ch cream and sugar would ruin. It is certainly
refreshing, and, when drunk newly infused, relatively harmless.
_Bancha_ is made with hotter water than other tea. The handleless cups
hold about half of what our teacups contain.[201] Tea is not the only
plant used for making "tea." One drinks in some parts infusions of
cherry, plum or peach blossom.

The processes of tea manufacture in farmers' outhouses and in
factories are described in school-books, and I need not transcribe my
impressions.[202] But I may note that some of the money the tea farmer
earns for the country is spent in his interests. There is in Shidzuoka
a well-directed prefectural experiment station which exercises itself
over problems of tea production. Every tea grower and tea dealer in
the prefecture must belong to the prefectural tea guild. He must also
belong to his county tea guild. The rules of the guilds--there is a
central guild in Tokyo--have the force of law. Evil doers in the tea
industry have their product confiscated. Tea dealers who do not carry
their guild membership card are fined. It is not difficult to discover
colouring in tea if it is rubbed on white paper. The Government's part
in subduing tea colouring was to seize all the dye stuff it could lay
hold of which could be used for colouring tea.

The future of green tea depends almost entirely on the demand from
the growing population of Japan, but a taste for the "foreign style"
black tea--with condensed milk--is spreading. The cheap labour of
India and China and the big plantations and factories of India have
diminished the Japanese green tea trade and the effort to produce
black tea is also met by foreign competition. I was told that China
tea receives much sunshine while growing, and that there was most hope
for Japanese black tea when made from leaves grown in the extreme
south. There is a difference between the Chinese and the Japanese tea
plant and it cannot be got over by importing Chinese plants, for the
climate of Japan simply Japanises the imported sort.

I found in the United States that green tea is bought, as it is no
doubt sold in Shidzuoka, on appearance. American housewives were
paying for an appearance that matters little in an article that is not
to be looked at but soaked. Not only is much extra labour required for
sifting the leaf several times in order to obtain a good appearance,
but the bulk is reduced from 5 to 10 per cent. The drinking quality of
the tea also