The Russellville Democrat., 1881-01-06
TEA PACKING.
How Is It Done-The Various Processes
 Described.
Foochow Herald.

Foochow Herald.
 A large tea packing house presents very different scene from that two months ago. Then, at the door one found lines of fifteen catty boxes filled and waiting to be soldered up. Now, none. Next, one found fat bags stacked up eight or ten feet, bursting with Pehling tea that escaped here and there through 5holes temporarily stopped with bamboo leaves, the bottom of the bags mostly stained from contact with wet flights of mountain stairs, upon which the exhaust ed coolie had set them down on the passage.
 Now, one finds but empty chests, hun dreds in number, square, deep and ob- long, used for handling the tea in the fac tory. Ordinary tea chests would not stand the rough usage.
 Farther on, one came to the dozen long double rows of sifters facing each other, lDfty in a row, the mesh of some taking pencil, that of others refusing pencil point-sifting tea leaf rough and bold, hat after persuasive grasp or two in Y )e hand broke, and consented, after
 N shakes in the sieve to be stripped of
 me of the sappy leaf edges and to ap-
 lar below, the even and uniform leaf
 kuCI liiC ttt iLblSto iit iiuSl
 i've (plus the dust due to the persuad-
 g) The transformation in a rough leaf
 passing the meshes of coarse sieve,
 th gentle crush from the sifters hands,
 hances a rough, bold tea much in
 ue.
 yn place of the rows of men then seen
 &ng and jerking their sieves in mo-
 ny only broken by the Cantonese
 masters roll call twice day, before
 general meal of fish and rice, there
 low to be seen only the bare floor of
 pened earth, piles of empty benches
 ked in a corner, and the sieves of the Ee different sizes used, each in its
 ion in the three-story stand.
 e dozen or so of flaming mills are
 now. The trained hands are gone
 turned the cranks with uniform
 Hon, sending the heavy tea, light tea E and flaky dust each down it's respective spout separated, never again to meet, un- less haphazard, mixed in a White Chapel grocer's window.
 The tea leaf separated in these flaming mills has been parted with at the smart loss of lis 5000 on $500 piculs to the foreign buyer, and has been let go by the latter to the London dealer or auction room habitue. The mills now stand
 
 waited through June and July for their money have now been paid. The losses to the packers here, however, have been so smart that there IS little third crop tea now being packed in Foochow, and the mill will rest until another May shall bring the physical courage bred of hot blood back to the pale and dispirited native teamen. There are stacked up in this huge godown few hundred pack ages of a native makers brick tea wrap ped in plaited bamboo strips, bound in half bamboo and triply rattaned. Aside here, the Chinese upper millstono IS be- ing turned upon the neither by Chinese who is grinding the tea seeds left by the Tanning mill.
 In these sycee boxes sharp spades are | falling upon tea stems, chopping them fine enough to go into the stemmy, dusty mixture to which the seed dust gives the E strength, while the chopped stems vouch for it's being tea.
 In the firing house four Chinese rice kettles, two feet across the mouth, set obliquely upon edge, turn the tea back in shower over the hand Of the stirrer, wood fire being kept up in the brick work underneath. Fire holes, scores in number. follow in rows the walls of the firing house, in each an iron pan placed, now filled and rounded with charcoal ready to be lit. Placed over each of these fires is a huge hour-glass-shaped basket hood or mufiler that shuts in the heat of each fire to but one outlet-that through the tea sieve that chokes the throat of each basket.
 In these baskets is dried off the tea that P comes in from the hills wet or flat from constant down-pours and from the first fermentation of the leaf. These fires are out and all is still.
 Here. too, on the floor above, the benches are empty where girls and women eame-some too often-to throw out the stems from the leaf, getting half cent for removing those from the two catties of tea given them in wound bamboo woven trays.
 The floor is now bare where we then saw the Ningteh tea brought to uniform shade, by shaking in bags with few 2 spoonfuls of lamp black; then baked upon Eshe floor, only to be strewn white as a srave in spring with the pure muhll blossoms. then blossoms, in turn, buried Under another avalanche of funeral tea, hd this again with blossoms, life upon Z1h; then both were rudely mingled
 Eher and put away in boxes for 3
 till the fragrance should have Des-i