TOBACCO LEAVES 



The total export from Leghorn is esti- 

 mated at 50,000 cwt. per year, valued at 

 about 28,000. Fully half the export is 

 Calabrian root. All the root that arrives 

 in Leghorn has already been cut on the 

 spot into the shape in which it is exported 

 to the pipe-manufacturing centres, which 

 are principally, as regards Italian briar, 

 St. Cloud, in France, Nuremberg, in Ba- 

 varia, and various towns in Rhenish Prus- 

 sia and Thuringia. The roots, which are 

 sometimes of a circumference of two feet 

 or more, are cut into blocks and then 

 boiled. 



If there is any defect in the root which 

 has not been discovered before the boiling 

 process, the blocks will split sooner or 

 later. Briar-root blocks are cut into about 

 twenty-five different sizes and three prin- 

 cipal shapes. The shapes are " Marseil- 

 laise," "releve," and "Belgian." The 

 first two are the more usual shapes; from 



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