As the season goes on, this is less and less the case, till towards the end nearly all the _a b_ leaves show orange-coloured in the manufactured Tea. Still they are not _white_ (the best colour) as they can be made when treated separately. No means have yet been devised to separate them _before_ manufacture from the other leaf, and though sometimes picked separate, the plan has serious objections (see next page). In the case, however, of the first two or three flushes the welfare of the plants demands that no more should be taken, and though the quantity obtained will be small, it will, if carefully manufactured so as to make “white Pekoe tips,” add one or two annas a lb. to the value, when mixed with it, of one hundred times its own weight of black Tea! More will be found under this head in the Tea manufacturing part. I now beg the question that the said downy leaves taken alone are very valuable. In detailing the mode of picking I advocate, it would be tedious to go minutely into the reasons for each and everything. I have said enough to explain a good deal, but will add anything of importance. Of the latter are the following. Tea can be made of the young succulent leaves only. The younger and more succulent the leaf the better Tea it makes. Thus _a_ will make more valuable Tea than _b_, _b_ than _c_, and so on; _e_ is the lowest leaf to make Tea from, for though a very coarse kind can be made from _f_, it does not pay to take it. The stalk also makes good Tea, as far as it is really succulent, that is, down to the black line just above 2. The leaves are named as follows from the Teas it is supposed they would make:-- _a._--Flowery Pekoe. _b._--Orange Pekoe. _c._--Pekoe. _d._--Souchong, 1st. _e._-- „ 2nd. _f._--Congou. _a_, _b_, _c_--Pekoe. Mixed together _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_--Pekoe Souchong. If there be another leaf below _f_, and it be taken, it is named, and would make Bohea. Each of these leaves was at first a flowery Pekoe leaf (_a_), it then became _b_, then _c_, and so on. That is to say, as the shoot developed, and a new flowery Pekoe leaf was born, each of the leaves below assumed the next lowest grade. Could the leaves fit to make each kind of Tea it is proposed to make be picked and kept separate, and each be manufactured in the way most suitable to its age, and the Tea to be produced, the very best of every kind could easily be manufactured. But this cannot be; the price of Tea will not allow it, and the labour to do it would moreover fail. It has been attempted again and again to do it, partly to the extent of taking the Pekoe leaves _a_, _b_, _c_ separate from the others (for the manufacture best suited to these upper leaves is not suited to the lower), but it has been as often abandoned, and I doubt if it is now practised anywhere. I am sure it will never pay to do it.