SHADING. 459 



valley the growers make usually but two kinds or qualities 

 excepting only when the crop is poor when three qual- 

 ities are made, viz : Wrappers, Seconds, and Fillers. The 

 Wrappers are the largest and finest leaves on the plant and 

 should be free from holes and sweat as well as green and 

 white veins. The leaves selected for this quality come from 

 the middle and even the top leaves of the pknt. The 

 Seconds are made up of leaves not good enough for Wrappers 

 and too good for Fillers. Such leaves sometimes are worm- 

 eaten and of various colors on the same leaf one part dark 

 and another light. The fillers are the poorest quality of leaves 

 to be found on the plants, and consist of the " sand "or ground 

 leaves, one or two to each plant. Some of our largest growers 

 in assorting the leaves keep each color by itself, an operation 



known as 



SHADING. 



This is a very delicate operation and requires a good eye 

 for colors as well as a correct judgment in regard to the 

 quality of the leaf. This mode of assorting colors in stripping 

 is similar to that of shading cigars, in which the utmost care 

 IB taken to keep the various colors and shades by themselves. 

 In shading the wrappers only are so assorted, and may be 

 " run into " two or three shades depending on the number of 

 ehades or colors of the leaf. The better way is to make only 

 two qualities of the wrappers in shading viz., light and dark 

 cinnamon " selections." Shading tobacco does not imply that 

 it is carried to its fullest extent in point of color as in shading 

 cigars, but simply keeping those general colors by themselves 

 like light and dark brown leaves. Cutting tobaccos before 

 being used are subjected to a process known as 



STEMMING. 



Tatham gives the following account of the process of stem- 

 ming in Virginia a century ago : 



" Stemming tobacco is the act of separating the largest 

 stems or fibres from the web of the leaf with adroitness and 

 facility, BO that the plant may be nevertheless capable of 



