OtJRING OF tuR^ISH ToBACCO. 



4ll 



layman. Soulook, the type universally grown in the Western 

 Province, appears much less transparent and yellow when ripe than 

 either Kavalla or Sanisnn. Fig. l.v illustrates the shape and size of 

 tlu'se varieties. 



Harrestivc/. — About ten days before harvesting- commences, the 

 two or three sand-leaves from each plant are removed and discarded. 

 This is known in this area as " priming." Turkish tobacco is 

 liarvested leaf by leaf from the bottom up as it ripens, about three 

 or four leaves from a plant with each picking. To comi)lete harvest- 

 ing, it requires five to six pickings, consisting of first picking or 

 bottoms, second picking or middle-seconds, third picking or first 

 middles, fourth picking or middles, fifth and sixth pickings 

 or tops. These are marked on the reeds or sticks con- 



y^I'hofd hij P. Kdcli. 



Fig. I. — Field of Turkish 'I'obaccd. The ripe l)Ottnm leaves had just 

 lieen pieked. 



taining the strung leaves, as 1, 2, o, 4, and 5. It is prefer- 

 able to harvest only a few leaves from every plant at each 

 picking at intervals of about twelve days, more or less, and to gather 

 them at the proper stage of ripeness, as such tobacco can easily and 

 scientifically be controlled in the wilting room. If too many leaves 

 are harvested from a plant at each picking at longer intervals, these 

 leaves are likely to be in different stages of ripeness, and this is very 

 undesirable. 



Most farmers pick from sunrise, after the dew has evaporated 

 from the plants, until ten or eleven o'clock, during which time a 

 sufficient quantity of leaves is harvested for threading during the 

 remainder of the day. The leaves are carefully packed in boxes <.r 

 baskets, care being taken not to bruise them, and are then taken to 

 the threading-room, where they are sorted according to size and ripe- 

 ness, threaded on flat tobacco needles of some 15 inches long, all 



