Evening star., 1895-03-23
Curing Tea.

Chinese girls, who had feet no bigger than
your fists, picking over tea. Their feet,
which were bandaged. were half-covered
with the leaves of the second-grade tea,
which they had thrown down into the bas-
kets below them, as they were rapidly
handling the leaves, sorting over each and
every one OF the thousands of tiny bits Of
green before them. At Annoy I was told
that a vast amount of tea was spoiled
about year or so ago. 1t was ruined
by dampneSs or something that the Chi
nese would not use it. The factors then
spread 1t out on the dirty wharves. where
1t was mixed with all kinds of foul stuff,
and dried for shipment to America and
England. l have heard it stated that the
tea grounds of some Chinese restaurants
are taken out and redried and in some
cases shipped to America. I doubt this
very much, but 1t Is true that the Chinese
use tfeir tea grounds over and over again,
preparation of the tea for the market Is
almost altogether by hand. The tea dis
tricts are generally hilly and they are laid
out in beautiful terraces. About Foochow
nothing but act as pack animals for the
carrying of tea. They have it packed in
baskets which they carry on poles across
their shoulders up and down the mountain
passes. They get about 25 cents a day. 1t
costs about cents pound to pick the tea
ana there are NUMBER OF local taxes
which will now probably De greatly in
creased on account of the war.
How Brick Tea Is Made.
Great quantities of tea are exported to
Russia and Mongolia every year in shape
Of bricks. These are made of the lower
grades of tea and Of tea dust. The leaves
are ground up and steamed and cooked un-
til they are soft and mushy. They are then
put into molds about the size Of an or
binary brick and are pressed into shape, so
that they become as hard as chocolate
H. Gv,~, Il .,.x1
small cakes, in fact, of just about the size
of the small cakes of sweet chocolate which
you buy in the candy stores. I visited sew
eral Of the factories in Hankow, which
make this kind of tea. and the process
was even less appetiZng than that which
l described as to the ordinary tea. The
factories, in the first place, are very warm.
The steaming tea is handled by dirty COO
lies. and it is sweetened by perspiration.
After the bricks are finished they are car
ried by boats up the rivers and canals to
Tientsin, and from thence go on camels in
to Mongolia and on to Russia. There are
about sixty bricks in one package, and they
are So arranged that they can be carried
en- camels. This brick tea takes the place
of money in many parts of Asia. and in
Mongolia 1t passes as currency each brick
The Mongols divide brick into thirty
equal parts. They boil it with milk, butter,
sheep fat and salt, using camel dung for
fuel. I visited one Of the largest of the
Russians there VINO were making for
tunes out of shipping brick tea to Russia.
Some of the factories employ more than a
thousand hands, and the business is almost
as great as that of shipping tea to Europe.
The Decline of the Tea Trade.
The Chinese tea trade has been declining
fer years. and this war will be terrible
blew to it. India is fast pushing it's way
into the tea markets of the world and you
find good Indian tea now 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
land imported ten million pounds of tea
from Assam. Ten years later it was TAX
ing more than sixty million pounds and
there are now more than a quarter of
million acres of tea plantations in India
The Chinese have been adulterating their
tea, and they have been steadily losing
ground. while the Japanese and the Indian
merchants have been gaining. The Indian
tea now brings n higher price in the Eng
lish markets than the Chinese tea, and not
half as much Of the Chinese tea is used
as was twenty-five years ago. 1 had
cbanc, TO see something of the tea planta-
tiCns of India during a journey which
made six years ago to Darjiling, in the
Himalaya mountains. This city Is more
than a mile above the sea, and you ride
for a long distance through well-kept tea