SHADING. 459 
valley the growers make usually but two kinds or qualities 
excepting only when the crop is poor when three qual- 
ities are made, viz: Wrappers, Seconds, and Fillers. The 
Wrappers are the largest and finest leaves on the plant and 
should be free from holes and sweat as well as green and 
white veins. The leaves selected for this quality come from 
the middle and even the top leaves of the plant. The 
Seconds are made up of leaves not good enough for Wrappers 
and too good for Fillers. Such leaves sometimes are worm- 
eaten and of various colors on the same leaf — one part dark 
and another light. The fillers are the poorest quality of leaves 
to be found on the plants, and consist of the “sand” or ground 
leaves, one or two to each plant. Some of our largest growers 
in assorting the leaves keep each color by itself, an operation 
known as 
SHADING. 
This is a very delicate operation and requires a good eye 
for colors as well as a correct judgment in regard to the 
quality of the leaf. This mode of assorting colors in stripping 
is similar to that of shading cigars, in which the utmost care 
is taken to keep the various colors and shades by themselves. 
In shading the wrappers only are so assorted, and may be 
“ryn into” two or three shades depending on the number of 
shades or colors of the leaf. The better way is to make only 
two qualities of the wrappers in shading—viz.,light and dark 
cinnamon “selections.” Shading tobacco does not imply that 
it is carried to its fullest extent in point of color as in shading 
cigars, but simply keeping those general colors by themselves 
like light and dark brown leaves. Cutting tobaccos before 
being used are subjected to a process known as 
STEMMING. 
Tatham gives the following account of the process of stem- 
ming in Virginia a century ago :— 
“Stemming tobacco is the act of separating the largest 
stems or fibres from the web of the leaf with adroitness and 
facility, so that the plant may be nevertheless capable of 
