The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-24

INTO the tea markets of the world, and Won
lind good Indian tea row sold all over the
United States. The trade has practically
grown up within the past Twenty-Five
years, and since 1870 the Chinese markets
have been steadily declining. In 1870 Eng
fand imported l0,0Oo,O00 pounds of tea
from Assam. Ten years later 1t was tax
ing more than &c, 000,o00 pounds, and there
are now more than a quarter of q million
acres OF tea plantations in India. The
Chinese have been adulterating their tea.
and they have been steadily losing ground,
Wnlle the japanese and Indian merchants
have been gaining. The Indian tea now
brings higher price in the English mar
kets than the Chinese tea, and not half
as much of the Chinese tea is used as
twenty-five years ago. / had chance to
see something of the tea plantations of
India during a journey which | made six
years ago to Darjiling in the Himalaya
Mountains. The city is more than a mile
above the sea, and You ride for long dis
lance through well-kept tea gardens. the
bushes OF which are very much like those
of our currants.
These gardens turf out more than 300
pounds OF tea per acre, and there are five
pickings, beginning in March and ending
IN November. The most of the tea plants
are raised from the seed. The tea seeds
are OF about the size of a haZelnut. They
are sown in nurseries in December and
January, and by April the sprouts are
ready to be transplanted The best soil is
virgin forest land, and the richer the bet
ter. The plants begin to bear in their third
year, and they reach their best Weld in
their ninth year, after which the bush be-
gins to decline. The Indian tea is generally
grown in large plantations. The Chinese
tea comes from little patches scattered over
the country, and the holdings are generally
small. In China the tea plant is in full
leaf during the latter. part of May, at
which time is the second picking. A good
tea tree will yield from ten to twenty
ounces of leaf, and the best pickers average
about fifteen pounds day. The wages for
such persons is from 6 to s cents per day,
and women and children do the work.
The most of the Japanese tea is now fired
in copper or iron pans, which are set into
bake ovens and kept hot by fires under
them. A great deal of the Chinese tea is
dried oyer charcoal in sieve, being rubbed
with the hand until the contents are per-
fectly dry and the leaves become dark.
1t is supposed by many in this country
that green tea is caused by the copper
basins in which the tea is fired. This is SO
to certain extent, but there is a natural
green tea, that is, a green tea produced
without the use of coloring matter ANY
kind of tea may be made green or black,
according to the length of time of firing.
Ii the tea'is picked when not yet ripe and
fired quickly it will have green color.
This green. however, is often produced by
putting indigo and soapstone into the dry
ing pans, and | met tea merchant in
Japan who told me that most, of the green
tea was colored in this way and not with
copperas. The natural color of the tea leaf
is green, and the purest of tea, which is
known as the sun-dried tea, is of a green
color.
We are now using great deal Of
the Formosa tea, which ranks as one of the
best teas of the world. Some varieties of
this tea cost $50 and upward pound, and
quite lot of Indian and Japan tea has
been put upon the market as Formosa tea
1t will surprise many people to know what
an immense number of tea-drinkers there
are in the world. Great Britain is said to
drink 100, 900 600 cups of tea per day, and
every man, woman or child in Great
Britain consumes five pounds of tea every
year.. The Australians are the greatest
tea-drinkers in the world, and they average
over seven pounds per year. They take a
great deal of Chinese and Indian teas.
The greatest consumers of the japanese
teas are the United States and Canada, and
we take the bulk of the japanese teas. Tea
drinking is increasing in America, and the
English drink more tea and less coffee
every year. The japanese and Chinese are
drinking tea all the time, and a visitor is
served with a cup whenever he calls. 1t is
estimated there are 5oo,OOO00 tea-drinkers
in China and India.
| am told that the falling off of the tea
crop of China is more than made up by the
increase in the opium product. Opium is
grown now all over China, and there are
plantations of it in the north beyond the
Chinese wall. l was greeted with the sick
ening smell of opium wherever went, and
in the city of Foochow, which is about as
big as st. Louis there are 1000 registered
opium dens. Shanghai is filed with
opium joints, and the biggest opium den
in the world is to be found there. 1t is an