GATHERING THE CROP. 



3T3 



of the cutter. A machine made of hard wood, but with the 

 vital parts of iron, is used by some persons for this purpose. 

 The machine was devised about sixty years ago by a skillful 

 Yeddo mechanic, the idea being taken from those used in 

 Osaka and Kiyoto for cutting thread used for weaving into 

 silk embroidery. Since then numerous improvements have 

 been made in it, and it is now extremely well adapted for the 

 economization of labor. Another machine was invented 

 about eight years since, also by a Yeddo mechanic. It is 

 smaller than the first mentioned, but being very easily worked 

 is much in use. Tobacco is sometimes cut in the following 

 crude manner : The leaves are piled one on top of the other, 

 tightly compressed into the consistency of a board, and then 

 cut into shavings by a carpenter's plane. This is, however, 



CHINESE TOBACCO FIELD. 



about the worst method, and even the best tobacco, if treated 

 in such fashion, loses its flavor and valuable qualities." 

 In China * tobacco is cultivated in the western part of the 



I saw also great plantations of tobacco, which they call tharr, and which yield Terr 

 considerable profit, as It Is universally used in smoking, by persons of all ranks, of both 

 sexes in China; and, besides great quantities are sent to the Mongolls, who prefer the 

 Chinese manner of preparing it before any other. They make it into a gross powder, like 

 Baw-dust, which they keep in a small bag, and fill their little brass pipes out of It, without 

 touching the tobacco with their fingers. BelVs Travels in Asia, 1716, 1719, 1722. 



