ess of harvesting tobacco for cutting is thus
described by a grower:--

"When thoroughly ripe, having stood two or three weeks
longer than is necessary for cigar leaf, it is ready to cut.
This is done with a knife made for the purpose. It resembles
a wide chisel, except that the handle and chisel are at
right angles. Before cutting, the stalk is split down
through the center. Being ripe, it splits before the knife,
and following the grain the leaves escape unharmed. This
splitting is done in as little time as is necessary to cut
the stalk off in the ordinary way. Split it to within about
three or four inches of the ground, and cut it off in the
ordinary way with the same knife. Cut it off and hang it
over one of your sticks that you have driven slanting into
the ground near you. Cut and put six stalks on the stick,
and then lay it down on the ground to wilt, taking the usual
care to prevent sun-burn. When it is sufficiently wilted,
haul to the shed and hang it up."

In the East Indian Archipelago,
"as soon as the leaves are fully grown
they are plucked off, and the petiole and a midrib are cut
away. Each leaf is then cut transversely into strips about a
sixteenth of an inch wide, and these are dried in the sun
until a mass of them looks like a bunch of oakum."

In Persia, when the plants are ripe they are cut off close to the
root, and again stuck firmly in the ground. By exposure to the night
dews the leaves change from green to yellow. When of the proper tint,
they are gathered in the early morning while wet with dew, and heaped
up in a shed, the sides of which are closed in with light thorny
bushes, so as to be freely exposed to the wind.

In Japan, the leaves are gathered in the height of summer. When the
flowers are of a light tint, two or three of the leaves nearest the
root are gathered. These are called first leaves, but produce tobacco
of second quality. After the lapse of a fortnight, the leaves are
gathered by twos, and from these the best tobaccos are produced. Any
remaining leaves are afterwards broken off along with the stem and
dried. These form the lowest quality of tobacco. After gathering, the
leaves are arranged in regular layers and covered with straw matting,
which is removed in a couple of days. The leaves are now of a light
yellow color. They are then fastened b