This finishes the rolling process. Each man as stated can do 30 lbs., but there is further work for him to be now described.
Fermenting.—The balls accumulated are allowed to stand until fermented. I look on this being done to the right extent and no more, as perhaps the most important point in the whole manufacture.
Some planters collect the roll after rolling in a basket, and there let it ferment, instead of making it up into balls for that purpose as described. I much prefer the ball system for the following reasons:—When a quantity is put into a basket together and allowed to ferment a certain time, what was put in first is naturally more fermented than what was put in last, the former probably over, the latter under-done. The balls, on the contrary, can be each taken in succession in the order they were laid on the table, and thus each receive the same amount of fermentation. I think further the twist in the leaf is better preserved by the ball plan, and also that a large quantity in a basket is apt to ferment too much in the centre.
It is impossible to describe, so that practical use shall be made of it, when the balls are sufficiently fermented. The outside of the ball is no good criterion. It varies much in colour, affected by the extent the leaf was withered.[48] You must judge by the inside.
Perhaps as good a rule as any is that half the twisted leaves inside shall be a rusty red, half of them green. Practice alone, however, will enable you to pronounce when the balls are properly fermented. There is no time to be fixed for it. The process is quicker in warm than cool weather.
The fermentation should be stopped in each ball just at the right time. Great exactitude in this is all-important, and therefore, as I say, the balls should be taken in rotation as they were laid down.
The fermentation is stopped by breaking up the ball. The roll is spread out very thin, and at the same time any remaining coarse leaves are picked out.
This concludes the fermenting process.
Sunning.—The roll is then without any delay put out in the sun, spread very thin on dhallas or mats. When it has become blackish in colour it is collected and re-spread, so that the whole of it shall be affected by the sun. With bright sunshine, an hour or even less suns it sufficiently. It is then at once placed in the dholes, which must be all ready to receive it.