458 ASSORTING. 



of taking off the leaves and tying them up " stripping and 

 bundling" which is here described. 



" When the plants of tobacco which are thus hanging upon 

 the sticks in the house have gone through the several stages 

 of process before the time of stripping, and are deemed to be 

 in case for the next operation, a rainy day (which is the most 

 suitable) is an opportunity which is generally taken advantage 

 of when the hands cannot be so well employed out of doors. 

 The sticks containing the tobacco which may be sufficiently 

 cured, are then taken down and drawn out of the plants. 

 They are then taken one by one respectively, and the leaves 

 being stripped from the stalk of the plant are rolled round 

 the butts or thick ends of the leaves with one of the smallest 

 leaves as a bandage, and thus made up into little bundles fit 

 for laying into the cask for final packing. " 



Hazard gives the following method of assorting and strip- 

 ping tobacco in Cuba : 



" Among the Cubans, the leaves are divided into four 

 classes : first, desecho, desecho limpio, which are those immedi- 

 ately at the top of the plant, and which constitute the best 

 quality, from the fact that they get more equally the benefit of 

 the sun's rays by day and the dew by night ; second, desechito, 

 which are the next to the above ; third, the libra, the inferior or 

 email leaves about the top of the plant ; and fourth, the inju- 

 riado, or those nearest the root. Of the injuriado there are 

 three qualities ; the best is called injuriado de reposo, or 

 'the picked over,' and the other two, firsts and seconds 

 (jprimeros, sequndos). 



" Tobacco of the classes desechito and libra, of which the 

 leaves are not perfect, is called injuriado bueno, while all the 

 rest, of whatever quality, that is broken in such a manner as 

 to be unfit for wrappers*'are called injuriado malo. Amongst 

 the trade in place of the above names, the different qualities 

 are simply designated by numbers. " 



Meyer, a German writer who resided several years in Cuba, 

 gives another classification, making ten classes altogether, 

 while Hazard mentions only four general classes. 



After the leaves are stripped from the stalk the process 



known as 



ASSORTING 



commences. Assorting tobacco is doing up in hands the vari- 

 ous qualities and keeping them separate. In the Connecticut 



