Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-05-14

and there one sees gaily dressed women
picking the leaves. their black skins
and bright calico gowns showing out
against the green, while their jcwelry
flashes In the sun. Each woman has
20 basket which will hold about two
bushels. on her back kept there by
band which rests over the forehead.
The leaves are plucked with the hands
and thrown into the baskets, which.
when full, are carried to the factory !
am told that tho planters usually
have five pickings a year, and on the
best lands thev have seven. This is
far ahead 81 China and Japan, whore
the shrub that will Yield three pick
ings is good
The tea planters here are chiefly
British. Many Of the estates are own
cd by companies. The planters live
I'm fine bungalows surrounded by lawns
and gardens. Many Of them are the
second sons OF noble families I'm Eng
land
MAKING TEA BY MACHINERY
The processes Of making tea in India
are different from those Of Japan and
China. In the latter countries nearly
everythir- Is done by hand and tho
methods are unsanitary to an ok
treme. In China the leaves are sorted
by women and girls and the moisture
IA pressed out OF them by trcading
them with bare feet. They are rolled
over and over on bamboo trays with
the hand and are fred In redhot pans
by half-naked, pcrsuirlng wOrkmen.
II is the same In Japan. / once Wis
tied n large firing establishment at one
Of the ports where they were preparing
green tea for the American market.
They were curing II by what is known
as pan-firtug. Imagine a long row Of
ovens filled with copper pans each 20
Wmh mHnI fHa.aH 4 fra
tops Of the ovens were az about the
height of a mans waist or Just high
enough 20 enable one to stir the con-
tents about with the hands There
were az least 30 OF these pans and
over each bent a Japanese woman. her
dress pulled down TO her waist and the
upper part Of her body as bare as the
Venus de Medici. Each was stirring
and kneading and rolling tho drying
tea. Pearl drops Of Precipitation stood
out upon the backs and busts Of the
workers, and 10 seemed 20 me as
though the tea might be brewed by
the sweat. II took those women almost
an hour to finish each lot and after
that the teas were put up by hand
Here In India the tea is an rolled by
machinery Every plantation has ITS
factories where the leaves are withered
and rolled between steel plates so care
FULLY graduated that they do not I'm
iure the tea. The drying is done by
hot blasts and revolving fans and the
result is that tho tea comes out per
fectly pure and clean. II ls carefully
graded and packed while warm Ia lead
lined chests for shipment abroad
THE HINDOOS DO NOT DRINK.
The chief tea drinkers of Asia are
north OF the Hmalaya mountains. on
the other side OF these hills the natives
soak themselves IN tea, and IA Tibet
and the other Asiatic highlands the
people make tea soup, mixing the brew
with milk, butter and other fats Down
here I'm Hindustau the HindOos drink
almost no tea, and the Mohammedans
but little The custom IS increasing
somewhat among the towuspeople. but
there are millions in India who have
never seen "a tea leaf or slipped a tea
cup. over In Burma they have a way
Of picking the leaves of the tea plant
and eating them for dessert, as we eat