LEAF PICKING.
The first consideration is how to get the largest quantity of leaf
without injuring the trees.
To a certain extent, it is true that the more a Tea bush is pruned and
picked the more it will yield. It appears as if Nature were always
trying to repair the violence done to the tree by giving new mouths or
leaves to breathe with in place of those taken away. I may exemplify my
meaning in another way. A Tea bush which has as many leaves on it as
_it requires_ will throw out tardily new shoots, and their number will
be small. In other words, a plant which is not pruned, and from which
the young leaves are not taken, grows gradually large and bushy, and
then gives up flushing altogether. It has all the leaves it _requires_,
and it has no necessity to throw out more.
If, however, Nature is too much tried, that is, if too much violence
is done to her, she sulks and will exert herself no more. Up to this
point, therefore, it is well to urge her. How can we know when we have
reached it?
Only general rules can be laid down. Experience is the great
_desideratum_ on this and many other subjects connected with Tea.[34]
If the plant can always be kept in such a state that the foliage,
without being _very much so_, is still less than Nature requires, I
conceive the object will be attained.
The greatest violence is done to the plant when it is pruned, and
reason would seem to argue that when this violence is repairing, that
is, when the first shoots in the spring show themselves, and until
new mouths (or leaves) in sufficient quantities exist, until then but
little leaf should be picked.
Fortunately, moreover, while in the interests of the plant this is the
best plan, it also is the mode by which the largest yield of leaf will
be secured in the season. I go to show this.
The ordinary size of a good full-grown Tea plant, at the end of the
season, is, say, 3-1/2 or 4 feet high, and 5 feet diameter. It is
pruned down, say, to a height of 2 feet, with a diameter of 3 feet.
It is then little more than wooden stems and branches, and to anyone
ignorant of the _modus operandi_ in Tea gardens, it would appear as
if a plantation so pruned has been ruined. The tree remains so during
all its hybernating period, that is, during the time it is resting and
the sap is down (this period is longer or shorter, as the climate is
a warm or cold one, and it is always during the coldest season), but
on the return of spring new shoots start out from the woody stems and
branches in the following way:--At the axis or base of each leaf is a
bud, the germ of future branches, these develop little by little, until
a new shoot is formed of, say, five or six leaves, with a closed bud at
top. Then if it be not picked the said bud at top hardens. At the axis
or base of each of the said five or six leaves are other buds, and the
next step is for one, two, or three of these to develop in the same way
and form new shoots. The original shoot grows thicker and higher until
it becomes a wooden branch or stem. The same process, in their turn,
is repeated with the new shoots. A diagram (see next page) will make
my meaning clear. We here have a shoot fully developed, of six leaves,
counting the close leaf _a_ at top as one, viz., the leaves _a_, _b_,
_c_, _d_, _e_, _f_. The shoot has started and developed from what was
originally a bud at _K_, at the axis or base of the leaf _H_. In the
same way as formerly at _K_ a bud existed, which has now formed the
complete shoot or flush _K a_, so at the base of the leaves _c_, _d_,
_e_, _f_, exist buds 1, 2, 3, 4, from which later new shoots would
spring. These again would all have buds at the base of the leaves,
destined to form further shoots, which again would be the parents of
others, and so on to the end of the season, or until the tree is pruned.
[Illustration]
It will readily be seen the increase is tremendous. It is only limited
by the power of the soil to fling out new shoots, and the _necessities_
of the plant, for, as I have explained, when as much foliage exists as
the plant requires, but few new shoots are produced.
Now supposing the shoot in the diagram to be (with perhaps another not
shown at _L_) the first on the branch _I I_ in the spring (the said
branch having been cut off or pruned at the upper _I_). It is then
evident the said shoot is destined to be the parent and producer of all
the very numerous branches and innumerable shoots into which the plant
will extend in that direction. It is, in other words, the goose which
will lay all the future eggs. If, eager to begin Tea making early, the
planter nips it off, the extension on that part of the tree is thrown
back many weeks. It may be taken off at 1, 2, or 3 (the back lines
drawn show the proper way to pick leaf); the least damage will be done
if it is taken off at 1, the most at 3.
The said shoot _K a_ is the first effort of Nature to repair the
violence done to the tree by pruning. It is the germ of many other
branches and shoots, and it ought _never_ to be taken. I have, I hope,
made so much plain.
There is, however, another consideration. Any shoot, left to fully
develop and harden, does not throw out new shoots from the existing
buds 1, 2, 3, 4 so quickly as one checked in its upward growth
by nipping off its head. For instance, supposing the shoot under
consideration _not_ to be the first of the season, but on the contrary
to be a shoot when the plant has developed sufficiently to make picking
safe, if taken off at 2, then the new growth from 2, 3, 4 will be much
quicker than it would be had the whole shoot been left intact.
Our object then with _first_ shoots should be to secure this advantage
without destroying any buds, and this we can do by taking off simply
the closed leaf at the top _a_. This must be done so as not to injure
the bud at the base of the second leaf _b_ (I have not numbered it, for
there is no room in the diagram to do so), and we shall thus leave all
the buds on the shoot intact.
Again here the interests of the plant, and profit to the planter,
go hand in hand. The closed bud _a_ in this case will be found very
valuable. I go to show this.
The value of Tea is increased when it shows “Pekoe tips.” Only the
leaves _a b_ make these. They are covered with a fine silky whitish
down, and, if manufactured in a particular way, make literally white
or very pale yellow Tea,[35] which, mixed with ordinary black Tea, show
as “Pekoe tips.” In ordinary leaf-picking these two leaves are taken
with all the others, but unfortunately, when manufactured with them,
they lose this white or pale yellow colour, and come out as black as
all the other Tea.
As the season goes on, this is less and less the case, till towards
the end nearly all the _a b_ leaves show orange-coloured in the
manufactured Tea. Still they are not _white_ (the best colour) as they
can be made when treated separately. No means have yet been devised
to separate them _before_ manufacture from the other leaf, and though
sometimes picked separate, the plan has serious objections (see next
page). In the case, however, of the first two or three flushes the
welfare of the plants demands that no more should be taken, and though
the quantity obtained will be small, it will, if carefully manufactured
so as to make “white Pekoe tips,” add one or two annas a lb. to the
value, when mixed with it, of one hundred times its own weight of black
Tea!
More will be found under this head in the Tea manufacturing part. I
now beg the question that the said downy leaves taken alone are very
valuable.
In detailing the mode of picking I advocate, it would be tedious to go
minutely into the reasons for each and everything. I have said enough
to explain a good deal, but will add anything of importance. Of the
latter are the following.
Tea can be made of the young succulent leaves only. The younger and
more succulent the leaf the better Tea it makes. Thus _a_ will make
more valuable Tea than _b_, _b_ than _c_, and so on; _e_ is the lowest
leaf to make Tea from, for though a very coarse kind can be made from
_f_, it does not pay to take it. The stalk also makes good Tea, as far
as it is really succulent, that is, down to the black line just above
2.
The leaves are named as follows from the Teas it is supposed they would
make:--
_a._--Flowery Pekoe.
_b._--Orange Pekoe.
_c._--Pekoe.
_d._--Souchong, 1st.
_e._-- „ 2nd.
_f._--Congou.
_a_, _b_, _c_--Pekoe.
Mixed together
_a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_--Pekoe Souchong.
If there be another leaf below _f_, and it be taken, it is named, and
would make Bohea.
Each of these leaves was at first a flowery Pekoe leaf (_a_), it then
became _b_, then _c_, and so on.
That is to say, as the shoot developed, and a new flowery Pekoe leaf
was born, each of the leaves below assumed the next lowest grade.
Could the leaves fit to make each kind of Tea it is proposed to make
be picked and kept separate, and each be manufactured in the way most
suitable to its age, and the Tea to be produced, the very best of every
kind could easily be manufactured. But this cannot be; the price of
Tea will not allow it, and the labour to do it would moreover fail. It
has been attempted again and again to do it, partly to the extent of
taking the Pekoe leaves _a_, _b_, _c_ separate from the others (for
the manufacture best suited to these upper leaves is not suited to the
lower), but it has been as often abandoned, and I doubt if it is now
practised anywhere. I am sure it will never pay to do it.
Picking leaf is a coarse operation. It is performed by 80 or 100 women
and children together, and it is impossible to follow each, and see
it is done the best way. They must be taught, checked, and punished
if they do wrong, and then it will be done more or less right; but
perfection is not attainable.
I advise the following plan in picking. Please refer to the diagram:--
If the garden has been severely pruned (as it ought to be) take only
the bud _a_ for _two_ flushes; then for _two_ more nip the stalk above
1, taking the upper part of leaf _c_, as shown (done with one motion of
the fingers). But from the fifth flush take off the shoot at the line
above 2, and by a separate motion of the fingers take off the part of
leaf _e_ where the black line is drawn. By this plan, when the rains
begin, the trees will show a large picking surface, for plenty of buds
will have been preserved for new growth. After the month of August
you may pick lower if you like, as you cannot hurt the trees. For
instance, you may nip the stalk and upper part of leaf _e_ together,
and separately the upper part of _f_.
The principle of picking is to leave the bud at the axis of the leaf
down to which you pick intact.
Some planters pick all through the season at the line above 1, and take
the _d_ and perhaps the _e_ leaf separately. I do not like the plan,
for though it will make strong Teas, the yield will be small. Moreover,
the plants will form so much foliage; they will not flush well; and
again, they will grow so high that boys who pick will not readily reach
the top.
Shortly, the principle I advocate is to prune severely, so that the
plant in self-defence _must_ throw out many new shoots; to be sparing
and tender with these until the violence done to the tree is in a
measure, but not quite, repaired; then, till September, to pick so much
that the wants of the plant in foliage are never quite attained; and
after September to take all you can get.
I believe this principle (for the detailed directions given may be
varied, as for instance when trees have _not_ been heavily pruned)
will give the largest yield of leaf, and will certainly not injure the
plants.
FOOTNOTES:
[34] See foot-note, page 86, which shows that for 18 months after
transplanting, young bushes should not be pruned or picked at all.
[35] I mean manufactured Tea. The infusion is called liquor.