458 ASSORTING. 
of taking off the leaves and tying them up “stripping and 
bundling” which is here described. : 
“ When the plants of tobacco which are thus hanging upon 
the sticks in the house have gone through the several stages 
of process before the time of stripping, and are deemed to be 
in case for the next operation, a rainy day (which is the most 
suitable) is an opportunity which is generally taken advantage 
of when the hands cannot be so well employed out of doors. 
The sticks containing the tobacco which may be sufficiently 
cured, are then taken down and drawn out of the plants. 
They are then taken one by one respectively, and the leaves 
being stripped from the stalk of the plant are rolled round 
the butts or thick ends of the leaves with one of the smallest 
leaves as a bandage, and thus made up into little bundles fit 
for laying into the cask for final packing.” 
Hazard gives the following method of assorting and strip- 
ping tobacco in Cuba :— 
“ Among the Cubans, the leaves are divided into four 
classes: first, desecho, desecho limpio, which are those immedi- 
ately at the top of the plant, and which constitute the best 
quality, from the fact that they get more equally the benefit of | 
the sun’s rays by day and the dew by night; second, desechito, 
which are the next to the above ; third, the zéra, the inferior or 
small leaves about the top of the plant ; and fourth, the inju- 
riado, or those nearest the root. Of the imjuriado there are 
three qualities; the best is called ¢njuriado de reposo, or 
‘the picked over,’ and the other two, firsts and seconds 
(primeros, segundos). ; 
“Tobacco of the classes desechito and libra, of which the 
leaves are not perfect, is called injwriado bueno, while all the 
rest, of. whatever quality, that is broken in such a manner as 
to be unfit for wrappers‘are called injuriado malo. Amongst 
the trade in place of the above names, the different qualities 
are simply designated by numbers. ” 
Meyer, a German writer who resided several years in Cuba, 
gives another classification, making ten classes altogether, 
while Hazard mentions only four general classes. 
After the leaves are stripped from the stalk the process 
known as 
ASSORTING 
commences. Assorting tobacco is doing up in hands the vari- 
ous qualities and keeping them separate. In the Connecticut 
