Far from it, for this is one of those articles that are always being attacked by Chancellors of the Exchequer, who seem to have a special ill will against tea.
Indeed, it is so heavily taxed that it is extremely difficult to make a profit on tea-gardens. Elsewhere in this chapter some other very curious facts will be found illustrating the extraordinary habits and methods of the British Government.
The author does not try to explain these facts, but only points them out; a nation that can manage to exist at all when such things are done by its Government is a nation to which one is proud to belong.
The Tea-plant is a native of China and Assam. It is a very handsome shrub resembling a camellia, with dark, glossy, green leaves and beautiful flowers. It is said to have been used in China about 2700 B.C., and the first plantations in India were made with Chinese seed. But a Mr. Bruce reported the presence of an indigenous wild tea in Assam.[57] Three botanists who were sent to investigate the question suggested that this Assam variety was only the Chinese plant run wild, and advised the introduction of Chinese seedlings. This was a very unfortunate mistake, for the wild Assam plant gives much better results.
The jungle is first cut down and cleared away by the native tribes, with the help of elephants. Then at the right season, i.e. after the rains begin, the Indian women and coolies go into the plantations. They carry on their backs a basket supported by a band across the forehead. These women nip off the first two leaves and a bud with their finger and thumb and throw them into the basket over their shoulders. When the basket is full they take it back to the factory, where their gatherings are weighed. The actual manufacture is, in India and Ceylon, all performed by machinery. The tea is first emptied on to trays in a shallow layer: a pound of tea when so spread out covers more than a square yard. These trays are then placed in a room which is heated to a high temperature, for "withering." After six hours it is passed through a machine which "rolls" or gives a twist to the leaves. It is then "fermented" on cement floors, where the tea is covered by strips of moist muslin. It is again rolled and afterwards dried or "fired." The sifting out of the different sorts or blends, and also the packing of the tea in chests, are done by machinery.
That is the Indian system of manufacture, in which there is scarcely any hand-labour.
In China the rolling, and indeed every stage of the process, appears to be done by hand. It is obvious that in the handling, pattings, and rollings of the tea by Chinese coolies, "celestial moisture" may be imparted to it. In spite of this, however, the export of Chinese tea is steadily diminishing. In the old days, the Liverpool "tea clippers," fast and beautiful sailing-ships, raced each other home from China in order to get the first tea upon the market.
Tea is sometimes dangerous, and especially when it is allowed to stew on the fire for hours at a time. Besides theine, which is the stimulating, active part of it, and which is a bracing tonic to the nerves, tannin is also found therein. When meat is taken with a large amount of tannin, the latter acts on the meat exactly as it does on hides in a tanning factory. It forms a substance resembling leather, which taxes the powers of the strongest digestion.
Once upon a time in those fertile mountains of Abyssinia which have never yet been explored by the white man, there was a very holy and pious hermit. He used to live entirely on the milk of a few goats which he carefully tended with his own hands. One morning he noticed that one of these goats showed signs of unusual excitement. It was frisking about, and obviously was exceedingly well pleased with itself.
That was not a usual experience with the holy recluse, who watched the animal carefully. He soon discovered that it was in the habit of grazing on the bright red berries of a very handsome shrub in the hills. The anchorite tasted those fruits and discovered that he also became both pleased with himself and somewhat excited.