114 TOBACCO. 



tobacco planter should not attempt to plant more than 

 12,000 plants for eacli labourer employed, so that all the 

 plants may receive proper cultivation and attention. If 

 all these plants are equally well taken care of, if the land 

 has been properly prepared vp^ith manure, and all have had 

 the" same advantage of season, it is a necessary consequence 

 that the fruit will be equally good. If afterwards the 

 cutting or cropping is made in 3 sections, preserving 

 always the separation we have recommended, we shall 

 have, naturally, not a capricious assortment of leaves, but 

 one in the order established by nature. 



" None will, we think, question the fact that the pairs 

 of leaves on one stalk must be equal in quality to those 

 cut from an adjoining stalk, that is to say, all the crown 

 leaves must be of the same quality, all the second also, and 

 so successively. This admitted, we have the separation of 

 qualities made, almost, in the field, and it only remains to 

 separate the sizes, and the sound leaves from the torn 

 ones, an operation which any person can make ; and thus 

 it will be unnecessary to employ those workmen who 

 style themselves sorters, who are supposed to have an 

 exact knowledge of the properties of each leaf. The 

 sortings ought, therefore, to be made by classes, or by 

 bales, each containing the separate qualities beginning 

 with the bale of capaduras and mamones, which may be 

 mixed together in the same bale. Of this quality, how- 

 ever, not more than two classes should be made, which 

 may be called suckers and sprouts ; and in the class called 

 sprouts, the sound and lui-ger leaves of good consistency 

 should be placed. The result would be a tripa of good 

 quality, and, after throwing away all those that are really 



