So far as we can ascertain by diligent inquiry and reading, no competent authority has answered these questions satisfactorily. We have been deluged with generalities and opinions which contradict themselves, but when we search for a categorical answer to a simple question, experts hide under a shower of meaningless phrases. We, alas, are not an expert, nor a chemist, but just a simple enquirer in search of knowledge expressed in plain English. Therefore be patient dear reader with our endeavors to represent or interpret existing conditions of expert knowledge of tea manufacture at this time. Peradventure a feeble ray of light may illuminate the darkness of the subject. Corrections and additions will be welcomed in our future editions and credit given to their authors. Teas may conveniently be divided into the three classes which have so long been recognized by the American tea trade, namely: Green teas, the first remove from the green leaf. Oolongs, delicate Black teas, having properties further developed than those of Green teas. Souchongs, and Congous, both of which have been called "English Breakfast" teas by Americans, because the former teas were the customary breakfast beverages of the English people before the advent of Indian teas. In these latter teas, fermentation and firing are prolonged beyond the treatment of Oolongs. The smoky flavor sometimes apparent is owing to careless and extreme firing. In making Green tea, the object seems to be to expel the watery juices of the leaf and to cure or dry it with the least delay. Hence, the leaves are not exposed to the sun, but are first dried in the air for a short time. They are next exposed to artificial heat, which renders them flaccid and pliable, and prepares them for the third operation of rolling, which twists the yielding leaf as seen in manufactured tea, rolls it up into balls, and squeezes out a considerable portion of its watery juices. It is a singular fact that in the Chinese methods, they endeavor to get rid of the exuding juices, while in the Indian treatment, according to Mr. crole, the manufacturing expert, effort is made to preserve the sappy juice, and it is continually taken up again by the balls of leaves. The balls are now broken apart, and the scattered leaves are submitted to the final drying process by fire, which finishes Green tea. In this case, it is plainly the heating treatment which develops the faint flavor and odor of Green tea, for no fermentation is allowed to begin, unless indeed brief and unobserved action takes place within the compressed balls.