Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-02-27
CULTURE OF THE TEA PLANT.
How the Japanese Cultivate 1t and
Prepare 1t for Market.
Three HaryeStS are Gathered Each
Year, the First Being the Best.

Tea culture in Japan is a household IN
dustry, generally conducted in small gar
dens which the peasant and his family
can easily work themselves. Where the
soil is favorable many of these tea gardens
will lie along side of each other and form
a bright pleasant picture with their hand
somely formed bushes, dark green foliage
and regularity of growth. A plant does
not begin to furnish tea until the fourth
year of its age. The yield increases up to
the tenth year, then gradually decreases
for FIVE years more, when the gardens must
be renewed. The bushes are about three
feet apart in each direction. By trim
ming they are kept little more than a
table in height. The soil is kept well
worked, free from weeds. and fertilized
as often as four times a year, the largest
supply being given in spring, when the
new growth begins. For fertilizers, fish
guano and the cake from oil pressed seeds,
also wood ashes and sea weed are used.
The first harvest begins about the middle
| of May, the second after the rains. about
two months later. A third picking of
leaves yield only older and coarser leaves
for home use, or for the production of
brick tea-that is, tea pressed into the
form of bricks and exported to Siberian
Russia, where 1t Is used as nourishing food,
as well as beverage.
The tea plant ranges in Japan from SO
north to the thirty-ffth parallel, and is
generally grown only on the level plains.
The tea gardens of U-ji, noted for their
fine product, are rooted over before the
first harvest by mating supported on bam-
boo frame work, the object being to pro-
tect from dew and keep the heat received
by day from wasting by radiation in the
night. The modified light lengthens the
young shoots and makes the leaves more
tender. 1t is this region also which fur
nishes the very finest Japan teas used in
the ceremonious tea parties called ''cha-
no-yu. Such teas are often sold as high
as twenty-five yen (equal to nearly 500 per
pound.
A TEA FIRING GOODWIN.
In many streets of the foreign settlement
IN Yokohama, one passes low, jail-like
| looking buildings from whence comes a
sickening odor as OF something burning
and at the same time one hears a perfect
babel OF shouting voices. These are the
tea-fring warehouses or go-downs. and
| | introduced myself in the interest of
the readers of the Detroit Free Press to
the proprletors of one of the largest, if not
the largest, of these establishments
Messrs. Smith, Baker & Co., an American
| firm, who have been here exporting teas
and silks for over twenty years.
Mr.. Baker placed himself at my dis
posal and a thorough inspection of the
works resulted in the following Informal
ton.
The export of Japan tea is not far from
100000 pounds, and this export is on
the increase. 1t goes almost entirely tC
the United States. but little going to Eng
land, where China tea is preferred. The
| foregoing firm exported last year 5000, 00(
pounds.
! The native tea comes into market be
/ tween the middle of April and Novembe
l. The young and new growth of April
May and June produce the new and hes
teas and most of the business is done IL
May and June. The second and thirC
crop of leaves is picked but they form only
the inferior grade.
The native tea as cured by the native
tea gardeners will keep good in Japan fol
year if packed In stone jars, but in thai
form it will not bear expectation, as it con
tains about II per cent of moisture, and i
is to rid the tea of the moisture that tn,
tea firing goodwin is instituted. First tn,
native tea, which comes in wooden case
from the country, each containing ont
picul equal to about $50 pounds), is emp
tied into bins about ten feet square by
FIVE feet high. with movable sides. Wher
full one of the sides is taken down and
with a rake the contents are carefully
mixed to insure uniformity in color and
size. The tea in this condition has nc
odor which reminds one of tea as we know
it, at all.
In a very large and lofty one-story
building are arranged brick furnaces In
ranks of eight Over a small fire pit OF
each is rather deep, rounded iron pan
capable of holding about twenty gallons.
| The building contains about 800 of these
pans, the whole premises about 1000 of
them. The pans are generally orked by
Japanese women, certain number OF
them having an Overseer, generally a
Chinese. At a given signal about five
pounds of the native tea is put into each
pan and the attendants at once commence
working it round and round with their
hands, never ceasing an instant until the
temperature of the tea rises 70 about ITO.
At first it grows soft, but finally, at the
end of fifty minutes, assumes lighter
color has shrunk, and become dry to the
touch, developing peculiar pyro-olelc
odor allied to that of tea as known in
America. In short, it is sort of toasting
process and develops an artificial char
acter allied to the development of the
aroma of coffee by roasting it. Of coursr
the experience of the Chinese foreman de-
cides the degree of heat, the time OF mani
pulation, and the finished condition. Dur.
| ing the busy season, May and June, this
house keeps l, 800 people busy from morn
| ing till night at this toasting of tea. 1t il
one babel of noise, and the heat from the
| fire pits in the summer is sitting. The
| fumes of the charcoal used In the furnaces,
which have no chimney, the vapor from
| the tea and more or less dust from it makes
tea firing go down anything but para
disc About one-third of the workers are
japanese mothers who bring their babies
with them These play in the large paw
ed court yards sheltered from the sun by
mating, the mothers, at intervals, leaving
work few moments to nurse and care fol-
them.
BASKET FIRING.
There is another process of tea firing
called basket firing, resembling more
nearly the native method. The furnace
consists of shallow, thin, iron pan, where
the live charcoal fire is controlled by thinly
covering it with fine ashes. The fire pan
rests on the floor pavement. 1t is about
twenty-eight inches in diameter. A basket
of bamboo, the shape of dice-box and
ordinary table height (say thirty. inches),
is placed over the fire, it being the same
diameter as the pan or slightly less, so that
It's lower edge will set inside of the pan.
A sieve-like diaphram divides the inside
of the basket into two spaces or halves,