370 PREPARING FOR MARKET. 



There is a good deal of difference in their rate of work. One 

 man may pick only fifty pounds weight a day, while another 

 does twice that quantity. It is necessary to watch them 

 closely, or they will put a dirty brown leaf with a pale 

 yellow. They neither know nor care about the losses that 

 may be incurred by the merchant, whose samples may be thus 

 spoiled. A bale of leaf purchased at five piastres per oque, 

 when dissected by the Greek for various markets will be 

 found to contain varieties ranging in price from 5 to 60 

 piastres ; of these some are dispatched to Odessa, some to 

 Smyrna, others to Constantinople, Alexandria, and England 

 the mixed and common qualities generally to the latter 

 country, the price there obtained being the least remunerative 



TURKISH TOBACCO GOING TO MARKET. 



to the Greek shippers. The bales are brought from the 

 interior to the shipping ports upon mules, each animal carry- 

 ing two bales ; and it is a pretty sight to witness, say 150 

 mules at a time, crossing mountains and rugged paths with 

 their burdens, followed by perhaps fifty camels laden with 

 cotton, marching to the merry tinkle of the bells on their 

 necks. "When the tobacco reaches the shipping port the 

 troubles of the exporter are intensified. The bales are first 

 taken to the Custom House, and there weighed. The weights 

 thus arrived at are compared with the quantity received from 

 the interior, and if there be any material difference the ship- 

 per has to account for it. If any has been sold for consump- 

 tion in Turkey, duty has to be paid upon the amount ; and 

 in order that no part of his shipment may be used in the 

 country, he has to sign a bond that the tobacco shall not be 

 landed in any other port of Turkey. On the arrival of 



