The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-03
 PREPARING TEA FOR MARKET

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 Machinery Versus Hand-Unsclentifif
 Methods Still Employed in China and
 Japan Which Are Menace to Health. l Of recent years much has been writ | ten of the various methods in vogue in
 tea-growing countries of preparing tea for market, and from health stand
 point 1t has come to be a matter of
 much interest to the consumer of tea.
 The matter has been discussed by med
 ical journals all over the country, and
 upon investigation they have shown by
 reference to the reports of consular
 agents, published by authority of the
 United States Department of Agricul-
 ture, that the mode of preparing tea in
 China and Japan is not only unhealthy,
 but uncleanly as we'll. The trouble in
 those countries is that the tea industry
 is household industry; it is not con
 ducted on large scale. That is to say,
 the tea gardens are small, consisting of
 a few acres, while in Ceylon and India the reverse Is the case, the gardens GOV 1 ering hundreds of acres. In the for
 mer the work is of necessity done by
 hand, as it does not pay to use expen-
 sive machinery where in individual
 cases only small quantities of tea are to 1 be rolled, dried, fired, etc. This car
 ries with it all the uncleanly and un
 pleasant features incident to the old 1 manner of manipulating tea by hand.
 There is little doubt that the discus
 sion of this matter had much to do
 with the recent legislation that has
 perforce stopped the importation of | much impure and unwholesome tea, | but legislation here cannot stop the
 method of preparing tea in foreign l countries. All we can do here is su- | pervise and while tea which has cer-
 tain percentage of dust Shown by a
 sieve test) or which contains certain l percentage of extraneous matter l (shown by a chemical test) cannot
 come into this country, the law does
 not keep out the sweat-tainted and
 dirt-laden teas, the condition of which Is entirely due to the manner of prepa-
 ration.
 Mrs. Boardman, a correspondent of
 the Brooklyn Standard Union," travel Ing through Ceylon and India, has writ ten series of interesting letters about l the cultivation and preparation of tea I as scientifically done in Ceylon and In-
 dia. She has described the whole pro- cess, and shows that, except when the leaf is plucked green by comedy young
 women, it is never touched by human
 hand, and 1t is not too much to expect,
 she says, that "the ingenuity of plant CTS in Ceylon and India will before long
 evolve a practical picking machine. l Unclean hands and feet have no part
 in the preparation of Ceylon and India
 tea, which finds ittis way to the worlds breakfast, lunch and dinner table,
 I A gentleman travelling in the intehest
 of the company which bears the name of the man pre-eminent in matters
 pertaining to electricity gives some de-
 tails regarding the other side, and I what a contrast it makes! How it
 must strike the lady who is so nice"
 that she will not send her clothing to a
 Mongolian laundry! He says, in part,
 as he had read much of the discussion
 about tea that while at Yokohama he
 visited one of the drying rooms and saw the actual work ''The tea is placed in
 copper pans over charcoal fires in a
 room which, considering the number of people employed, is much too small from a sanitary standpoint, and the
 work is done by women in a more or less cuc1othed condition, with babes on their backs, with here and there a youngster lying on tea already dried bawling Justify for it's dinner. The temperature of the room was very high and as I stood by and saw the perspira- tion drop from the bodies of the women as they worked the tea with sweaty and dirt-stained hands I wondered
 what unfortunate would have to par take of that feast They told me that if I went back few miles in the inte- rior I could see the other processes, but had seen sufficient When I ques- toned merchants in Yokohama as to , why machinery was not used I was told that it was hard work to introduce new methods, and that they were afraid that neither China nor Japan tea plant CTS would wake up to the fact that they were behind the times until it was too late"
 That pure tea, used as beverage is @ healthful drink, seems to be shown by it's effect on British troops operating in the Soudan. The commanding general there issued an order that the army abstain from the use of alcoholic bever- ages, and this naturally resulted in a 7 large consumption of Ceylon and India tea, and the reports of the surgeons to : the home office at London showed that there was decided improvement in the health of the troops. As a result of that report, General Miles ordered that ! .,vyssgssyss eeessaaees 2