The Washington herald., 1912-11-10

On or before February Is Of each year.
the Secretary Of the Treasury appoints
board Of seven experts. who meet In
New York and prepare samples Of twelve
different kinds Of teas-these samples to
be regarded for the coming twelve-month
as fixed standards Of purity. quality, and
fitness for consumption Of all teas i'm
ported into the United States. Duplicates
Of these standards are deposited in the
customhouses Of the eight principal sea-
ports. and arrangements are made for
furnishing other samples. accurately rep
resenting them. at cost price. to tea i'm
porters and large dealers in tea.
The twelve standards in question are
for Ccugou. Foochow oolong. gunpowder.
Young Hyson. Japan (pan fred. japan
(basket fred. Japan tdusO, scented
orange pekoe. Canton oolong. scented
Canton. Formosa ooiong. and Ceylon
teas.
Chemical Poisons.
It has never been shown that Prussian
blue. indigo. turmeric. tale. barytes. or
any other Of the substances used in the
sophistication Of teas. are poisonous. or
even particularly unwholesdme in small
quantities. But they are introduced for
the purpose of deception-to cover in
feriority. or else to make a given grade
Of tea seem better than II is-and this
IL In contravention to the pure food law.
The hrst green teas brought to this
country came from China, where they
were prepared by stirring the leaves in q
bowl over a slow fire. The process took
time. and the incidental friction turned
the leaves to dark green or gray-green
color. This came to be accepted in the
United States as the color of good tea,
and even to the present day the market
demand Ii for tea Of such a color But
In the meantime. the price Of labor in
China having gone up. the old process
has been replaced by one much more
rapid. high temperatures being employed.
The leaves no longer undergo friction.
and. lacking the required color, they have
acquired the latter through the addition
Of Prus,fan blue or indigo. As already
explained, however. this sort Of sophisti-
cation Is no longer permitted by our gov
ernment.
The system of testing teas now enforced
by the Treasury Department was origin
ally adopted at the instance of the tea
importers and large tea dealers. and by
their request For both dealers and i'm
porters II is highly advantageous. II saves
them q lot Of trouble. because II impure
or wholesome tea did get past the Gus
tom-houses. 1t would he seized under the
pure food law by the Department Of Ag-
riculture. But 1t should be realized that
tHc UuytIS ~Ho tcd8 III dFSt
quantities abroad. acting as agents for
the importers. are themselves provided
not only with the government standards.
but also with testing apparatus exactly
like that used by the Treasury. In
deed. they make their own tests just as
the Treasury does, and IL they err. II
IL their own fault.
When. as happens occasionally. a batch
Of imported tea Is found unsatisfactory.
the importer is required to ship It out
Of the country. If he falls to do so. II is
seized and destroyed. either by fire or
by 'denaturing' 1.-THE latter process
consisting in mixing II with lime or some
other substance that renders it useless.
First, however. the importer Is notified.
and Is told exactly what it is that is
found Objectionable about the consign-
ment. II he thinks that injustice has
been done. he has the right of appeal to
the general appraisers of the customs
service.
ConcerninE Tea Tablets.
The importation Of tea tablets" as
they are called-one tablet being good for
a cup-is restricted. because the material
Of which they are composed is usually
stuck together with wax or some other
foreign substance. which under the law
Is an adulteration- 1t Is worth mention
ing incidentally that considerable guam
titles Of low grade tea Is allowed to come
in for the manufacture Of caffeine-this
alkaloid. otherwise known as theme"
being found in both the tea plant and the
coffee berry.
Formerly it was customary to adulter-
ate tea with the leaves Of other plants.
The ingenious Chinaman had habit
OF mixing weeds of divers sorts with the
proper herb in preparing the latter for
export. Not more than a dozen years
ago the Department Of Agriculture found
many foreign leaves in some samples of
tea that were subjected to examination
But. for some reason unexplained. this
are themselves SO cheap that it would
seem hardly worth while to mingle SUBJ
stitutes with them.
Mention was made a moment ago Of
standards for scented orange
pekoe" and scented Canton" teas. It
should be explained that such teas are
prepared by placing fresh orange BIOS
SONS. 5essamines. or other flowers. in a
pan beneath a wire or wicker tray that
holds the leaves. subjecting them to
mild heat which causes their moisture to
evaporate and. in rising. to carry with
IL their perfume. The perfume-laden
moisture passes up through the dry tea
leaves. and is absorbed by the latter.
The only tea garden now operated on .
scale IN this country Is at
in South Carolina 1t Is
= very successful enterprise. and the gov
ernment has done a good deal to help II
along. Perhaps the most important thing
there has been the develop
ment Of . number Of machines especially
for tea farming. Everything on the plan
tation u now done by machinery. except
the picking of the leaves: and it il an
nounced that q machine has been devised
for performing even this operation.
Cost Of Labor II Ban.
The only real obstacle in the way Of
successful tea culture In the United States
Is the cost of labor. It has seemed hith-
erto to be almost out Of the question to
try to compete with the coolie labor Of
the far East. But II we can develop ma
that will take the place Of hand
labor. the problem will be solved. This,
In fact, seems to have been practically
For example. q thorough
" satisfactory machine has been con-
trived for pruning the bushes. thus re-
ducing the cost of this operation from
$50 to 70 cents an acre.
This pruning machine gives o dome-like
shape to each bush. 20 that the latter OBJ
tains q greatly augmented area Of leaf
bearing surface. and produces three or
four times as much leaf In season. Then