34 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



climates, at the time of maturity, there is an 

 odour of tobacco round about the plant ; but 

 nothing is more absurd than the Munchausen 

 story sometimes told by knowing wags, to the 

 effect that the best relish of a cigar is when the 

 leaf is just culled from the plant and rolled up 

 there and then into a cigar and smoked ! This 

 is a pure fable : you might just as easily set the 

 Thames on fire with a rushlight. The leaf when 

 gathered — whether on the stem as in America, 

 or separately as in France and Germany — is rich 

 in its peculiar juices, greenish as any autumnal 

 leaf, and very brittle. 



The leaves are then hung up in covered sheds 

 or lofts, admitting the light and air freely on all 

 sides, and there they remain for six or seven 

 weeks, until they are perfectly dry and withered. 



It is a better plan, however, to lay them in 

 heaps, and give them a sweating for a week 

 before suspension : the drying process will thus 

 be more rapid, and the tobacco will be improved 

 in flavour. 



After this drying, a moist, " juicy '* day, as 

 the Yankees call it, is chosen ; the leaves are 



