GATHERING THE CROP. 373 
of the cutter. A machine made of hard wood, but with the 
vital parts of iron, is used by some persons for this, purpose. 
The machine was devised about sixty years ago by a skillful 
Yeddo mechanic, the idea being taken from those used in 
Osaka and Kiyoto for cutting thread used for weaving into 
silk embroidery. Since then numerous improvements have 
been made in it, and it is now extremely well adapted for the 
economization of labor. Another machine was invented 
about eight years since, also by a Yeddo mechanic. It is 
smaller than the first mentioned, but being very easily worked 
is much in use. Tobacco is sometimes cut in the following 
crude manner :—The leaves are piled one on top of the other, 
tightly compressed into the consistency of a board, and then 
cut into shavings by a carpenter’s plane. This is, however, 
CHINESE TOBACCO FIELD. 
about the worst method, and even the best tobacco, if treated 
in such fashion, loses its flavor and valuable qualities. 
In China * tobacco is cultivated in the western part of the 
* na of tobacco, which they call tharr, and which yield ve 
cael oat, apie tate on Rok 2 RE" ong eho pater ae 
3 re Ly . 
Chinese manner Or oaring petore any other. They make it into a Bross waar, tee 
saw-dust, which they keep in a small bag, and fill their little brass pi oe out of it, 
touching the tobacco with their flngers.—Bell’s Travels in Asia, 1716, A . ; 
