HEAVY SHIPPING TOBACCO. 321 



bruised or worm-eaten and perfect leaves should not be 

 put together. 



Assorting and Prizing Tobacco, The most careful 

 hands only should be allowed to assort tobacco. This 

 work requires undivided attention, good sight and cor- 

 rect judgment as to quality. If, through inattention, 

 a few bad leaves are put with the good, it may depre- 

 ciate the value of all the tobacco in a hogshead if, by 

 chance, these bad leaves should appear in the sample 

 drawn. Short leaves appearing in a sample of long 

 tobacco, or bright leaves in a sample of dark tobacco, or 

 vice versa, or rich leaves with poor leaves, or perfect 

 leaves with those broken or worm-eaten, all violate the 

 laws of classification and injure the sale of the product. 



All leaves of uniform color, twenty-six inches in 

 length and over, should be tied in bundles of not more 

 than five leaves. Such tobacco suits the African mar- 

 ket. It is also a first-class "shipper," and is sought 

 for by the stemmer for making the highest grades of 

 strips for the English market. If of uniform color and 

 broad leaf, the buyer of wrappers will want it also. All 

 this competition would be lost if improperly assorted. 

 Nor should the most desirable grades be prized (that is, 

 pressed into the hogsheads) too hard, for the stemmers 

 and buyers of wrappers want tobacco to open freely and 

 not be caked or bruised by hard prizing. 



The tobacco is partially stripped in assorting, for to 

 strip tobacco is simply to pull the leaves from the stalk 

 and tie them in bundles. The size of the bundles is an 

 important matter. If the tobacco is intended for a 

 stemmer, and is to be delivered loose in wagons, it may 

 be tied in bundles as large as the arm, care being taken 

 to keep the different grades separate. But if the 

 tobacco is to be prized in hogsheads and after inspection 

 ;o be sold by sample ; or if it is to be sold to a buyer 

 who intends to prize and sell it by inspection, then all 

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