,000 lbs.,
showing an increase of export on the year of 6,750,000 lbs. Throughout
1850, here, prices fluctuated a good deal. They were low in the
earlier part of the year, but in January went up from 9½d. to 11½d.,
and from July 1850, to July 1851, the export from China rose to
64,000,000 lbs., being an increase of ten million pounds on a previous
increase of nearly seven million lbs. Prices here, during 1851, varied
very much: it was difficult to say whether any rise would be
established, but the export still went up and reached, from July 1851,
to July 1852, 67,000,000 lbs., giving a total increase in three years
of 19,750,000 lbs. Nor was it pretended that in any of those years the
Chinese market showed even the least symptoms of exhaustion. "We
know," say the Committee, "that the Chinese market has never been
drained of tea in any one year, but that there has been always a
surplus left to meet any extraordinary demand." But the effect of the
rise in price in 1850 is still more forcibly shown by a comparison of
our total imports in that and the following year. In 1850 we imported
48,300,000 lbs.; in 1851, 71,500,000 lbs., being an increase of
23,200,000 lbs. Doubtless the Chinese export, if made up totally with
our year, would not account for the whole quantity, part of which is
to be set down to Chinese export-smuggling, and part to arrivals from
America and the Continent. The probability is that the increase of
price referred to above never reached the Chinese tea farmers; the
supply came from the merchants' stock on hand. The rise was, besides,
uncertain, and from any established advance a much larger increase of
export might be looked for.
But the mistake made in England in estimating what tea we may look for
from China goes upon the supposition that they grow expressly for us:
the fact being, as stated by Mr. Robt. Fortune, in his recently
published "Tea Districts of China," "that the quantity exported bears
but a small proportion to that consumed by the Chinese themselves." On
this point the report of the Parliamentary Committee is
explicit:--"There is a population in China, commonly assumed at above
three hundred millions, at all hours in the day consuming tea, which
only requires some change of preparation to be fit for exportation;
thus implying an amount of supply on which any demand that may be made
for foreign export can be, after a very short time, but slightly
felt." Mr. Fortune, in his evidence, says "that the Chinese drink
about four times as much as we do: they are always drinking it." Four
times as much is probably very much an under-estimate. With rich and
poor of all that swarming population, tea, not such as our working
classes drink, but fresh and strong, and with no second watering,
accompanies every meal. But even taking their consumption at four
times as much per head as ours, and their population at the lowest
estimate, at three hundred millions, their consumption, setting ours
at 55,000,000 lbs., will be no less than two thousand two hundred
millions of pounds per annum, or forty times the quantity used in the
United Kingdom. As reasonably might the few foreigners who visit the
metropolis in the summer expect to cause a famine of fruit and
vegetables in London, as we that a doubling of our demand for tea
would be felt in China. The further fifty-five million pounds would be
but another fortieth of what they use themselves, and would have no
more effect upon their entire market than the arrival of some thousand
strangers within the year in London would have upon the supply of
bread or butchers' meat. There is no need, therefore, to wait for the
extension of tea plantations, and so far from taking for granted the
statement of the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, "that time must be
given to increase production, and that the point of its taking three
or four years to make a tea-tree is to be considered in dealing with
the duties," we have the fact unmistakeably before us, that the
production is already so vast, that any demand from us could have no
appreciable effect. And as to future supplies, if we should come to
drink as much as the Chinese themselves, a matter not at all needful
to be considered at present, the Committee report that "the
cultivation of the plant may be indefinitely extended;" whilst Mr.
Fortune, who has been upon the spot, states "that there is not the
slightest doubt that there is a great part of the land which is nearly
uncultivated now, which, were there a demand for tea, could be brought
into cultivation. The cost would be very little indeed; they would cut
down a quantity of brushwood, and probably dig over the ground and
plant the bushes. They could clear and plant it in the same year, and
in about two years they could get something from it." As, however,
without this extension they have hitherto found enough for the
increase of their own vast population, for every extension of demand
from us and every other foreign customer, whether by land or water,
without the least tendency to an advance in price, there is no need
to do more than thus touch upon the undeveloped resources of tea
production.--_Travers on the Tea Duties_.
The consumption of tea in Russia is very great, as the middling
classes make a more frequent use of that beverage than the rest. Every
year 60,000 chests of tea arrive at Maimiatchin and Kiakhta, of the
declared official value of £1,185,000 sterling; and to this may be
added £38,650 for inferior tea used by the people of the south, which
makes the total declared value of the tea introduced about one and a
quarter million sterling. The consumption of Russia may be assumed at
over fifteen millions of pounds, although we have no correct data, as
in the case of shipping returns, to calculate from. In 1848, however,
the Russians took 136,217½ boxes of fine tea of the Chinese, for which
they paid 5,349,918 silver roubles--one million sterling. The quantity
forwarded from Kiakhta into the interior consisted of--
Foods.
Flowery or Pekoe tea 69,677
Ordinary tea 183,752
Brick tea 116,249
Equal to about fifteen million lbs. English.
_Brick tea of Thibet._--A sample of this curious product was shown by
the East India Company in 1851. It is formed of the refuse tea-leaves
and sweepings of the granaries, damped and pressed into a mould,
generally with a little bullock's blood. The finer sorts are friable
masses, and are packed in papers; the coarser sewn up in sheep's skin.
In this form it is an article of commerce throughout Central and
Northern Asia and the Himalayan provinces; and is consumed by Mongols,
Tartars, and Tibetans, churned with milk, salt, butter, and boiling
water, more as a soup than as tea proper. Certain quantities are
forced upon the acceptance of the Western tributaries of the Chinese
Empire, in payment for the support of troops, &c.; and is hence, from
its convenient size and form, brought into circulation as a coin, over
an area greater than that of Europe.--_Dr. Hooker, in Jury Reports_.
The quantity and value of the tea imported into the United States,
from 1821, is thus stated:--
Years. Pounds. Value, dolls.
1821 4,975,646 1,322,636
1822 6,639,434 1,860,777
1823 8,210,010 2,361,245
1824 8,920,487 2,786,812
1825 10,209,548 3,728,935
1826 10,108,900 3,752,281
1827 5,875,638 1,714,882
1828 7,707,427 2,451,197
1829 6,636,790 2,060,457
1830 8,609,415 2,425,018
1831 5,182,867 1,418,037
1832 9,906,606 2,788,353
1833 14,639,822 5,484,603
1834 16,282,977 6,217,949
1835 14,415,572 4,522,806
1836 16,382,114 5,342,811
1837 16,982,384 5,903,054
1838 14,418,112 3,497,156
1839 9,439,817 2,428,419
1840 20,006,595 5,427,010
1841 10,772,087 3,075,332
1842 13,482,645 3,567,745
1843 12,785,748 3,405,627
1844 13,054,327 3,152,225
1845 17,162,550 4,802,621
1846 16,891,020 3,983,337
1847 14,221,410 3,200,056
1848 18,889,217
The annual reports of the Secretary to the Treasury, for the last
twenty years, show a considerable increase in the consumption of tea
in the United States, but not so great as in the article of coffee.
The establishment of tea shops, in all the large cities of America, is
a new feature in the retail trade, dating only some six years back.
The average rate of duty, which previously ranged between thirty and
thirty-four cents. per pound, was reduced in 1832 to fourteen cents
(7d.) a pound.
The proportion of green to black used is shown by the following return
of the imports:--
lbs.
1844 Green 10,131,837
Black 4,125,527
----------
Total 14,257,364
1845 Green 13,802,099
Black 6,950,459
----------
Total 20,752,558
The large import of 1840, of 250,000 chests, of which 200,000 were
green, was in anticipation of the disturbances arising from the war
with Great Britain, and the blockade of the ports.
In 1850, there were 173,317 chests of green tea, and 91,017 of black
tea exported from China to America; these quantities, with a further
portion purchased from England, made a total of about twenty-three
million lbs. of tea which crossed the Atlantic in 1850.
The imports and exports of tea into the United States, in the years
ending Dec. 31st, 1848 and 1849, were as follows:--
IMPORTS.
1849. 1848.
lbs. lbs.
Green 14,237,700 13,686,336
Black 5,999,315 3,815,652
---------- ----------
Total 20,236,916 17,503,988
EXPORTS.
Green 230,470 262,708
Black 186,650 194,212
---------- ----------
Total 417,120 456,920
The value of tea imported into the United States during the year
ending June 30th, 1851, amounted to 4,798,006 dollars (nearly
£1,000,000 sterling); of this was re-exported a little over 1,000,000
dollars worth, leaving for home consumption 3,668,141 dollars.
The quality of tea depends much upon the season when the leaves are
picked, the mode in which it is prepared, as well as the district in
which it grows.
The tea districts in China extend from the 27th degree to the 31st
degree of north latitude, and, according to missionaries, it thrives
in the more northern provinces. Koempfer says it is cultivated in
Japan, as far north as 45 degrees. It seems to succeed best on the
sides of mountains, among sandstone, schistus, and granite.
In 1834, the East India Company introduced the cultivation of tea in
Upper Assam, where it is said to be indigenous; and they now ship
large quantities of very excellent tea from thence.
Mr. Boyer, director of the museum at Port Louis, Mauritius, has
succeeded in rearing 40,000 tea-trees, and expresses an opinion, that
if the island of Bourbon would give itself up to the cultivation, it
might easily supply France with all the tea she requires.
The culture has also been commenced on a small scale, in St. Helena,
and the Cape Colony.
The cultivation of the tea-tree might be tried with probability of
success in Natal, and the Mauritius. The plant grows in every soil,
even the most ungrateful; resists the hurricanes, and requires little
care. The picking of the leaves, like the pods of cotton, is performed
by women, children, and the infirm, without much expense. The
preparation is known to the greater part of the Chinese, of whom there
are so many in Mauritius; besides, it is not difficult. A Mr. Duprat
has, I am informed, planted a certain extent of land in the
neighbourhood of Cernpipe, in that island, but I have not yet learnt
with what success.
The tea-plant has been successfully cultivated, on a large scale, in
the island of Madeira, at an elevation of 3,000 feet above the level
of the sea, by Mr. Hy. Veitch, British ex-Consul. The quality of the
leaf is excellent. The whole theory of preparing it is merely to
destroy the herbaceous taste, the leaves being perfect, when, like
hay, they emit an agreeable odor. But to roll up each leaf, as in
China, is found too expensive, although boys and girls are employed at
about two-pence or three-pence per day. Mr. Veitch has, therefore,
tried the plan of compressing the leaves into small cakes, which can
be done at a trifling expense. It is performed when the leaf is dry;
whereas, the rolling requires moisture, and subsequent roasting on
copper plates is necessary to prevent mustiness. In this process the
acid of the tea acts upon the copper, and causes that astringency
which we remark in all the China teas.
The tea of Cochin China is considered inferior to that of China, being
less strong and pleasant in flavour.
An inferior sort of tea, with a leaf twice or thrice as large as that
of Bohea, grows wild in the hilly parts of Quang-ai, and is sold at
from 12s. 6d. to 40s. the picul of 133lbs.
The Dutch have devoted much attention to tea cultivation in Java, and
the plantations are in fine order. Nearly a million lbs. of tea were
shipped thence in 1848; but the tea is said to be of inferior quality,
and grown and manufactured at considerable expense.
Japan produces both black and green tea. The Japanese prefer the
latter to the Chinese green tea. The black tea is very bad. The
Japanese tea-tree, is an evergreen, growing in the most sterile places
to the height of about six feet. It is described as above, by
Koempfer, as having leaves like the cherry, with a flower like the wild
rose; when fresh, the leaves have no smell, but a very astringent
taste. Tea grows in all the southern provinces of Japan, but the best
green is produced in the principality of Kioto, where it is cultivated
with great care.
A few years ago, Messrs. Worms attempted the cultivation of tea in
Ceylon. The island, however, lies too far within the tropics to offer
a climate like Assam, which is situate without them. The plants may
thrive to appearance, but that is not a demonstration of their
quality. The tea-plant has reached upwards of six feet in height at
Pinang, and in as healthy a state as could be desired, but the leaf
had no flavor, and although thousands of Chinese husbandmen cultivate
spices, and other tropical productions on that island, no one thinks
it worth while to extend the cultivation of the tea-plant in Pinang.
The Chinese there laugh at the idea of converting the leaf into a
beverage.
The cultivation of the tea-plant has been introduced into the United
States, and those planters who have tried the experiment have
succeeded beyond their highest expectations. Dr. Junius Smith had
successfully cultivated the plant on his property called Golden grove,
near Grenville, in South Carolina. His plants were in full blossom,
and as healthy and flourishing as those of China at the same stage of
growth. Everything connected with them looked favorable, and Dr. Smith
felt abundantly encouraged to extend the culture of the several
descriptions of tea upon his property. It is stated that his
expectations were so great, that he contemplated to place fresh tea on
the tea-tables of England and Paris in twenty days, from the
plantation. He had a large supply of plants, and tea seed enough for a
million more. The black descriptions blossomed earlier than the green
plant, but the latter also blossomed luxuriantly.
He introduced at first about 500 plants of from five to seven years'
growth, overland from the north-west provinces of India, and some from
China direct.
In the close of 1849, he writes me:--
"During the past year the tea-plant under my care has passed through
severe trials, from the injury received in transplanting, from the
heat generated in the packing-cases, from the want of shelter during
the severe frosts of February, from the excessive heat in June, and
from the drought of 58 days' continuance in July and August. The
plants were divested of their leaves and generally of their branches
and twigs in February, during my absence in New York. Knowing that
the plants were tender, and not fortified by age and mature growth
against severe weather, I had directed them to be covered in case a
material change of temperature should occur. But these orders were
neglected, and they consequently suffered from that cause.
The plant is sufficiently hardy to resist any weather occurring in
this part of the country, when seasoned for one year.
The plant has grown thrifty since April, and the quantity of
foliage, buds, and blossoms, show that the root has taken strong
hold, and is now fully equal to produce its fruit next autumn, which
always follows the year after the blossoms. I have a variety of both
black and green tea-plants. The buds and blossoms of the latter did
not appear until a fortnight after the black tea-plant. But the
blossoms were larger when they did appear in September, October,
November, and December. From present appearances, I think the
blossoms of some of the late plants will continue to unfold until
spring. It is not an unusual thing for the blossoms and the fruit to
appear at the same time upon the same plant. In this particular it
differs from any plant I have seen. As my chief object, at present,
is to cultivate and increase the tea-nut, it will be a year or two
perhaps before I attempt to convert the leaf into tea. The root
supports the leaf and fruit, and the leaf the root, so that neither
can be spared without detriment.
This climate appears congenial to the growth of the plant, and the
soil is so diversified in this mountainous district, that there is
no difficulty in selecting that best adapted to seed-growing plants,
or that designed for the leaf only. Upon the plantation purchased
this summer, I have light-yellow, dark-brown, and red clay subsoil,
of a friable character, with a surface soil sufficiently sandy to
answer the demands of the plant. I do not see any reason to doubt,
from a year's experience, that the tea-plant in its varieties will
flourish in what I heretofore denominated the tea-growing district
of the United States, as well as in any part of China.
The slowness of its growth requires patience. But when once
established, the tea-nuts will supply the means of extending
cultivation, and the duration of the plant for twenty years
diminishes the expense of labor. To illustrate the hardihood of the
plant, I may observe, that notwithstanding the zero severity of
February frost destroyed the leaves and branches of most of the
plants, and those now blooming in great beauty and strength are from
roots the growth of this summer, I have one green tea-plant the stem
and branches of which withstood the frost of February without the
slightest protection, and is now a splendid plant, covered with
branches and evergreen leaves, affording undeniable evidence not
only of its capability of resisting frost, but of its adaptation to
just such a degree of temperature.
I have often remarked that the tea-plant requires for its perfection
the influence of two separate and distinct climates, the heat of
summer and the cold of winter. The thermometer in this vicinity
during the heat of summer generally ranges from 74 at 6 o'clock a.m.
to 82 at 3 o'clock p.m., only one day during the summer so high as
86.
This is a most agreeable temperature, nights always cool, which the
tea-plant enjoys, and the days hot and fanned with the mountain
breeze.
The drought I found the most difficult point to contend with, owing
to the want of adequate means for irrigation. I lost 20 or 30 plants
through this, and learned that no tea plantation should he
established without irrigation. After two or three years there will
be little necessity for it, because the depth of the roots will
generally then protect the plant.
My plantation at Golden Grove is well supplied with water, or I
should not have purchased it at any price.
It is the first and most important point to secure a southern or
western aspect, a gentle declivity the second, salubrious air and
suitable soil the third.
Our country is filled with natural tea plantations, which are only
waiting the hand of the husbandman to be covered with this luxuriant
and productive plant.
I know the public is naturally impatient of delay. Like corn, it is
expected that the tea-nuts will be planted in the spring, and the
crop gathered in the autumn. But they forget that the tea-plant does
not interfere with any other crop, and when once planted it does not
soon require a renewal.
I have sometimes felt this impatience myself, and longed for a cup
of tea of my own growing, but I have never had one. As a husbandman,
I must wait some time longer, and let patience have her perfect
work."
Again, under date May 1, 1850, he states that he has succeeded
admirably in the culture. The plants bear the winter well, and their
physiology and general characteristics remain unchanged by the change
of climate and soil. The leaf puts out at the same period of the year
that it does in China.
On the 27th of May, 1850, Dr. Smith received a further batch of
trees, fresh, green and healthful, as if still growing in the
plantations of China; after a passage of little more than five months.
These plants, together with the seedlings and nuts, were of the green
tea species, and obtained from a quarter situated about 700 miles from
Canton.
In a letter, dated Grenville, S.C., June 17th, 1850, with which I have
been favored, he adds:--
"I never heard of the failure of the tea-crop. All vegetation may be
retarded, or lessened, or augmented, in its production, in a slight
degree, by excessive rains, or drought, or cold, or heat, or
atmospheric action; but the tea-plant is sure to produce its leaf.
From all I have observed, a decided drought is the most detrimental
to the health of the tea plant. The almost continued rains which
marked the advance of the past spring, seemed perfectly agreeable to
the tea-plant, and facilitated the germination of the tea-nuts.
Where any vitality remained in the nut, it was sure to germinate.
Curiosity, on this point should be restrained, and no picking and
pawing up of the nuts permitted. I have seedlings with tap roots
four inches in length, where no appearance of germination is visible
upon the surface of the ground. The chances are ten to one that the
seedling would be destroyed by the tamperings of idle curiosity. Let
nature have her own most perfect work, and see that the enemy, the
drought, is vanquished by an abundant supply of water.
From experience, I notice that nothing is more congenial to the
germination of the tea-nut than a good stiff blue, clayed soil. The
marly colour of the soil is undoubtedly the result of a rich loam,
combined with the clay of a lighter hue. The adhesive nature of the
clay retains moisture in an eminent degree, and the fertilising
qualities of the loam are well known to every bottom land farmer.
Plants put out three weeks ago, after a long voyage from China, are
now taking root, and look fresh and vigorous, notwithstanding the
recent heat and dryness of the atmosphere. But I have taken
unwearied pains in the cultivation. Every plant is sheltered from
the scorching influence of the sun, now from 70 deg. to 86 deg. of
temperature. Although the soil is naturally moist and clayey, and
half bottom land, from the work of gentle acclivities, rising on
either hand, yet I have given the plants a liberal watering in the
evening. By last summer's drought of fifty-seven days, I was taught
the absolute necessity of deep digging and deep planting. None of my
plants, of this season's planting, are more than two or three inches
above the surface of the ground.
If any of the plants have leaves, as most of them have, below that
height, they are planted with the leaves retained; none are removed.
Some of the older plants have no leaves remaining, and looked like
dry sticks. Many of these are now beginning to break, and put forth
fresh leaves."
In 1851, Mr. Frank Bonynge set on foot a subscription list of fifty
dollars each, to procure tea and various Indian plants for culture in
America. That tea can be grown successfully in Carolina, Georgia, and
Florida, is almost certain, because the experiment has been pretty
fairly tried, as above shown, by Dr. Smith. The thermometer at
Shanghai indicates the cold as more severe by thirteen degrees than at
Charleston, South Carolina. The cold winter of 1834-5, which destroyed
the oranges in Mr. Middleton's plantation, in Charleston, left his tea
plants uninjured.
The question of cultivating tea in California has been seriously
discussed, and will no doubt be gone into when the gold digging mania
has a little subsided. There is the necessary labor and experience on
the spot, in some 12,000 or 14,000 Chinese, most of whom doubtless
understand the culture and manufacture. The climate, soil and surface
of California exactly answer the requirements for the growth of this
plant. The time may yet come when the vast ranges of hills that
traverse this State shall present terraces of tea gardens, cultivated
by the laborious Chinese, and adding millions to the value of its
products.
A company for the cultivation of tea, under the title of the Assam
Company, was established in March, 1839; and which, with a called-up
capital of £193,337, has made up to the present time very profitable
progress; having now got its plantations into excellent cultivation,
and all its arrangements in admirable working order, it has sold teas
to the amount of £90,000, and has a steam-boat, a considerable plant
and machinery.
In the report of the Company, at their annual meeting, held at
Calcutta, in Jan., 1850, it was stated, as the result of their
operations, that during the year 1849, the manufacturing season was
unusually cold and ungenial, in consequence of which the development
of leaf for manufacture was much checked. Although some loss was
sustained, there was considerable increase in the crop
notwithstanding, attributable to the continued improvements in the
culture which had been obtained, and improvements over the previous
season in some departments of the manufacturing process. The gross
quantity of unsorted tea manufactured in the southern division was
207,982 lbs., being 2,673 lbs. less than that of the previous season,
but the actual net out-turn was expected to reach 200,000 lbs. As much
as 157,908 lbs. of the crop had been already received and shipped to
England. These teas consisted chiefly of the finer qualities. Whilst
the crops have been thus sensibly advancing in quantity and quality,
and the value of the company's plantations permanently raised by
extended and improved culture, and some increase to the sowings, the
total outlay had been somewhat less than the previous year, the
expenditure being limited to £500 for a crop of 12,000 acres of tea.
With more extended gardens, the produce will be raised at a yet lower
rateable cost than at present.
The number of acres in cultivation in 1849, was about 12,000; these
were not all in bearing, but would shortly be so, and the produce from
this extent might be estimated at 300,000 lbs., and the cost of
producing this would be about £11,000. 1,010 chests of the produce
were sold in London on the 13th of March, 1850, at a gross average of
1s. 11½d. per lb. The produce of 1847, sold in England, was 141,277
lbs., at a gross average of 1s. 8d. per lb.: that of 1848 was 176,149
lbs. which sold at the average of 1s. 8½d. per lb. The produce of 1849
was 216,000 lbs., and there was every expectation of the average
prices realised being higher than those of the previous years. The
season was cold and unfavorable, or the crop would have been 10,000
lbs. more.
The exact amounts obtained for the Company's teas in the five years,
ending with 1851, will be seen from the following figures:--
Net produce, lbs. Average price. £
1847 144,164 at per lb. ls. 7-1/16d. 11,513
1848 182,953 " ls. 8¼d. 15,436
1849 216,000 " ls. 9½d. 19,350
1850 253,427 " ls. 6-1/8d. 18,153
1851 271,427 " ls. 8½d. 22,152
1852 esmtd. 280,000
This exhibits a progressive increase in the aggregate value of the
Company's produce, and this has been effected, it is stated, without
any sensible increase of the current expenditure. It exhibits also a
rise in the value of the tea (157,942 lbs. having been sold at the
high average price of 1s. 11¼d.), a fact strongly indicative of its
increasing excellence. The details of the crop of the season of 1849
showed a net produce of 237,000 lbs. of tea; so that the Company are
increasing their cultivation to the extent of nearly ten per cent, per
annum, and the increase will doubtless proceed with greater rapidity,
whenever the increase of capital enables the directors to extend their
operations.
In a report submitted to the Directors, by Mr. Burkinyoung, the
managing director in Calcutta last year, he thus speaks of the
Company's field of operations and future prospects:--
"The box-making is especially worthy of notice for its effective
organisation and economical arrangement; the work is performed
chiefly by Assamese boys instructed at the factory: the number of
boxes required for the year's consumption will not be short of four
thousand, the whole of which will be made at the factory,--an
achievement that cannot be too highly estimated in a country so
destitute of mechanical labor.
Notwithstanding the high standard of quality and strength to which
our teas have already attained, I am of opinion that, as experience
advances, and our knowledge and system of plucking and manufacturing
the crops become improved, and better organised, a higher standard
of quality and value may yet be realised; in this opinion the
superintendent concurs with me, and the attainment of this object is
one to which his attention's prominently directed.
In the course of my enquiries and trials of different samples of tea
in Assam, my attention was directed to one description of black tea,
of rough strong flavor, made by a quicker process than that
ordinarily used in the manufacture of black tea: under this mode of
manipulation, a quality of tea is produced sufficiently distinctive
in its flavor and appearance to render it worthy of attention and
trial, and I think, when perfected in the process of manufacture,
calculated to come into popular estimation. Samples of this tea the
superintendent will forward to the board for trial.
In conducting the operations in Assam, the chief difficulty of
importance which has not yet been effectually met is the paucity of
labor; this does not, however, exist to the extent of materially
checking any of the important operations connected with the
production of the tea, but it is felt in the arrear of various
descriptions of work, in providing bricks for building, and in the
preparation of a stock of seasoned timber and boards for building
and box-making; while the out factories would be benefited by a
larger proportion of agricultural labor. Great advance, however, has
been made by the superintendent in the employment of Assamese labor
in contract work: under the arrangement he has established, these
contracts are now, for the most part, fulfilled with much
punctuality, and there is reason to expect that this system of labor
will be further extended. The Kachorie Coolies are a valuable class
of laborers, but they do not appear to be sufficiently numerous, or
to emigrate in sufficient numbers to afford with the native Assamese
a supply of labor altogether equal to our wants, so as to render the
concern independent of Bengal labor.
The tea lands are for the most part advantageously situated, within
convenient reach of water-carriage, either by the 'Dickhoo,'
'Dêsang,' and 'Dehing' rivers, or by means of small streams leading
to them. The Plantations of the Satsohea and Rookang forests, and on
the banks of the Tingri in the Northern Division, are all valuable
centres of extension in each district. The lands suitable for tea
cultivation are ample in extent, and of the highest fertility; while
the Hill Factories of the Southern and Eastern Divisions, although
secondary in importance, are, as regards extent and quality of soil,
equally eligible as bases of extension.
The prospects of the future, I entertain no doubt, will keep pace
with the satisfactory results that have hitherto been realised,
looking to the sound organisation that now exists in our
establishment at Assam, an organisation that has already taken
healthy root, and must in its growth gain strength and permanence. I
think we may safely calculate, after the current year, upon an
annual increase in our production of 40,000 lbs. of tea, until a
larger system of operations can be matured, of which the basis is
already laid down, in the new lands cleared and sown during the past
cold season, averaging 225 to 250 poorahs; and this extended basis
will be doubtless followed up by annual extensions of similar, if
not larger, area. The concern is now taking a position which will
place it on a scale of working commensurate with the objects
entertained upon the first incorporation of the company, the profits
now likely to be realised being adequate to all the outlay
necessary."
The prices in the last two years in London have been fully maintained
at 1s. 3d. to 4s. 4d., according to sorts. Of Assam tea, the sales in
the London market in 1851 amounted to 2,200 packages, against 1,900
packages in 1850, and all were freely taken (on account of their great
strength) at very full prices. Seventy-six packages of Kumaon tea,
both black and green, grown by the East India Company, in the
Himalayas, as an experiment, were also brought to sale. They were teas
of high quality; but being of the light flavored class, and not duly
esteemed in this market, they realised only about their relative value
as compared with China teas of similar grade. The Souchong and
Pouchong sold at 1s. 1¼d. to 1s. 3½d.; the Hyson, Imperial, and
Gunpowder realised 1s. 7¾d. to 2s. 6½d.
Mr. Robert Fortune, who, in the service of the Horticultural Society
of London, gave such satisfaction by his botanical researches in
China, was, on his return to England, in 1848, engaged by the
Directors of the East India Company to proceed again to the Celestial
Empire, and procure and transmit to India such a quantity and variety
of the tea plant, that its cultivation in the north-western provinces
would be a matter of mere manual labor. Having penetrated about 300
miles into the interior, he left Hong Kong in the middle of 1851 for
Calcutta, with a large quantity of choice plants, selected in the
green tea districts, and these have flourished as well as could
possibly be expected; so that, in the course of a few years, there is
every probability that tea will form a considerable article of export
from our Indian Presidencies. Mr. Fortune secured the services of, and
took with him, eight Chinese, from the district of Wei-chow, under an
agreement for three years, at the rate of fifteen dollars a month
each. Six of these are regular tea-manufacturers; the other two are
pewterers, whose sole business is that of preparing lead casings for
tea-chests.
In the British portion of the Punjaub, it has been resolved to expend
£10,000 a year on the cultivation of the tea plant on the banks of the
Beas, as well as at Anarkullee, and Kotghur in the Simla jurisdiction.
Beyond the Beas there is a series of valleys on to Noonpoor, viz., the
Palklun, Kangra, Rillo, &c., from 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the level
of the sea, separated from each other by small ranges of hills. The
valleys are from three to four miles in breadth, and from sixty to
seventy in length: they are sheltered on the north by high mountains.
They are described as admirably suited for the cultivation of the
plant, now about to be attempted under the able management of Dr.
Jamieson. Should it prove successful, the benefits it will confer on
the country will be enormous. Tea is a favorite beverage everywhere
with the natives: at present their supplies come in scanty measure and
bad condition, at extravagant charges, across the frontier.
The cultivation of the tea plant in the highlands of the Punjaub, is
likely to be successful, even beyond the hopes of its promoters.
Thousands of plants sown in 1849 have attained a height of four or
five feet, and there seems no reason why tea should not ultimately
become an important article of trade in the Punjaub, as well as in
Kumaon. The Indian teas are already becoming popular in the English
market, and the cultivators have the advantage of a demand which is
almost unlimited, and of prices which seldom fluctuate to any great
extent.
The experiment of growing tea in the Madras Presidency has been often
successfully tried, on a small scale. A number of plants supplied by
government, through Dr. Wallich, were planted in the Shevaroy hills,
about twelve or fourteen years since, and have thriven well; but
though no doubt is entertained of the ease with which they could be
propagated over a wide extent of country, no attempt has been made to
give the cultivation a practical turn, or to make a cup of tea from
the southern Indian tree. In Coorg, too, the experiment has been
tested with like results, so that sufficient warranty exists to
justify trials on the largest scale.
Tea plants grow in luxuriance in the open air, at the Botanical
Gardens, at Kew. Mr. Bonynge has seen this plant growing wild in N.
lat. 27 deg. 30 min. on hills from three to 500 feet in height, where
too, there was an abundance of frost, snow and hail.
Those persons in England who possess tea plants, and who cultivate
them for pleasure, should always bear in mind that, even in the tea
districts of China, this shrub will not succeed if it be planted in
low, wet land; and this is, doubtless, one of the reasons why so few
persons succeed in growing it in this country. It ought always to be
planted on a warm sloping bank, in order to give it a fair chance of
success. If some of the warm spots of this kind in the south of
England or Ireland were selected, who knows but that our cottagers
might be able to grow their own tea? at all events, they might have
the fragrant herb to look upon.
The Dutch made the first movement to break the charm of Chinese
monopoly, by introducing and cultivating the tea plant in their rich
and fruitful colony of Java. That island lies between the sixth and
eighth degrees of south latitude.
In 1828, the first experiment in the cultivation of tea was made in
the garden of the Chateau of Burtenzorg, at Java, where 800 plants of
an astonishing vigor, served as an encouragement to undertake this
culture, and considerable plantations were made in many parts of the
island. The first trials did not answer to the expectations, as far as
regards the quality of the article, the astringent taste and feeble
aroma of which caused the conjecture that the preparation of the leaf,
and its final manipulation, are not exactly according to the process
used in China. At present tea is cultivated in thirteen Residencies:
but the principal establishment, where the final manipulation is made,
is in the neighbourhood of Batavia. The tea which Java now furnishes
yearly to the markets of the mother country, may be stated at from
200,000 to 300,000 pounds. It is intimated that the government intends
to abandon this culture to the industry of private individuals, under
the guarantee of equitable contracts.
The mountain range, which runs through the centre of the island, is
the most productive, because the tea gardens, extending from near the
base, high up the mountains, reach an atmosphere tempered by
elevation. The plant escapes the scorching heats of the torrid zone,
and finds a climate, by height rather than by latitude, adapted to its
nature. But the plant is not confined to lofty ridges. In the plains,
the hedges and fences, if one may so call them, are all planted with
the tea shrub, which flourish in greater or less perfection throughout
the island. But, as has already been intimated, the equatorial
latitudes are not the most auspicious for the vigorous growth of a
plant that requires a temperature equally removed from the extremes of
heat and cold, and the quality of the tea is as much affected by the
climate as the growth of the plant. A considerable quantity of tea is
annually shipped from Java to Europe; but the extension of the
cultivation is no doubt checked by the exceeding fertility of the
soil, and its adaptation to the growth of the rich products of
tropical regions.
Mr. Jacobson, inspector of tea culture in Java, has published at
Batavia a work in three volumes, upon the mode of cultivating this
plant, upon the choice of grounds, and the best processes for the
preparation and manipulation of the leaves. This book, the fruit of
many years of experience and care given to the subject, has been well
received by the cultivators who devote themselves to this branch of
industry. If, by means of careful experiments and experience, the
government succeed in conferring on the island of Java this important
branch of commerce, she may hope to obtain brilliant results; at all
events, it will open to the country a new source of prosperity and
riches.
An interesting account of the tea plants, and the manufacture of tea,
will be found in Fortune's "Wanderings in China," in Ball's "Account
of the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea," Boyle's "Illustrations of
Himalayan Botany," and his "Productive Resources of India."
From Fortune's "Travels" I take the following extract:--
"There are few subjects connected with the vegetable kingdom which
have attracted such a large share of public notice as the tea-plant
of China. Its cultivation on the Chinese hills, the particular
species of variety which produces the black and green teas of
commerce, and the method of preparing the leaves, have always been
objects of peculiar interest. The jealousy of the Chinese government
in former times, prevented foreigners from visiting any of the
districts where tea is cultivated; and the information derived from
the Chinese merchants, even scanty as it was, was not to be depended
upon. And hence we find our English authors contradicting each
other; some asserting that the black and green teas are produced by
the same variety, and that the difference in colour is the result of
a different mode of preparation; while others say that the black
teas are produced from the plant called by botanists _Thea Bohea_,
and the green from _Thea viridis_, both of which we have had for
many years in our gardens in England. During my travels in China
since the last war, I have had frequent opportunities of inspecting
some extensive tea districts in the black and green tea countries of
Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang: the result of these observations is
now laid before the reader. It will prove that even those who have
had the best means of judging have been deceived, and that the
greater part of the black and green teas which are brought yearly
from China to Europe and America are obtained from the same species
or variety, namely, from the _Thea viridis_. Dried specimens of this
plant were prepared in the districts I have named, by myself, and
are now in the herbarium of the Horticultural Society of London, so
that there can be no longer any doubt upon the subject. In various
parts of the Canton provinces where I have had an opportunity of
seeing tea cultivated, the species proved to be the _Thea Bohea_, or
what is commonly called the black tea plant. In the green tea
districts of the north--I allude more particularly to the province
of Chekiang--I never met with a single plant of this species, which
is so common in the fields and gardens near Canton. All the plants
in the green tea country near Ningpo, on the islands of the Chusan
Archipelago, and in every part of the province which I have had an
opportunity of visiting, proved, without an exception, to be _Thea
viridis_. Two hundred miles further to the north-west, in the
province of Kiangnan, and only a short distance from the tea hills
in that quarter, I also found in gardens the same species of tea.
Thus far my actual observations exactly verified the opinions I had
formed on the subject before I left England, viz: that the black
teas were prepared from the _Thea Bohea_, and the green from _Thea
viridis_. When I left the north, on my way to the city of
Foo-chow-foo, on the river Min, in the province Fokien, I had no
doubt that I should find the tea hills there covered with the other
species, _Thea Bohea_, from which we generally suppose the black
teas are made; and this was the more likely to be the case as this
species actually derives its specific name from the Bohea hills in
this province. Great was my surprise to find all the plants on the
tea hills near Foo-chow exactly the same as those in the green tea
districts of the north. Here were, then, green tea plantations on
the black tea hills, and not a single plant of the _Thea Bohea_ to
be seen. Moreover, at the time of my visit, the natives were busily
employed in the manufacture of black teas. Although the specific
differences of the tea plant were well known to me, I was so much
surprised, and I may add amused, at this discovery, that I procured
a set of specimens for the herbarium, and also dug up a living
plant, which I took northward to Chekiang. On comparing it with
those which grow on the green tea hills, no difference whatever was
observed. It appears, therefore, that the black and green teas of
the northern districts of China (those districts in which the
greater part of the teas for the foreign market are made) are both
produced from the same variety, and that that variety is the _Thea
viridis_, or what is commonly called green tea plant. On the other
hand those black and green teas which are manufactured in
considerable quantities in the vicinity of Canton, are obtained
from the _Thea Bohea_, or black tea.
In the green tea districts of Chekiang, near Ningpo, the first crop
of leaves is generally gathered about the middle of April. This
consists of the young leaf buds just as they begin to unfold, and
forms a fine and delicate kind of young hyson, which is held in high
estimation by the natives, and is generally sent about in small
quantities as presents to their friends. It is a scarce and
expensive article, and the picking off the leaves in such a young
state does considerable injury to the tea plantation. The summer
rains, however, which fall copiously about this season, moisten the
earth and air; and if the plants are young and vigorous, they soon
push out fresh leaves. In a fortnight or three weeks from the time
of the first picking, the shrubs are again covered with fresh
leaves, and are ready for the second gathering, which is the most
important of the season. The third and last gathering, which takes
place as soon as new leaves are formed, produces a very inferior
kind of tea, which is rarely sent out of the district. The mode of
gathering and preparing the leaves of the tea plant is very simple.
We have been so long accustomed to magnify and mystify everything
relating to the Chinese, that in all their arts and manufactures we
expect to find some peculiar practice, when the fact is, that many
operations in China are more simple in their character than in most
parts of the world. To rightly understand the process of rolling and
drying the leaves, which I am about to describe, it must be borne in
mind that the grand object is to expel the moisture, and at the same
time to retain as much as possible of the aromatic and other
desirable secretions of the species. The system adopted to attain
this end is as simple as it is efficacious. In the harvest seasons,
the natives are seen in little family groups on the side of every
hill, when the weather is dry, engaged in gathering tea leaves. They
do not seem so particular as I imagined they would have been in this
operation, but strip the leaves off rapidly and promiscuously, and
throw them all into round baskets, made for the purpose out of split
bamboo or ratan. In the beginning of May, when the principal
gathering takes place, the young seed-vessels are about as large as
peas. These are also stripped off and mixed with the leaves; it is
these seed-vessels which we often see in our tea, and which has some
slight resemblance to capers. When a sufficient quantity of leaves
are gathered, they are carried home to the cottage or barn, where
the operation of drying is performed."
This is minutely described, and the author continues:--
"I have stated that the plants grown in the districts of Chekiang
produce green teas, but it must not be supposed that they are the
green teas which are exported to England. The leaf has a much more
natural color, and has little or none of what we call the 'beautiful
bloom' upon it, which is so much admired in Europe and America.
There is now no doubt that all these 'blooming' green teas, which
are manufactured at Canton, are dyed with Prussian blue and gypsum,
to suit the taste of the foreign 'barbarians;' indeed the process
may be seen any day, during the season, by those who give themselves
the trouble to seek after it. It is very likely that the same
ingredients are also used in dyeing the northern green teas for the
foreign market; of this, however, I am not quite certain. There is a
vegetable dye obtained from _Isatis indigotica_ much used in the
northern districts, and called _Teinsing_; and it is not unlikely
that it may be the substance which is employed. The Chinese never
use these dyed teas themselves, and I certainly think their taste in
this respect is more correct than ours. It is not to be supposed
that the dye used can produce any very bad effects on the consumer,
for, had this been the case, it would have been discovered before
now; but if entirely harmless or inert, its being so must be
ascribed to the very small quantity which is employed in the
manufacture."
In short, the black and green teas which are generally exported to
England and the United States from the northern provinces of China,
are made from the same species; and the difference of color, flavor,
&c., is solely the result of the different modes of preparation.
I shall make an extract, also, from Williams's "Middle Kingdom:"--
"The native names given to the various sorts of tea are derived for
the most part from their appearance or place of growth; the names of
many of the best kinds are not commonly known abroad. _Bohea_ is the
name of the Wu-i hills, (or Bu-i, as the people on the spot call
them,) where the tea is grown, and not a term for a particular sort
among the Chinese, though it is applied to a very poor kind of black
tea at Canton. _Sunglo_ is likewise a general term for the green
teas produced on the hills in Kiangsu. The names of the principal
varieties of black tea are as follows: _Pecco_, 'white hairs,' so
called from the whitish down on the leaves, is one of the choicest
kinds, and has a peculiar taste; _Orange Pecco_, called _shang
hiang_, or 'most fragrant,' differs from it slightly; _Hungmuey_,
'red plum blossoms,' has a slightly reddish tinge; the terms
_prince's eyebrows_, _carnation hair_, _lotus kernel_, _sparrow's
tongue_, _fir-leaf pattern_, _dragon's pellet_, and _dragon's
whiskers_, are all translations of the native names of different
kinds of Souchong or Pecco. _Souchong_, or _siau chung_, means
_little plant_ or sort, as _Pouchong_, or _folded sort_, refers to
the mode of packing it; _Campoi_ is corrupted from _kan pei_ i.e.
carefully fired; _Chulan_ is the tea scented with the chulan flower,
and applied to some kinds of scented green tea. The names of green
teas are less numerous: _Gunpowder_, or _ma chu_, i.e. hemp pearl,
derives its name from the form into which the leaves are rolled; _ta
chu_ or 'great pearl,' and _chu lan_, or 'pearl flower,' denote two
kinds of _Imperial_; _Hyson_, or _yu tsien_, i.e. before the rains,
originally denoted the tenderest leaves of the plant, and is now
applied to _Young Hyson_; as is also another name, _mei pein_, or
'plum petals;' while _hi chun_, 'flourishing spring,' describes
_Hyson_; _Twankay_ is the name of a stream in Chehkiang, where this
sort is produced; and _Hyson skin_, or _pi cha_, i.e. skin tea, is
the poorest kind, the siftings of the other varieties; _Oolung_,
'black dragon,' is a kind of black tea with green flavor. Ankoi teas
are produced in the district of Ngankí, not far from Tsiuenchau fu,
possessing a peculiar taste, supposed to be owing to the ferruginous
nature of the soil. De Guignes speaks of the Pu-'rh tea, from the
place in Kiangsu where it grows, and says it is cured from wild
plants found there; the infusion is unpleasant, and is used for
medical purposes. The Mongols and others in the west of China
prepare tea by pressing it, when fresh, into cakes like bricks, and
thoroughly drying it in that shape to carry in their wanderings.
"Considering the enormous labor of preparing tea, it is surprising
that even the poorest kind can be afforded to the foreign purchaser
at Canton, more than a thousand miles from the place of its growth,
for 9d. and less a pound; and in their ability to furnish it at this
rate, the Chinese have a security of retaining the trade in their
hands, notwithstanding the efforts to grow the plant elsewhere.
Comparatively little adulteration is practised, if the amount used
at home and abroad be considered, though the temptation is great, as
the infusion of other plants is drunk instead of the true tea. The
poorer natives substitute the leaves of a species of Rhamnus or
Fallopia, which they dry; Camellia leaves are perhaps mixed up with
it, but probably to no great extent. The refuse of packing-houses is
sold to the poor at a low rate, under the name of tea endings and
tea bones; and if a few of the rarest sorts do not go abroad,
neither do the poorest. It is a necessary of life to all classes of
Chinese, and that its use is not injurious is abundantly evident
from its general acceptance and extending adoption; and the
prejudice against it among some out of China may be attributed
chiefly to the use of strong green tea, which is no doubt
prejudicial. If those who have given it up on this account will
adopt a weaker infusion of black tea, general experience is proof
that it will do them no great harm, and they may be sure that they
will not be deceived by a colored article; Neither the Chinese nor
Japanese use milk or sugar in their tea, and the peculiar taste and
aroma of the infusion is much better perceived without those
additions; nor can it be drunk so strong without tasting an
unpleasant bitterness, which the milk partly hides. The Japanese
sometimes reduce the leaves to a powder, and pour boiling water
through them in a cullender, in the same way that coffee is often
made."
The following valuable details as to the cultivation and manufacture
of tea in British India, are from interesting reports by Dr. Jameson,
Superintendent of the Company's Botanical Gardens in the North West
Provinces, published in 1847 in the Journal of the Agricultural and
Horticultural Society of Calcutta;--and from Mr. Robert Fortune's
report to the Hon. East India Company:--
_The quantity manufactured_.--The quantity of tea manufactured from
five plantations, of 89 acres in all, amounted in 1845 to 610 lb. 2
oz., and in 1846, on 115 acres, to l,023 lb. ll oz. The small
nursery of Lutchmisser, consisting of three acres of land, gave a
return in 1845 of 216 lb., or 2 maunds and 56 pounds; in 1846 the
return was 272 lbs., or 3 maunds and 32 pounds.
The small plantation of Kuppeena, established in 1841-2, and then
consisting of three acres (but increased in 1844 to four), yielded
in 1845, 1 maund and 56 pounds, and in 1846, 2 maunds and 56 pounds.
Thus we have received from a plantation of only five years'
formation, and of four acres (one of these recently added), upwards
of 2½ maunds of tea, and from another, Lutchmisser, of three acres,
which was established in 1835-6, 3 maunds and 30 pounds, equal to
272 pounds. I have, in a former report, asserted that the minimum
return of tea for an acre of land may be estimated at 1 pucka maund,
or 80 lb. The only plantations that I can as yet bring forward in
favour of my assertion, are the two above-mentioned: Kuppeena has
not yielded the proportion mentioned, but it was only established in
1841-42, and the tea-plants do not come into full bearing until the
eighth year; on the other hand, Lutchmisser has given more than the
average return. I think, therefore, that the returns already yielded
are highly favorable, and that though the data are small, they are
very satisfactory.
_Soil best adapted for the tea-plant_.--The soil in which the
tea-plant is now thriving in the Himalayas and in the valley of
Deyrah Dhoon, varies exceedingly. At Bhurtpoor and Russiah it is of
a light silico-aluminous nature, and abounding with small pieces of
clay slate, which is the subjacent rock, and trap (green-stone),
which occurs in large dykes, cutting through and altering the strata
of clay slate; mixed with the stony soil, there is a small quantity
of vegetable matter. The clay slate is metamorphic, being almost
entirely composed of mica. In some places it is mixed with quartz,
forming mica slate. From the decomposition of these rocks, mixed
with a small quantity of vegetable matter, the soil is formed. At
Kuppeena and Lutchmisser, the soil is also very stony, formed from
the decomposition of clay slate, which, in many places, as at
Russiah and Bhurtpoor, passes into mica slate, or alternates with
it, and a little vegetable matter. The same remark applies to the
plantations of Guddowli, Kouth, and Rumaserai. At Huwalbaugh part of
the soil consists of a stiff clay, of a reddish-yellow colour, owing
to peroxide of iron. Here, too, the tea-plants, provided that the
ground around them is occasionally opened up, thrive well. In Mr.
Lushington's garden at Lobha, in Kumaon, and in Assistant
Commissioner Captain H. Ramsay's garden at Pooree, in Gurwahl,
plants are thriving well in a rich, black, vegetable mould. The soil
in the Deyrah Dhoon varies exceedingly from clayey and stiff soil to
sand and gravelly soil, or light and free. The soil at Kaolagir is a
compound of the two, neither clayey, nor free, nor light soil, but
composed partly of clay and sand, mixed with vegetable mould, and in
some places mixed with much gravel, consisting of limestone, marl,
sandstone, clay slate, and quartz rock, or of such rocks as enter
into the composition of the surrounding ranges of mountains, viz.,
the Sewalick range to the south, and the Himalayas, properly so
called, to the north, From the above statement, we find that the
tea-plant thrives well both in stiff and free soils, and in many
modifications of these. But the soil which seems best adapted to its
growth may be styled free soil, as at Russiah, or a mixture of both,
as at Kaolagir, in the Deyrah Dhoon.
In limestone districts, where the tea has been tried, if the
super-imposed soil has been thin and untransported, and this proved
from the decomposition of the subjacent rock, the plant has
generally failed; and this has been particularly the case where the
limestone, by plutonic action, has become metamorphic. These
districts, therefore, in forming plantations, are to be avoided.
From the writings of various authors, it appears that the districts
where the tea-plant thrives best in China, have a geological
structure very similar to that met with in many parts of the
Himalayas, being composed of primitive and transition rocks.
_Altitude above the sea best suited to the tea plant_.--To state
what altitude is best adapted to the growth of the tea-plant, and
for the production of the best kinds of tea, will require much more
observation. At present the tea-plant thrives equally well at
Kaolagir, in the Deyrah Dhoon; at Russiah, in the Chikata district;
at Huwalbaugh; at Kuppeena and Lutchmisser; and at Rumaserai, or at
heights ranging from 2,200 feet above the level of the sea to 6,000
feet.
Moreover, the tea manufactured from leaves procured from Kaolagir,
has been considered by the London brokers equal to that made from
leaves procured from Lutchmisser and Kuppeena.
_On the method of preparing ground prior to forming a
plantation_.--In forming a plantation, the first object of
attention, both in the hills and in the Deyrah Dhoon, is a _fence_.
In the former, to prevent the depredations of wild animals, such as
wild hog, deer, &c., which abound in the hills, and though they do
not eat tea leaves, yet hogs, in search of tubers, in the space of a
single night will do much damage by uprooting young shrubs--in the
latter, to prevent the straying of cattle. The first thing to be
done, therefore, is to dig a trench three feet broad and two deep,
and to plant a hedge, if in the hills, of black thorn (_Cratoegus_);
if in the plains, the different species of aloe are best adapted for
the purpose. The fence being formed, all trees and shrubs are then
to be uprooted; this is very heavy work, both in the hills and
plains, from the vast number of shrubs, allowed by natives (from
indolence to remove them) to grow everywhere throughout their
fields. Roads are then to be marked off.
After this has been accomplished, the land is to be drained, if
necessary, by open drains--under drainage, for want of means and the
expense, being impracticable--and then ploughed three or four times
over. The beds for young tea-plants are then to be formed; these
ought to be three feet in breadth, alternating with a pathway of two
feet in breadth. By arranging beds in this manner much time and
labour is saved in transplanting; in irrigation the water is
economised, and in plucking tea leaves a road is given to the
gatherer. In transplanting, each plant is allowed 4½ feet; this is
at once gained, the beds and pathways being formed by placing in one
direction the plant in the centre of the bed.
_Trenching_.--On the tea beds being marked off, they are to be
trenched to a depth of from two to three feet, in order to destroy
all the roots of weeds, which are to be carefully removed. The
trenching is to be performed by the _fowrah_, or Indian spade.
In the hills, in many places the _fowrah_ cannot be used, owing to
the number of stones. The work is then to be done by the _koatlah_,
a flat-pointed piece of iron, of about eight inches in length, which
is inserted into a wooden handle. It is in form like the pick, and
is much used in hill cultivation for weeding and opening up the
ground. It is, however, not much to be commended for trenching
purposes, as natives, in using it, never penetrate the ground beyond
a few inches. For weeding, however, it is particularly useful, and
to such soil is much better adapted than most other implements.
_Formation of roads and paths_.--In addition to the pathways of two
feet in breadth, recommended to be formed between each bed, there
ought, for general use, to be a four feet road carried round the
plantation, and one of 10 feet through the centre. This applies to a
limited plantation, that is, of from 200 to 400 acres. If, on the
other hand, it was on a more extensive scale, several hackery roads
of 10 feet in breadth would be necessary, in order to cart away
weeds, &c., or carry manure to seedling beds.
_On seeds when ripe, and method to be adopted to ascertain it_.--In
all September and October the tea seeds ripen, but in the more
elevated plantations, as at Rumaserai, many do not ripen until
November. The seeds are contained in a capsule, and vary in number
from one to seven; to ascertain that they are ripe, open the
capsule, although green, and if their color is a nut-brown, they are
sure to be so. If they are not ripe, they are of a reddish-brown
above, mixed with white. If the seeds are allowed to remain a short
time on the bushes, after they are ripe, the capsules burst, and
they fall out; it is necessary, therefore, to remove them before
this takes place.
_On the method of sowing seeds, and season, and on the treatment of
the young tea plants after they have germinated_.--The ground having
been first well trenched and manured, that is, from sixty to seventy
maunds of manure given to the acre, the seeds are, when ripe, to be
removed from the capsules, and immediately sown to the depth of one
inch, and very close, in drills 8 to 10 inches apart from each
other. The sooner that they are sown after being removed from the
capsules the better, as their germinating properties are apt to be
destroyed if they are kept for any length of time. Some germinate in
the space of a few weeks, others lie dormant until February and
March, and others do not germinate until the rains.
The method of sowing seeds in China is thus described, being similar
to the native plan of sowing mangoes in India. "Several seeds are
dropped into holes four or five inches deep and three or four feet
apart, shortly after they ripen, or in November and December; the
plants rise up in a cluster when the rains come on. They are seldom
transplanted, but sometimes four to six are put quite close to form
a fine bush."[9] By this method nothing is gained, and the
expenditure of seeds great.
If the plants germinate in November, which, as already stated, many
do, they ought to be covered with a _chupper_ made of bamboo and
grass.
In the hills, everywhere at an elevation of 6,000 and 7,000 feet,
the ringal, a small kind of bamboo, of which there are several
species, is found in great abundance, and well adapted for the
purpose, and in the Deyrah Dhoon the bamboo occurs in vast quantity;
the market of the Upper Provinces being chiefly supplied from that
valley and other forests at the base of the Himalayas. Bamboos are
also met with to the height of six and seven thousand feet on the
Himalayas in the neighbourhood of Almorah. During the day, in the
cold weather, the _chuppers_ ought to be removed, and again replaced
at night; as the weather becomes hot, it is necessary to protect the
young plants from the heat of the sun, that is, in April and May,
and until the rains commence; the _chuppers_ at this time ought to
be put on about eight a.m., and removed again about four p.m.
_Method of rearing plantations by layers, and by cuttings_.--The
best season for laying down is when the sap is dormant, or in cold
weather; or when in full action, as in the rains. "Laying," as
expressed by Dr. Lindley, "is nothing but striking from cuttings,
which are still allowed to maintain their connection with the mother
plant by means of a portion of their stem." There are various
methods of making layers, but the most simple and efficient is to
bend down a branch, and sink it into the earth after having made a
slit or notch in the centre of the embedded portion. By so doing,
the descent of the sap is retarded, and thus the formation of
radicles or young roots is promoted; about five or six inches or
more, of the branch, is to be allowed to remain above ground, and in
a position as perpendicular to the point where the plant is notched
as possible. In three or four mouths these layers are ready to be
removed and transplanted; the removal of the layers is to be
gradual, that is, they ought first to be cut half through, then a
little more, and finally altogether separated.
The best season for propagating by cuttings is the cold weather,
that is, from November to February; they may also be propagated,
though not with the same success, during the rains; it is necessary
to protect them against frost in the cold weather, and from the rays
of the sun in the hot. Cuttings put in during the cold weather are
ready to transplant in the rains, and if put in during the rains,
they are generally fit for removal in February.
_On the method of transplanting and season_.--In transplanting young
tea-plants care should be taken to lift them with a good large ball
of earth attached to their roots, as they throw out a long central
or tap root, which, if cut through, invariably destroys the plant.
On being placed in the ground, the earth around them is to be well
pressed down and watered; the watering is to be continued every
third or fourth day, until the plants have taken hold of the ground.
During the rains, grass springs up with great rapidity, so as to
render it impossible for one man to keep three acres (the quantity
assigned by us) clean. This, however, is not necessary, if care be
taken to make a golah round each plant, and keep it clear of weeds;
these golahs ought always, in hill plantations where the ground is
irregular, to be connected by small _khauls_ or channels, in order
to make irrigation easy; by so doing too, water, if the supply be
scanty, which often happens in the hills in the hot weather, will be
economised.
+-----------------------------------------+
| b b |
| a a a | a Tea plant.
Thus-- | X----------X----------X | b Bed
| c c | c Watercourse
| b b |
+-----------------------------------------+
We have already stated that 4½ square feet ought to be assigned to
each plant. In China, according to Professor Royle, three to four
feet are given; this, however, is too small a space to allow the
plant to grow freely. After the tea plants are transplanted, it is
not necessary to protect them.
The best seasons for transplanting are towards the end of February,
or as soon as the frost has ceased, and throughout March, and during
the rains, and until the end or middle of November, depending on the
season.
In transplanting, four parties ought to be employed; viz., one
person to dig holes, a second to remove plants, a third to carry
them to the ground where they are required, and a fourth to plant.
By this means, not only time is saved, but the plants have a much
better chance, when thus treated, of doing well. When the seedling
beds are extensive, so many of the plants ought not to be removed,
that is, a plant left every 4½ feet, and these beds added to the
plantation.
_On pruning, best season and mode_.--The plants do not require to be
pruned until the fifth year, as the plucking of leaves generally
tends to make the plants assume the basket shape, the form most to
be desired to procure the greatest quantity of leaves; if, however,
the plants show a tendency to run into weed, from central branches
being thrown out, this ought to be checked by removing the central
stem. In the fourth year a quantity of the old and hard wood ought
to be removed, to induce the plants to throw out more branches. The
best season for pruning is from November to March.
_On irrigation_.--To keep the tea-plants healthy, irrigation for two
or three years is absolutely necessary, and no land ought to be
selected for a tea plantation which cannot be irrigated.
On the other hand, land liable to be flooded during the rains, and
upon which water lies for any length of time, is equally detrimental
to the growth of the plant. This applies to a small portion of the
Kooasur plantation, which receives the drainage of the adjoining
hills, and the soil being retentive, keeps the water. Deep trenches
have been dug in order to drain it off--these, however, owing to the
lowness of the surrounding country, act badly. Three successive
seasons plants have been put into the ground, and as often have been
destroyed on the setting in of the rains, showing the necessity of
avoiding such kind of land for tea plantation.
To facilitate irrigation, &c., as already stated, in the Deyrah
Dhoon, I have limited the tea beds to three feet in breadth. This is
particularly requisite in land so constituted as that of the Deyrah
Dhoon, it being so porous, as mentioned by Major Cautley in his
"Notes and Memoranda of Watercourses." This is caused by the
superincumbent soil not being more than from one to three feet
thick, in some places more, but varying exceedingly. Beneath this
there is a bed of shingle of vast thickness, through which the water
percolates; it is this that renders the sinking of wells so
difficult in the Deyrah Dhoon, and which has tended so much to
retard individuals from becoming permanent residents; at present
there are many tracts of several thousand acres in that valley
unoccupied from want of drinking water, as for instance, at
Innesphaeel.
Where the ground is very uneven, as is the case generally in the
hills, the _khaul_ system, already recommended, ought to be adopted.
_On the tea-plant; season of flowering, its characters and species,
and on the advantages to be derived from importing seeds from
China_.--From the importance of tea, as an article of commerce, the
plant has attracted much attention; and from few qualified Europeans
having travelled in the tea districts of China, there is much
difference of opinion as to the number of species belonging to the
genus Thea.
In the government plantations in Kumaon and Gurwahl, the plants
begin to flower about the end of August and beginning of September,
or, as the seeds of the former year begin to ripen. They do not all
come into flower at once, but some are in full blossom in September,
others in October, November, December and January. Some throw out a
second set of blossoms in March, April, and May, and during the
rains; so that from the same plant unripe or ripe seeds and flowers
may be collected at one and the same time.
To the genus Thea, which belongs to the order Ternstræmiaceæ, the
following characters have been ascribed: calyx persistent, without
bracts, five-leaved, leaflets imbricated and generally of the same
size. Petals of the corolla vary in number from five to nine,
imbricated, the inner ones much the largest. Stamens numerous, in
several rows adhering to the bottom of the petals. Filaments
filiform. Anthers incumbent, two-celled, oblong, with a thickish
connectivum. Cells opening longitudinally. Ovary free, three-celled;
ovules four in each cell, inserted internally into the central
angle, the upper ones ascending, the lower pendulous. Style trifid,
stigmas three, acute. Capsule spheroidal, 1-7-lobed with loculicidal
dehiscence, or with dessepiments formed from the turned-in edges of
the valves. Seeds solitary, or two in cells, shell-like testa,
marked with the ventral umbilicus. Cotyledons thick, fleshy, oily,
no albumen. Radicle very short, very near the umbilicus centripetal.
In the plantations there are two species, and two well marked
varieties.
The first is characterised by the leaves being of a pale-green
colour, thin, almost membraneous, broad lanceolate, sinatures or
edge irregular and reversed, length from three to six inches. The
color of the stem of newly-formed shoots is of a pale-reddish
colour, and green towards the end. This species is also marked by
its strong growth, its erect stem, and the shoots being generally
upright and stiff. The flowers are small, and its seeds but sparing.
In its characters this plant, received from Assam, agrees in part
with those assigned by Dr. Lettsom and Sir W. Hooker to the _Thea
viridis_, but differs in its branches being stiff and erect. The
flowers small, or rather much about the same size as the species
about to be described, and not confined to the upper axils of the
plant, and solitary, as stated by them.[10] By the Chinese
manufacturers it is considered an inferior plant for making tea, it
is not therefore grown to any extent.
The second species is characterised by its leaves being much
smaller, and not so broadly lanceolate; slightly waved, of a
dark-green color, thick and coriaceous, sinature or edge irregular,
length from one to three inches and a half. In its growth it is much
smaller than the former, and throws out numerous spreading branches,
and seldom presents its marked leading stem. This species,
therefore, in the above characters, agrees much with those that have
been assigned to _Thea Bohea_ by authors. The characters have been
mixed up in an extraordinary manner. Thus it has been stated, that
the _Thea viridis_ has large, strong growing, and spreading
branches, and that _Thea Bohea_ is a smaller plant, with branches
stiff and straight, and stem erect. No doubt the _Thea viridis_ is a
much larger and stronger growing plant than the _Thea Bohea_, or
rather the plant now existing in the different plantations is so;
but in the former the branches are stiff and erect, and in the
latter inclined and branches. The marked distinguishing characters
between the two species are the coriaceous dark-green leaves in the
_Thea Bohea_, and the large pale-green monhanæous leaves of the
_Thea viridis_. The manner, too, of growth is very striking, and on
entering the plantation the distinction is at once marked to the
most unobservant eye. This species of _Thea Bohea_ forms nearly the
whole of the plantations, and was brought from China by Dr. Gordon.
In the plantations there is a third plant, which, however, can only
be considered a marked variety of _Thea Bohea_. Its leaves are
thick, coriaceous, and of dark-green color, but invariably very
small, and not exceeding two inches in length, and thinly
lanceolate; the serratures, too, on the edge, which are straight,
are not so deep. In other characters it is identical. This marked
variety was received from Calcutta at the plantation in a separate
despatch from the others.
But in addition to these there are, no doubt, many more varieties,
and though it may be a fact that, in certain districts, green tea is
manufactured from a species differing from that from which black tea
is manufactured, yet, in other districts, green and black teas are
manufactured from one and the same plant. The Chinese manufacturers
now in Kumaon state that the plant is one and the same, and that it
can be proved by converting black tea into green. In manufacturing
teas now in the manufactory, if a large quantity of leaves are
brought in from the plantations, one half are converted into green,
and one half into black tea. This only shows that much of the green
and black teas of commerce are manufactured from one and the same
plant. The Assam plant is, from the characters given, quite a
distinct plant, and agrees, as already stated, most nearly with the
species described as _Thea viridis_. It would, therefore, be most
desirable to procure seeds of this so-called species, and also of
other varieties, of which, no doubt, there is a great variety. From
the northern districts of China in particular, seeds ought to be
imported, not, however, in large quantities, but in quantities of
two or three seers, so that they might, on arrival at Calcutta, be
sent up the country as quickly as possible, for, if the seeds are
kept long out of the ground, not one will germinate; such was the
fate of all the seeds contained in ten boxes imported by government
in 1845, not one having germinated, which was much to be regretted.
Had they been sent in small parcels, well packed in wax cloth, to
prevent them from being injured by moisture, and placed in an airy
part of the vessel in transmission from China to Calcutta, and, on
arrival there, sent by dâwk banghay direct to the plantation, they
would, I am confident, have reached in good condition. It is well
worthy of a trial and seeds ought, if possible, to be obtained from
every district celebrated for its teas. It is in this manner, by
obtaining seeds of the finest varieties of plants, that the finest
teas will be procured. I do not mean to infer that the tea plants
now under cultivation are not the produce of fine varieties, for
that has been proved by the undoubted testimony of the London
brokers, but only that there are, no doubt, many others well worthy
of introduction. In confirmation of what I have stated, I may quote
the words of my late friend Dr. Griffith, who, in his report on the
tea plant of Assam, says--"I now come to the consideration of the
steps which, in my opinion, must be followed if any degree of
success in the cultivation of tea is to be expected; of these the
most important is the importation of Chinese seeds of
unexceptionable quality, and of small numbers of their sorts."[11]
Dr. Royle, too, who was the first person to point out that the
Himalayas were well adapted to tea cultivation, and to whom the
credit of recommending to government the introduction of the plant
into Northern India is due, strongly urges the necessity of
importing seeds from different localities in China celebrated for
their teas.
_Method and season for plucking and gathering leaves_.--The season
for picking leaves commences in April and continues until October.
The number of gatherings varies, depending on the moisture[12] or
dryness of the season. If the season be good, as many as seven
gatherings may be obtained. If, however, the rains are partial, only
four or five. These, however, may be reduced to their general
periods for gathering--that is, from April to June, from July to
15th August, and from September to the end of October. But few
leaves are collected after the 15th of the latter month. As soon as
the new and young leaves have appeared in April, the plucking takes
place, this being done by the Chinese, assisted by the Mallees. The
following is the method adopted:--A certain division of the
plantation is marked off, and to each man a small basket is given,
with instructions to proceed to a certain point, so that no plant
may be passed over. On the small basket being filled, the leaves are
emptied into another large one, which is put in some shady place,
and in which, when filled, they are conveyed to the manufactory. The
leaves are generally plucked with the thumb and forefinger.
Sometimes the terminal part of a branch, having four or five young
leaves attached, is plucked off. All old leaves are rejected, as
they will not curl, and therefore are of no use.
As the season advances, and manufactory and plantation works become
necessary, the Mallees are assisted in gathering leaves by Coolies.
The process is simple, and thus every man, woman, and child of
villages could be profitably employed, on the plantations being
greatly extended. Certain kinds of leaves are not selected in the
plantation, in order to make certain kinds of tea, but all new and
fresh leaves are indiscriminately collected together, and the
different kinds separated on the leaves being fired.
_Method of manufacturing black tea_.--The young and fresh leaves on
being picked (they only being used, the old ones being too hard, and
therefore unfit to curl), are carried to the manufactory, and spread
out in a large airy room to cool, and are there kept during the
night, being occasionally turned with the hand if brought in in the
afternoon; or, if brought in during the morning, they are allowed to
lie until noon. Early in the morning the manufacturers visit the
airing room, and pack up the leaves in baskets and remove them to
the manufacturing room. Each manufacturer takes a basketful, and
commences to beat them between the palms of his hands with a lateral
motion, in order to soften and make them more pliable for working,
and thus prevent them, when rolled, from breaking. This beating
process continues for about an hour, and it may either consist of
one or two processes; the Chinese sometimes finish the beating
process at once; at others, they allow the leaves, after being beat
for half an hour, to remain a time and then resume it. They now go
to breakfast, and in one hour and a half the leaves are ready for
the pan. The pans being heated by wood placed in the oven, so as to
feel hot to the hands, are filled to about two-thirds, or about
three seers of leaves are thrown in at a time--the quantity which a
manufacturer is capable of lifting with both hands. With the hands
the leaves are kept moving with a rotatory motion in the pan, and
when they become very hot, the motion is kept up with a pair of
forked sticks. This process is continued for three or four minutes,
depending on the heat of the pan, or until the leaves feel hot and
soft. They are then, with one sweep of a bamboo brush, swept into a
basket, and thrown on to the rolling-table, which is covered with a
coarse mat made of bamboo. Each manufacturer then takes as much as
he can hold in both hands, and forms a ball and commences to roll it
with all his might with a semicircular motion, which causes a
greenish yellow juice to exude. This process is continued for three
or four minutes, the balls being occasionally undone and made up
again. The balls are then handed to another party at the extremity
of the table, to undo them and spread the leaves out thinly on flat
baskets and expose them to the sun, if there is any; if not they are
kept in the manufactory. After all the leaves have gone through this
process, the first baskets are brought back, and the leaves again
transferred to the pan, worked up in a similar manner for the same
length of time, re-transferred to the table, and again rolled. This
being done, the leaves are again spread out on large flat baskets to
cool. On being cooled the leaves are collected together and thinly
spread out on flat wicker-worked sieve-baskets, which are placed in
others of a deep and of a double-coned shape. The choolahs being
lighted for some time, and the charcoal burning clear, they are now
ready to receive the coned baskets. The basket is placed over the
choolah and kept there for about five minutes. The leaves are then
removed, re-transferred to the flat baskets, and re-rolled for a few
minutes. This being done, the leaves are again brought together,
placed in the conical basket and kept over the charcoal fire for
about two minutes. The contents of the conical baskets are then all
collected together in a heap, and as much is placed in a conical
basket as it will hold, and it is again placed over the charcoal
choolah until the tea is perfectly dry. During this time the baskets
are frequently removed and the tea turned, in order to allow the
leaves to be completely and uniformly dried, and the basket too is
generally struck, on removal, a violent side blow with the hand, to
remove from the sieve any small particles that might otherwise fall
into the fire. Before removing the basket from the choolah, a flat
basket is always placed on the floor to receive it, and all the
particles which pass through, on the coned basket being struck, are
again replaced. On the conical basket being filled, before placing
it over the choolah, a funnel is made in the centre of the tea with
the hand, to allow the heated air to pass through. Sometimes a
funnel made of bamboo is made for this purpose. After the tea feels
perfectly dry, it is packed in boxes, and sent to the godown.
Next day the different kinds of tea are picked, and on being
separated they are again placed in the conical baskets and heated.
During this process the baskets are frequently removed from the
choolah in order to turn the tea, so that the heating may be general
and uniform. In doing this a flat basket is always placed on the
floor, as on the former day (and a flat basket, too, is placed on
the top to confine the heat), to receive the conical one, which
receive one or two blows to open the pores of the sieve. What passes
through is replaced amongst the tea. When it is perfectly dry it is
ready for finally packing.
The kinds of black tea at present manufactured are--Souchong,
Pouchong, Flowery Pekoe, and Bohea. The Flowery Pekoe is
manufactured in September.
_Method of manufacturing Green Tea_.--On the young and fresh leaves
being plucked they are spread out on the ground of the airing room
and allowed to cool. After remaining for about two hours, or (if
brought in late in the afternoon) during the night, they are removed
to the green tea room. The pans being properly heated, the leaves,
as in the case with the black tea, are thrown into the pans and kept
either with the hand or two forked sticks in constant motion for
three or four minutes, and are then removed to the rolling table,
and then rolled in the same manner in balls as the black tea. They
are then scattered most sparingly on large flat baskets and exposed
to the heat of the sun. If there is no sun the baskets are arranged
in frames, which are placed over the choolah, heated with charcoal.
During the drying the leaves are frequently made into balls and
rolled in the flat baskets, in order to extract the juice. The
drying process continues for about two hours, and on the leaves
becoming dry, those contained in two baskets are thrown together,
and then four basketsful into one, and so on until they are all
collected together. In this state the leaves still feel soft, damp,
and pliant to the hand, and are now brought back to the tea
manufacturing-room. Opposite to each of the inclined pans, which
have been properly heated so as to feel warm to the hand by wood
supplied to the ovens underneath, one of the Chinese stations
himself, and puts as many leaves into it as it will hold. He then
moves them in a heap gently, from before backward, making these
perform a circle, and presses them strongly to the sides of the pan.
As the leaves become hot he uses a flat piece of wood, in order that
he may more effectually compress them. This process continues for
about two hours, the leaves being compressed into at least half of
their bulk, and become so dry that when pressed against the back
part of the pan in mass, they again fall back in pieces. The tea, as
by this time it has assumed this appearance, is now placed in a bag
made of American drill or jean (the size depending on the quantity
of tea), which is damped, and one end twisted with much force over a
stick, and thus it is much reduced in size. After being thus
powerfully compressed and beaten so as to reduce the mass as much as
possible, the bag is exposed to the sun until it feels perfectly
dry. If there is no sun it is placed in the heated pan, and there
retained until it is so. This finishes the first day's process.
On the second day it is placed in small quantities in the heated
inclined pans, and moved up and down against the sides and bottom
with the palm of the hand, which is made to perform a semi circle.
This is continued for about six hours, and by so doing the colour of
the tea is gradually brought out.
The third day it is passed through sieve baskets of different
dimensions, then exposed to the winnowing machine, which separates
the different kinds of green teas. The winnowing machine is divided
into a series of divisions, which receive the different kinds
according to their size and weight. 1st. Coarsest Souchoo. This tea,
owing to its coarseness, is not marketable. 2nd. Chounchoo. This is
a large, round-grained tea. 3rd. Machoo. This is also a
round-grained tea, but finer than the former. 4th. Hyson. 5th.
Gunpowder Hyson. 6th. Chumat. This kind of tea consists of broken
particles of other kinds of tea.
On being separated, the different kinds are placed in baskets and
picked by the hand, all the old or badly curled and also
light-coloured leaves being removed, and others of different
varieties, which by chance may have become mixed. To make the bad or
light-colored leaves marketable, they undergo an artificial process
of coloring, but this I have prohibited in compliance with the
orders of the Court of Directors, and therefore do not consider this
tea at present fit for the market[13]. On the different teas being
properly picked, they are again placed in the heated inclined pans,
and undergo separately the process of being moved violently up and
down and along the bottom of the pan for three hours in the manner
already described. The color is now fully developed. If the tea
feels damp, it is kept longer than three hours in the pan. The tea
is now ready to be packed.
_Packing_.--As soon as the tea is prepared, boxes lined with sheet
lead ought to be ready to receive it. On being packed it is to be
firmly pressed down, and the lead is then to be soldered. Before the
sheet lead box is placed in the wooden one it is covered with paper,
which is pasted on to prevent any air acting on the tea through any
holes which might exist in the lead. The box is then nailed, removed
to the godown, papered, stamped, and numbered. It is then ready for
sale.
From what I have just stated, it will be perceived that box makers
and sheet lead makers are essential to form a complete tea
establishment. With reference to the box making it is unnecessary
for me to make any remark, further than that care is to be taken in
selecting wood for making boxes, as it ought to be free of all
smell. All coniferous (pine) woods are therefore unfit for the
purpose. In the hills the best woods are toon and walnut, and at
Deyrah the saul (_Shorea Robusta_).
_Manufacture of sheet lead_.--Sheet lead making is a much more
complicated process, and therefore requires more consideration. To
make sheet lead, the manufacturer mixes 1½ to 3 seers of block tin
with a pucka maund of lead, and melts them together in a cast metal
pan. On being melted, the flat stone slabs, under which it is his
intention to run the lead, are first covered with ten or twelve
sheets of smooth paper (the hill paper being well adapted to the
purpose), which are pasted to the sides, and chalked over. He then
places the under stone in a skeleton frame of wood, to keep it firm,
and above it the other stone. On the upper stone the manufacturer
sits, and gently raises it with his left hand, assisted by throwing
the weight of his body backwards. With his right hand he fills an
iron ladle with the molten matter, throws it under the raised slab,
which he immediately compresses and brings forward (it having been
placed back, and thus overlapping the under slab by about half an
inch) with his own weight. On doing so, the superabundant lead
issues in front and at both sides; what remains attached to the
slabs is removed by the iron ladle. The upper slab is now lifted,
and the sheet of lead examined. If it is devoid of holes it is
retained; if, on the other hand, there are several, which is
generally the case with the first two or three sheets run, or until
the slabs get warm, it is again thrown back to the melting pan.
After having run off a series of sheets the slabs are to be
examined, and, if the paper is in the least burnt, the first sheet
is to be removed, and the one underneath taking its place, and thus
securing an uniform smooth surface, is then to be chalked. According
to the size of the stone slabs used, so is the size of the sheet
lead. Those now in use are 16 inches square by 2 inches in
thickness, and are a composition, being principally formed of lime.
To make sheet lead boxes, a model one of wood (a little smaller than
the box for which the lead is intended) is formed, which has a hole
in the bottom, and a transverse bar of wood to assist in lifting it
up, instead of a lid. The lead is then shaped on this model and
soldered. This being done, the model is removed by the transverse
bar, and by pressing, if necessary, through the hole. The lead box
is then papered over, in case there should be any small holes in it,
to prevent the action of air on the tea, and, when dry, transferred
to the wooden box for which it was intended.
_The manufactory_.--The rooms of the manufactory ought to be large
and airy, and to consist of--1st, a black tea manufactory; 2nd, a
green tea manufactory; 3rd, winnowing room; and 4th, airing room. At
Almorah the black tea manufacturing room is 53 feet long by 20
broad, and the other three, 20 by 24. The walls are 18 feet in
height.
_Implements required in manufacturing_.--In the body of this report
I have noticed all the different kinds of implements required, I may
however, again briefly notice them, and give a short account of
each. Cast-iron Pans--In the manufactory there are two kinds in use,
one received from China, the other from England. Both are considered
equally good by the tea manufacturers, though in firing green tea
they prefer the Chinese ones, as they are thinner, and are thus by
them better able to regulate the heat. The Chinese pans are two feet
two inches in diameter, and 10 inches in depth, by about one-eighth
of an inch in thickness.