d of tobacco,
whether wrappers or fillers, together with the number of pounds and
the weight of the case. This is necessary to ascertain the quality of
leaf produced by each grower, as well as to protect the buyer against
all fraud in packing and casing.

[Illustration: Tobacco press.]

The cases may be piled one upon another, but should be kept from the
rays of the sun and in a dry room, so that the sweating of the leaf
may be sufficient to fit it for use. It is necessary that the season
during sweating should be warm, in order to secure a good sweat. It
will commence to "warm up" sometime in April or May, and will be ready
to sample or uncase about the first of September. After "going through
a sweat," the leaf takes on a darker color, and loses the rank flavor
which it had before. It is better to let the tobacco dry off before
being used or taken from the case. "Baling" is packing tobacco in
small bundles or packages containing from one hundred to two hundred
pounds, and is the manner of putting up tobacco for export in Cuba,
Paraguay, Algiers, Hungary, Mexico, Syria, the Philippines, China,
Sumatra, Japan, Java, Turkey, and in some other tobacco-growing
countries. In Cuba after being formed into hands or "_gavillos_" and
four of these tied together with strips of palm-leaf so as to
constitute a "_manoja_," fifty or eighty of them are packed together,
making what is called a "_tercio_" or bale, the average weight of
which is two hundred pounds. Hazard says of the number of pounds
produced on the _vegas_:

"A _caballeria_ of thirty-three acres of ground produces
about nine thousand pounds of tobacco, made up in about the
following proportions: four hundred and fifty of _desecho_,
or best; one thousand eight hundred pounds _desechito_, or
seconds; two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds of
_libra_, or thirds; and four thousand five hundred pounds of
_injuriado_. From these figures, taking the bale at one
hundred pounds, and the average price of the tobacco at
twenty dollars per bale, (though this is a low estimate, for
the crops of some of the vegas are sold as high, sometimes,
as four hundred dollars per bale,) an approximate idea may
be formed of the profit of a large plantation in a good
year, when the crops are satisfactory."

In Mexico, after being baled, the tobacco is sent to the government
factories, where it is not weighed until two month