The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-06-13
PREPARING 'TAHO'DI[A"
Uncle Sans Latest Experiment
for the Soldiers Comfort
HAS PROVED SUCCESSFUL
Daring the Late War These Tablets
Were Used by Russian and Japan
csc S6Atlicrs - Colored Children
Used to Pick the Leaves mt the
Government Station.

Government Station.
In devising a convenience for SOL
dier and sailor Uncle Sam has come
upon an article which will be Of in
estimable value to the traveller,
sportsman, engineer and woodsman,
as well as to the housewife. At his
! experimental tea garden at Summer
! Vile, s. c., he is turning out tea In
! tabloid form.
/ These are the first tea tablets
world. but compressed tea In the
form of slabs was introduced in Rus
STA century ago. AS a convenience,
Russian officials and their wives
have long carried on their numer-
Gus Journeys high-grade compressed
tea nodded In the form of tiling or
cakes. In the late war with Japan
Russian soldiers were supplied with
these slabs, very like our cakes of
chocolate and governed so that pieces
of standard size could be snapped of
In the fingers.
During the long sleighing trips
over the Russian and Siberian ex-
panses, where 1t is impracticable to
halt and boil water, traveller often
places one of his tea tablets in his
mouth. with a morsel of loaf sugar,
letting both softly dissolve. 1t is said
that a half hour after thus taking
three or four OF his tea tablets he
commences to feel a cheering, exhil-
arating effect. The Russians call this
indulgence a dry cup of tea," and 1t
Is claimed by them that not the
slightest harm results from the con-
sumption of three or four tablets.
But the greatest freak in this line
is the cup moulded of compressed
tea by a firm of Mockba, central
Russia. These vessels after a course
of drying becomes as hard as gran
ite and allow Of boiling water being
poured into them until it dissolves,
each time, just enough of the tea
from the bottom and sides of the
cup to give a sufficiently strong in
fusion. One of these cups-very like
the medicinal "quassia" cups of our
grandparents-will continue for six
months to brew as much tea as one
drinker will desire.
But every particle of tea in the
tablets now being turned out at the
governments experimental tea gar
den is American-grown. Within the
past few years the bureau of plant
industry at Washington has rem
dered 1t possible to grow in this
country as good tea as can be pro-
duced In any part of the world.
The experiments at the govern
ment tea gardens are showing that
seed from all moderate climates are
as productive here as In their native
climes. The changes Of climate un-
dergone by the foreign seed has,
however, changed the flavor of the
tea leaves. Our early season tea Is
more delicate and milder than that
grown from the same seed in the na-
tive soil. but that picked in the au-
tumn Is stronger in color and taste
and resembles the foreign teas from
more southern climates. American
tea grown at the Summerville sta
ton lacks the puckery or astringent
quality OF India and Ceylon teas, but
is decidedly fragrant and delicate in
taste. The best results have been
obtained in a hybrid plant intro
duced here about so years ago, and
acclimated to the coasts of the south
ern and gulf states. 1t will yield 500
pounds Of dry leaf to the acre a sea-
son and makes an excellent black
tea.
The tea pickers at the govern
ment stations are all colored child
rem. One Of these can pick over so
pounds of the green leaves in a day,
whereas the average picker In the
orient rarely gathers over half that
amount. There is winter school
established for the pickers. Tea
gathering demands very delicate
work. Each plant has about five
leaves, decreasing in size from the
bottom and surmounted by fiow-
cry tip or pekoe. Only the pekoe
and the two top leaves are allowed
to be picked at the station. In for
eign gardens the lower leaves are
often gathered as a makeweight,
but their sole value Is the claim that
they are tea. They are so tough that
the favor cannot be boiled out of
them.
The government experts attached
to the experimental gardens are i'm
proving the quality of the tea by
studying those peculiar ferments Of
"enZyms" which-as in the case of
tobacco-produce the aroma or frag-
rance of the leaves.
New York States Good Roads.