The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

PREPARING BKICK TEA. 349
A STREET IN IIAN-KOW.
and othei products, both for lionie use and for export. There are heavy
exports of tea from Ilandvow direct to England, and every jea.r steamers
go there to load with cargoes, which they take to London as rapidly as
possible. Onr friends were told that there was a large trade in brick tea,
which was prepared for the Ilnssian market ; and as the boys were anxious
to see the process of preparation, a visit to one of the factories was ar-
ranged. Frank made a note of what he saw and wrote it out as follows
" The dry tea is weighed out into portions for single bricks, and each
portion is wrapped in a cloth and placed over a steamdjoiler. "When it is
tlioroughly steamed, it is poured into a mould and placed beneatli a ma-
chine, wliich presses it into the recpiired shape and size. Some of the
macliines are worked by hand, and othei's by steam. Eoth kinds are very
rapid and efficient, and we could not see that the steam had much advan-
tage. Five men working a hand machine, and i-eceiving twenty cents
each for a day's lal)or, were able to press six bricks a minute, as we found
l)v timing them with our watches. The steam press worked only a little
faster, and the cost of fuel must have been about ecpial to that of human
muscle.
" Only the poorest kind of tea is made into bricks, and each brick is