Written 1909
A rich and exuberant growth of the plants is a first essential of successful tea cultivation. This is only obtainable
in warm and moist localities where rains are frequent and copious. The climate indeed which favors tropical profusion
of jungle growth and steaming heat is that most favorable for the cultivation of tea, and such climate, unfortunately
is often trying to the health of Europeans. It was formerly suggested that comparatively temperate latitudes and
steep sloping ground afforded the most favorable situations for planting, and much of the disaster which attended
the early stages of the tea enterprise in India is traceable to this erroneous conception. Tea thrives best in
light friable soils of good depth, through which water percolates freely, the plant being specially impatient of
marshy situations and stagnant water. Undulating well-watered tracts, where the rain escapes freely, yet without
washing away the soil, are the most valuable for tea gardens. Many of the original Indian plantations were established
on hill-sides, after the example of known districts in China, where hill slopes and odd corners are commonly occupied
with tea-plants.
The methods described hereafter are those generally followed in India and Ceylon in the manner of the most modern
application, but variations must take place according to district and elevation. Propagation is from seed only.
The seed is rather larger than a hazel nut, with a thicker and darker shell and perfectly spherical shape. When
ripe (about the month of November) the seeds are placed a few inches apart in carefully prepared nurseries, which
are watered, shaded and weeded till the regular rains of May and June admit of the shading being removed. The seedlings
should then be 6 ins, to 8 ins, high and ready to plant out in the fields. These are prepared by cutting down and
burning the jungle, which is afterwards hoed, lined and staked in parallel rows running both ways. The intervals
of planting vary, but 43/4 ft. by 43/4 ft. isa very common distance. Pits 15 ins, to 18 ins, deep are dug for each
plant, and refilled loosely then the seedlings are carefully placed in them. With favorable weather they should
be 15 ins, to 18 ins, high by the end of the first year. Sometimes the plants are grown in the nursery for a whole
year or more and put out during the cold weather. After two years growth the bushes should be 4 to 6 ft. high.
They are then cut down to about 8 ins, and are allowed to grow again up to 2 or 3 ft. before,, towards the end
of their third year, being plucked regularly. The object of this cutting down is to cause the bushes to spread
out and cover the ground area usually allowed to each plant, i.e. about 20 sq. ft. The yield in the third year
is small, probably less than 3/4 oz. finished tea per bush. At 7 to 10 years old, when in full bearing, 4 to 5
oz. would be considered a good return.
Individual estates of large area gave as much, as 1280 lb per acre. In Ceylon the average yield per acre was 440
Ib, but there are verified records of 996 lb per acre within the year from an estate of 458 acres. On the same
property an area of 100 acres gave 1100 lb per acre on the average over a period of 18 years.
Cultivation in the northern parts of India is done by digging over the soil locally termed hoeingo nce in the winter
quarter and six times in the nine months of the harvesting season.
Cullivation: To keep an estate clean and in good cultivation it requires to be gone over every six weeks. The laborers
being barefooted, a spade is useless, so a khodalee or hoe (much like a very heavy and long-bladed garden Dutch
hoe) is used. It is raised well over the head and dropped forcibly into the ground, then pulled towards the wielder
to turn over the soil. - In southern India and Ceylon clean hand-weeding is the method of cultivation, almost no
hoeing being done. In northern India the plucking season begins in April. During the first flush (i.e. the breaking
out of young green shoots after pruning and the rest of winter) the bush is encouraged to grow by leaving 3 or
4 fully developed leaves after removing the tip of the shoot. It takes about 6 weeks to remove entirely the whole
of the first and succeeding flushes, going round the estate once a week. in the second flush two leaves only are
left. In the third and fourth flushes only one large leaf, and after that say during October, November and part
of December no soft leaf growth is left that can be harvested in good order. In northern India, where the weather
in the Winter months is cold and dry, growth practically ceases, and then the whole area is pruned and cut down
to about 16 ins, high all over, but in Travancore and Ceylon it grows continuously and is only pruned when found
expedient at intervals of 15 months to 2 years. In certain cases of highlying estates, where the growth is slow,
it is allowed to run 3 years from pruning. The finest teas are produced at high elevations in Darjeeling and Ceylon
and in the plains of Assam, but the quality from individual estates varies much from season to season, and even
from week to week. There are at times marked differences between the produce of adjoining estates, with apparently
identical conditions of soil and situation. Tea grows and thrives from about sea-level in the tropics to 7000 ft.
in more temperate conditions. The life of a well-cared-for bush has been estimated at 50 years, in spite of its
numerous enemies. Those include mites, termites (or white ants), thread blight, grey blight, caterpillars (naked
or in bags) and caterpillars armed with stinging hairs to protect them, and borers, red and black, some of which
eat the core out of the wood, while others content themselves with eating only the bark.
During recent years in India a new development has taken place in planting tea upon what are termed bheels,lands
resembling to a great extent the peat bogs of Ireland and Scotland. When opened up by an elaborate and complete
system of drainage, they have been found to possess the power of producing enormously heavy yields, and it is from
such estates that the greatest yields in India have come.
In Ceylon, and to some extent in India, the careful and systematic application of chemical manures, compounded
on scientific lines, has been found to increase largely the yield of leaf, and much interplanting of nitrogen-producing
growths has been done with a view to restoring to the soil the most necessary constituents.
In the early days an attempt was made to copy the Chinese methods, and the various processes were manual. Now,
from the plucking stage onwards, almost everything is done by machinery. During the season of yield the flushes
are Manufacplucked every 7 to lo days, and, as a rule, in India the lure.
opening bud and two leaves below it are plucked. To take more than this would he considered coarse and less would
be fine plucking. These are of course quite immature, the longest rarely being one inch in length. The lower leaves
on the young shoots are too old and hard to manufacture into tea. The plucking is done by women and children, and
is now practically the only part of the work where the tea is touched by hand. The plucking season continues in
some districts of India till December. As they are plucked, the green leaves are thrown into baskets, and twice
daily the pluckings are taken into the factory. They are then spread out thinly on trays or racks made of bamboo,
canvas or wire netting, under cover, for some 18 or 30 hours (according to the temporary weather conditions) to
wither, after which they are in a soft, flaccid condition ready for rolling. On a successful wither the amount
of the tea ferment or enzyme is dependent. The object of rolling is to crush the leaves and to break their cells
so as to liberate the juices. The leaves are passed repeatedly through a machine driven by steam or other power
giving a rotary motion, the operation occupying about 40 to 60 minutes. The next process is familiarly termed fermentation,
but is really an oxidation of the leaves. Should the leaf be intended to be cured as green tea, the fermenting
process is omitted and some other processes applied, but in India very little green tea is manufactured. Many people
still cherish the antiquated belief that black and green te&s are grown upon different varieties of the tea-plant,
which is quite a mistake, the difference being merely one of preparation. After being rolled, the leaves are spread
out in layers of I to 2 ins, thick in a cool house, and left to undergo the chemical action resulting from their
condition. This process is checked after from 2 to 3 hours, according to climatic conditions. A further brief rolling
to close up the open leaves is followed by the first firing, which is effected by subjecting the leaves to the
gradual action of hot air up to a temperature of 240 F. Various applications of the same system are in use, but
the most popular is to place the leaves on trays of wire network in a high temperature for about twenty minutes,
after which they are firm and crisp. Up to this point of the manufacture the leaf has been in the stalk, the leaves
and bud being unseparated. They are now broken apart and sorted by mechanical sifters into the various grades or
qualities, which are described as Orange Pekoe, Pekoe, Pekoe Souchong and Souchong, each of which names represents
approximately the leaf-bud and the three lower leaves. In addition to these four classes, out of each are sifted
all the smaller fragments of leaf broken in the process of manufacture, which are termed Broken Orange Pekoe, &c.
These broken grades are frequently objected to by the consumer, under the impression that they are inferior in
quality, but in the opinion of experts, the more the leaf is broken up, the better is the liquor upon infusion.
Upon completion of the sifting, the tea is again fired, and, while warm it is packed tightly into lead-lined chests,
and the lead covers completely soldered over it, so that it may be kept perfectly air-tight until required for
use.
The machinery in use is very varied in character, and it has been evolved principally by practical planters of
a mechanical turn. Many estate superintendents have begun their careers Machi as engineers, and it is not unusual
for a large estate, or group of estates, to have one member of the European staff who is a qualified engineer.
The motive power is generally a steam engine, but the greater economy and facility of oil engines have led to their
fairly wide adoption. Where water power is available, turbines of a variety of types are in use, The machines to
be driven are airfans, rollers, roll-breakers, sifters, cutters and packers, and there are besides numerous types
of driers or desiccators. The names associated with the most successful and widely used machines are those of the
Messrs Jackson (makers, Marshalls of Gainsborough) and Mr S. C. Davidson, of the Sirocco Works, Belfast. The production
of the empty boxes for packing, called chests or half-chests, is in itself a large industry. The heavy old-fashioned
country-made packages are rapidly being replaced by light-tared ,boxes made from several thicknesses of veneer
pressed closely together, most of which come from Russia.
A production temporarily in excess of the worlds demand of several years ago, led to the offering of bonuses for
the production in India and Ceylon of green teas, with a view to lessening the black tea output. The methods adopted
were successful, and Green tea. after some vicissitudes a satisfactory business has been established, especially
with the United States of America and Canada. The methods of producing this tea are not so complicated as those
followed in China and Japan. The principal difference from the manner described of making black tea lies in the
omission of the withering and fermenting, and the substitution for those of a steaming or panning process. The
effect of either is to destroy the possibility of fermentation by subjecting the leaf, as soon as it is plucked,
to a brief period of great heat. This completely destroys the ferment or enzyme, and renders it possible to conserve
the tea in what is really nearer its natural form than the black tea that is so well known to the consumer. |
