RESUSCITATION, The very serious decline in the export of and Ceylon of a very large proportion tea from Spine: and hag onager to India ofa trade. in which formerly China had no competitors, has naturally led those interested to enquire into the reasons for the loss.of a valuable staple of export. The fact is, it has been found impossible of Into years to lay down in Europe at equally low rates teas which could compete in quality. with those produced in Assam end Ceylon, and the reduction in prices offered in consequence st Hankow and Foochow has been so great that the Chinese have in turn been unable to pay the requisite attention to the cultivation of the teas, and-have neglected to attend to renewals of old and worn out plants.
That there has been some reason for this more than the mere accidents of soil and climate is a necessary conclusion. The soil and climate of China are not one whit less favourable for the growth of tea than the soil and climate of India; and for many years after India commenced to compete the manufacturers there were unable to equal in flavour the productions of the Chinese growers. Now it is evident that the position has altered, and that India and China have relatively changed places. To understand the reason it is necessary to enquire into the difference in the cultivation of the teas in the two countries. Compared with China it may be said that in India there is more care taken in the weeding and ventilation of the shrubs the leaves are plucked more regularly, and only in small quantities at a time, 50 that there is not any very marked distinct tion between first and second pickings, and there is a regular succession of leaf sent to the curing house. It is, howe its arrival there that the great dis in the method of the preparation isto be noted.
The whole preparation of the Indian teas is, contrary to the system adopted in China, from the leaf is brought to the curing house till it leaves it as finished tea packed in chests ready for the market effected by machinery, but a minimum of manual labour being required. The conxequenco of this is not only that the flavour is more delicate and the resulting liquor stronger and more fragrant, but, the manipulation being under control,' the quality of the entire corp is mote regular and even in flavour.
From this not only results a saving in Inbour, but the requisite temperature produced by heated nir, instead of by the rect application of heat to the drying baskets, effects a very considerable economy in the use of fud. OF late years attempts have been made with varying success to introduce tea-manipulating machinery into China. The first step in this direction seems to have been a rolling machine, of now obsolete form, imported a good many years ago by Messrs. Welch, Levis &Co. of Shang hai, which was sold by them to Chinese, and set up at Wenchow. Although of a form now antiquated, it was found to produce tea of a greater strength, superior in flavour and infusion to that prepared by native methods. This machine was only calculated to effect the process of rolling and to be commercially successful, required to be supplemented by a firing nel dybg machine. More recently, experiments have been made at Foochow, with an imported dryer, and three samples of tea produced thereby were submitted to a sub-committee of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce. The sub-committee, composed of and others, reported favourably Their Messrs. A. Campbell and J. W. Harding, opinion was that in respect of flavour all the samples were much nearer in character to In lia and Ceylon teas than to China congou; and that the liquor was stronger and more desirable in every respect. They, however, added that the preparation lacked in character and was susceptible of considerably further improvement.
This fact was emphasised in a private letter attached, the writer stating that he 50 was struck with the marked difference in the product from that formerly brought to market; the teas great strength, and the later musters showed evident improvement on the earlier experiments. Tt must," adds Mr. Campbell, be extremely gratifying to the promoters to have attained such excellence, and to my mind it is only a question of time when they will be able to make as good and useful tea, if not of such fine quality, as is to-day produced in India and Ceylon."
Amongst those firms. who. from the beginning have made. the improvement of tea manipulating mhchinory a special study, the first rank must undoubtedly be awarded to Messrs. Davidson & Ca., of the Sirocco Engineering Works, Belfast. Mr. Davidson, originally a tea planter and manager, had the requisite initial experi-, ence to understand the wants to be met, and was in a better position: from his practical knowledge of the processes than his competitors to suggest the requisite details on, which success generally depends. According to his system the manufacturing process is divided into five stages, any.one of which may be separately installed.
These subsidiary processes are:—1st Withering; 2nd, Rolling; 3rd, Formentation; 4th, Drying; and 5th, Sorting and Packing.." A: fully equipped establishment can by means of these five processes, without other manual labour than is needed in carrying the leaves in baskets from one machine to another, receive the tes from the pickers into its godowns irrespective of weather, and send it out in chests properly sorted and packed, ready for shipment. It would, however, be only in a few of the more important centres of production in China that such an establishment would be needed or profitable; and not till after full trials hi on afforded to the more necessary of the subsidiary processes, Of these latter the most essential for the development of the full aroma ofthe leaf is the Drying process. The reason of this is, that unless the leaf, after rolling and fermentation, be perfectly dried, the very finest leaf may produce a tea compara. tively valueless, either from the chemical action of damp left in the mass, or from over-drying developing pyroligneous oils. As dried in the ordinary Chinese manner in baskets, over slow burning charcoal fires, the process is both slow and exsive, and the leaf needs constant turning over by hand. This unnecessary manipulation is eliminated in the new. mechanical process known as the Sirocco Drier. The drier is made in two forms, an older, the Uparaft, and a newer and improved form, the Downdraft. The former Tequires no'machinery nor steam power, the draft being self induced. The latter needs a fan blower to induce the down draft, but the power may be. obtained from any readily available source; a mountain stream, or a portable oil or steam engine, or oven a buffalo irrigating wheel will serve. Tt has, however, against this the advantage of being able to turn out a much Larger quantity of tea, -In both cases the drying effect is produced by. 4 patented multitubular stove which heats the air passing over the tea to the required combustion are carried off by a separate temperature; and, as all the products of flue, the quality of the. fuel in no wise affects the flavour of the tea, with which the gases never come in: contact. The leaf is placed in trays which are necessarily moved onwards from hot moist air to other positions comparatively dry and cool, the air circulating in the opposite direction to the tea, which latter, when finally removed from the machine, is found to be perfectly dry, and comparatively cool to the touch.
The Updraft Siroccos are made of various sizes, the smallest capable of turning out Ibs. of manufactured tea per hour, while the larger 16 side-tray machines are adapted to an outturn of 120 Ibs. in the same time. The Downdraft Siroccos are also made of various sizes and capacities, and in their most improved form in' -tho Automatic Endless Web Sirocco, the labour of moving the trays is replaced by a self-acting arrangement capable of producing 240 catties per hour of perfectly dried tea. All these machines are constructed of iron, and require no brickwork nor made foundations; the unusually large area of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.