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rules for the steaming, rolling, and drying of the tea, since in this lies the secret of the special flavour possessed by Japanese tea.

The special system of manufacture in vogue in Japan enables the tea to retain all its fine qualities, and thus those who drink it do so in the way that they naturally drink healthy and natural beverages. According to the experiments carried out over a period of more than forty years, a cup of tea, properly manufactured, is a stimulant both for the body and mind of anyone tired out from a day’s work. This beneficial effect is derived from the nitric element zeine, which in Japanese tea is present in large quantities. The good effects of tannin, taken in moderation, have already been touched upon. Thus, the chemical analysis of the tea proves it to be a beneficial and healthy beverage.

Japan tea has also the great value that all the tea which is exported has to pass a strict inspection and to receive a guarantee for the importing country. This fact insures the selection of the very best qualities of tea for the export trade.

The total production of Japanese tea in 1900 was about 62,000,000 pounds. Home consumption accounted for the greater proportion of the entire output.

The export value in 1900 was slightly more than £1,000,000. In addition to the tea grown in Japan itself, a small quantity was imported.

These figures do not include Formosa, which promises splendid results in tea culture.

Retail prices of tea per pound range from about twopence (English) to twenty shillings.

The forests of Japan cover 59 per cent. of the territory of the empire, and have been under the direct protection of the Imperial Government since the ninth century, when the Emperor of the day issued a proclamation restricting the undue felling of trees, and ordering, in a general way, the protection of all wooded land. From earliest times, the love of sylvan growth has had a marked effect upon the lives and characters of the people, and it is often claimed that the burning patriotism of the Japanese has and does owe much to the profoundly sympathetic influence exercised upon them by the beauty of their surroundings.