JAPANESE TOBACCO. 3871 
the tobaceo in England, the landing certificates are forwarded 
to Turkey. It is in this way that the trade is retained in the 
hands of a few Greeks, who naturally put every obstacle in 
the way of the foreigner, whose sole remedy is at last found 
to be the payment of the universal ‘backshish, to the 
comptroller of customs.” 
The merchant who buys the tobacco of the planter at a 
low price, and thereby takes the profit from him of culti- 
vating it, is preyed upon in the same manner by the Greek 
buyers who have the sole monopoly of the trade. Like Shiraz 
tobacco, that of Turkey has to be handled frequently and 
pass through several stages of curing before it is ready to be 
manufactured. In this respect it is unlike most of the 
tobaocos of America, but its treatment is not unlike that of 
the varieties of the East. 
The tobacco plant is cultivated with great success in many 
of the provinces of Japan, and is exported in large quantities 
: to Europe. The leaf 
is excellent, and is 
in request by many 
buyers of Eastern 
tobaccos. Robertson 
Z gives the following 
interesting account 
, of the Japan tobacco 
> fields :— 
vg, “ According to a 
in Wes Native account, to- 
“i <3 bacco was introduced 
Sh, into Japan in the 
year 1605, and was 
JAPAN TOBACCO FIELD. first planted at Nag- 
asaki in Hizen. It 
is now very generally grown throughout the country. In 
the province of Awa, where a great deal of tobacco is grown, 
the seed is sown in early spring in fields well exposed to the 
sun and duly prepared for its reception. Well sifted stable 
manure is strewn over the field, and the seedlings appear after 
the lapse of about twenty days. The old manure is then 
swept away, and liguid manure applied from time to time. 
