y. Says one in regard to the cultivation of tobacco in
Turkey:

[Illustration: Turkish tobacco going to market.]

"The Turk and his family, it will seem, have now been
occupied upon their tobacco crop for nearly a whole year.
The leaf is just becoming a bright light yellow when it
falls into the hands of the merchant, and it is during this
period that the process of fermentation or heating generally
occurs, before which the tobacco can not be shipped. The
bales having been placed in the merchant's store, are left
end up until a fermentation or baking has taken place, the
ends being reversed every three or four days. In the course
of a few weeks a bale is reduced to about two-thirds of its
original size. It is then placed upon its sides to cool.
When it is discovered to be cold it is broken open by the
native tobacco-pickers, and every leaf sorted and
classified. The patience with which this operation is
carried out is truly astonishing. There is a good deal of
difference in their rate of work. One man may pick only
fifty pounds weight a day, while another does twice that
quantity. It is necessary to watch them closely, or they
will put a dirty brown leaf with a pale yellow. They neither
know nor care about the losses that may be incurred by the
merchant, whose samples may be thus spoiled. A bale of leaf
purchased at five piastres per _oque_, when dissected by the
Greek for various markets will be found to contain varieties
ranging in price from 5 to 60 piastres; of these some are
dispatched to Odessa, some to Smyrna, others to
Constantinople, Alexandria, and England--the mixed and
common qualities generally to the latter country, the price
there obtained being the least remunerative to the Greek
shippers. The bales are brought from the interior to the
shipping ports upon mules, each animal carrying two bales;
and it is a pretty sight to witness, say 150 mules at a
time, crossing mountains and rugged paths with their
burdens, followed by perhaps fifty camels laden with cotton,
marching to the merry tinkle of the bells on their necks.
When the tobacco reaches the shipping port the troubles of
the exporter are intensified. The bales are first taken to
the Custom House, and there weighed. The weights thus
arrived at are compared wit