OF THE DISTRICT OF CA VALLA, TURKEY. 79 



and is now invariably, protected from damp by a wooden flooring. The 

 bales are shifted from the upper to the lower tier at intervals of four or 

 five days during a whole month. In this manner the tobacco undergoes 

 the process called 'sweating,' which is in fact a partial fermentation. 

 It sometimes happens that the store is too dry ; in that case water is 

 from time to time, sprinkled on the floor between the rows of bales to 

 hasten the sweating. The bales are then opened, examined, and sorted, 

 and the soiled and inferior leaves, and those heated during the sweating, 

 being rejected, the bales are made up to their proper weight and then 

 pressed. Layers of inferior leaves are placed at the top and bottom of 

 the bale. The presses in use are exceedingly rude, being nothing else 

 than two stout planks connected by a couple of wooden screws worked 

 by levers and manual power. The utmost power that can be exerted is 

 not very great, as may be supposed, but experience (probably mere 

 prejudice) is against pressing the leaf very strongly as it is supposed to 

 injure it. The bales are finally dressed in a wrapper of hair-cloth which 

 protects the flats and edges of the leaves ; the ends where the stalks are 

 exposed are covered with a strip of matting. The bales are now ready 

 for shipment and, unless immediately required, are removed to the 

 upper floor to make room for the sweating and manipulation of other 

 bales arriving in store. 



The process, of sweating, sorting, and pressing, occupies the merchant 

 until the end of June. It is thus seen that from seed time in March 

 until July of the following year, fully sixteen months are required to 

 bring the tobacco into a fit state for shipment, and, including the delay 

 of shipping and the voyage, from eighteen to nineteen months before it 

 can appear in the English market. Tobaccos for the British trade are 

 usually made up in bales weighing, on an average, 127 lbs. each, and 

 measuring six or seven cubic feet. However, a late shipment was made 

 of bales weighing as much as 450 lbs. each. For France and Austria 

 the bales do not exceed 110 lbs. In the home trade the bales vary from 

 100 lbs. to 200 lbs. weight, but the fine Yenidgeh tobacco is invariably 

 made up as before mentioned in 'Boghchas' weighing 30 lbs. to 50 lbs. 



In the first years of the trade with England the tobacco was packed 

 in the same manner as American or West India produce, in wooden 

 cases containing, ad mininum, 300 lbs., in conformity to the British 

 Customs regulations of that time ; but in 1851 the Lords Commissioners 

 of Her Majesty's Treasury, taking into their favourable consideration a 

 memorial of the merchants, issued a minute to the effect that Turkey 

 tobacco should thenceforward be imported on the same footing as East 

 India produce, that is to say, in packages or bales weighing not less than 

 100 lbs. each ; but it must not be imported in vessels under the burden 

 of 120 tons register. 



' Strip-leaf/ a form of American tobacco in which the stalk or 



