OCR Text |
Show in the leaves as plucked, but due to different methods of-preparation. It, Is ..true that Jet p-own in certain localities is more adapted to the preparation of green tea than black, but there is no difference in the characteristics.' Japan and China still supply the greater part of the tea shipped Into the United States, but Imports of better grades of tea from Jara and India, particularly Ceylon,. are greatly increased in-creased now over the prewar years. Authorities Authori-ties on the international tea trade point out a general revolution In this industry has occurred since the war and, with Russia again entering the market, still more marked changes are predicted for the future. i . - : . 6 r I The Tea Trade -' tVYHEN tea Is mentioned we Immediately y think of China as the greatest producer .10 this product1 That was true until recent cars. Nov China, once the world's principal Source of tea, has sunk permanently to fourth "place, with India producing the greater part 'jj the tea that enters into international trade, Allowed by Ceylon and Java In the order ILamed. . : Prior to the European war and throughout 2he earlier days of the struggle, Russia was Surpassed only by the United Kingdom as an reporter of tea. In 1918 Russia. Imports of riJi had dwindled to 20,000,000 pounds, about Vne-eighth of the quantity consumed In .1913. II Tea was first used as'a beverage In China un the development of the Chinese tea industry in-dustry dates back to the early Christian era. IThe tea drinking habit quickly spread from China to Japan and later to Formosa. The 1, hrifty Dutch first introduced tea into Europe, uf it was not until the East India company b rought samples to London In the latter part the seventeenth' century that the regular trade was established. . A study of the early ica trade, before the construction of the trans- Iberian railway and the opening of the Suez -anal, pictures long caravans making laborious j urney$ across Mongolia and Siberia, the principal prin-cipal markets of Russia. An attempt to grow tea In Java was made -y the Dutch lefore the Industry was begun In Hila, but its success was not admitted because i he Chinese vareity was not adapted to Java nd primitive methods of cultivation borrowed from the Chinese were not practical. Later 'he industry developed when seed was brought fmm India. The plant generally cultivated In 'i a and Ceylon differs from the Chinese sty, which has a very small leaf. It is a ' ' -'J between 'the Chinese shrub and the ' leaf Assam variety. , While tfas are generally divided into two -eral classes, Hark and green tea, this dif-however, dif-however, is nu due, to. any yariation |