es, 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 various
qualities and keeping them separate. In the Connecticut valley the
growers make usually but two kinds or qualities excepting only when
the crop is poor when three qualities 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 "run 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 stemming 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
package, and fit for a f