SEED-PODS OF THE TEA-PLANT.
"The first thing the tea-planter has to do after getting possession of his lease is to clear the land and get ready for planting. This is no small matter, as the forest must be removed, and the soil thoroughly broken up. The outlay for this is considerable, and not much unlike clearing up a farm in New England, or in the backwoods of Canada. Then the young plants are set out; after this has been done, the ground must be kept clear of weeds, just as in raising corn or potatoes. It must be frequently stirred, so that the plant can get as much nourishment as possible from the earth, and when this is done the planter has the satisfaction of seeing the bushes grow with considerable rapidity.
"We walked through the fields where the plants were growing, and found them of different ages and sizes. If we had not known where we were, we might have thought we were in a field of English myrtle-bushes, as the tea-plant is much like the myrtle in general appearance. It grows from two to six feet high, and has white blossoms that resemble small dog-roses.
"One of us asked which were the plants that produced green tea, and which the black. The owner of the plantation smiled, and said there was no difference.
"We laughed at our ignorance, as he explained that the difference of the teas was entirely owing to the manipulation. We asked why it was that some districts in China produced only green teas, while others were reputed to make none but black; and he told us it was because the workmen in those districts had been accustomed to follow only one form of manipulation.
"It takes three years, he said, to get a plantation in condition to produce tea. The seeds are sown in a nursery-bed, and the young plants are not ready to be set out till they are a year old. They are then about nine inches high, and covered with leaves; and the first crop is taken when they have been growing two years in the field. The leaves are the lungs of the plant, and it would die if all of them were stripped off. Consequently only a part of them are removed at a picking; and if a plant is sickly, it is not disturbed at all. The plants will last from ten to twelve years, and are then renewed; and on all the large plantations it is the custom to make nursery-beds every year, so that there will be a constant succession of new plants for setting out in place of the old ones.
"At the first gathering the half-opened buds are taken, and from them the finest teas are made. Then they have another gathering when the leaves are fully opened, and then another and another, till they have five or six gatherings in the course of the year. Each time the leaves are coarser than those of the previous gathering, and consequently the tea is not of so fine a quality. A well-managed plantation produces all kinds of tea; and it was a wise requirement of the Dutch government, when they started the tea-culture in Java, that the planters should produce proportionate quantities of both black and green, and not less than four qualities of each.