280 



TOBACCO LEAF. 



kets, four feet long and wide and six inches deep, and 

 carry them away. Everything is cleaned up at once, so 

 as to leave the floor space empty for the next sale. All 

 is a'ctivity and motion, some 150 piles being sold in an 

 hour. The same thing is repeated, until the contents 

 of the warehouse have all been disposed of at auction, to 



FIG. 82. WEIGHING TOBACCO HOGSHEADS PREVIOUS TO SAMPLING. 



the highest bidder. The engraving in Fig. 82 is from a 

 photograph of a typical scene at a sale of yellow tobacco. 

 Five hundred sales in a warehouse in a morning is 

 not an uncommon occurrence. Generally, the first sale 

 is followed by other sales at other warehouses, the crowd 

 going from one to the other. Latterly, the system has 

 been adopted of letting the owner withdraw his tobacco 

 after the sale, if the price does not suit him. This is 

 done to prevent effective combines between the buyers, 

 or to beat the trusts. A certain hour is fixed at which 



