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.
[CHAPTER XXIV.]
MANUFACTURE. MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES.
To manufacture your leaf into good Tea is certainly one of the first conditions for success. It will avail little to have a good productive garden if you make inferior Tea. The difference of price between well and ill-manufactured Tea is great, say 4 as. or 6d. a lb., and this alone will, during a season, represent a large profit or none.
Fortunately for Tea enterprise, the more manufacture is studied the more does it appear that to make good Tea is a very simple process. The many operations or processes formerly considered necessary are now much reduced on all gardens. As there was then, that is formerly, so there is now, no one routine recognized by all, or even by the majority; still simplicity in manufacture is more and more making its way everywhere; and as the real fact is that to make the best Tea, but very few, and very simple, processes are necessary, it is only a question of time ere the fact shall be universally recognised and followed out.
For instance, panning the “roll”[36] was formerly universally practised. Some panned once, some twice, some even three times! But, to-day, pans are not used in most gardens at all!! Other processes, or rather in most cases the repetition of them, have been also either discarded or abridged. But a short statement of manufacture in old days, and the simplest mode of manufacture, will best illustrate my meaning:—
| One and a common old plan | One plan to-day by which the best Tea can be made | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Days | Number of operations | Detail | Days | Number of operations | Detail |
| 1st | 1 | Withering. | 1st | 1 | Withering. |
| 2nd | 2 | 1st Rolling. | 2nd | 2 | Rolling. |
| 3 | 2nd „ | 3 | Fermenting. | ||
| 4 | Fermenting. | 4 | Sunning (if sun). | ||
| 5 | 1st Panning. | 5 | Firing (Dholing). | ||
| 6 | 3rd Rolling. | ||||
| 7 | 2nd Panning. | ||||
| 8 | 4th Rolling | ||||
| 9 | Sunning. | ||||
| 10 | 1st Firing (Dholing). | ||||
| 11 | Cooling and crisping. | ||||
| 3rd | 12 | 2nd Firing (Dholing). | |||
| 3 | 12 | Total days and operations. | 2 | 5 | Total days and operations. |