Very few of the thousands who use tobacco have any idea how much care and skill is required to bring even a "weed" like this to the proper standard of excellence. The Gardeners' Chronicle tells how it is done:

" It is recommended that the plants when cut should be allowed to lie an hour or two on the ground, when the leaves will become wilted and drooping, as this will be found convenient when the next process, that of hanging them up, is performed. For this purpose a wall nail is driven into the stem, near and at right angles to the base of it, thus forming a kind of hook, whereby each plant may be hung to a number of stretched wires, cords or other supports, in such a place as a large vinery. Here the leaves will soon begin gradually to assume the rich brown color proper to the commercial article. The lamina or blade will change first, and subsequently, the midrib and larger veins; but until these last become perfectly dry this part of the process cannot be considered finished, for if in the stripping and packing an imperfectly dried stalk is included, mouldiness will assuredly set in and injure the sample. The footstalk, if properly dry, should be sufficiently brittle to be snapped in two on a hot day.

The eye, however, and touch will soon become sufficiently practiced to judge when the leaf has attained this state.

"The leaves must now be stripped from the stalks, damped, and tied into bundles of a dozen or more of leaves, by string towards the base of the footstalk. These bundles, when flattened out, will take a fan-shaped form, and are then technically called "hands." The damping process may be done in various ways and should precede bundle making, to avoid loss and disfigurement owing to brittleness. Sprinkling with water is dangerous, for if a leaf be packed actually wet, mouldiness is likely to be the result. Some hours in a damp cellar, or even out-of-doors when there is no tear of rain, may suffice, as the leaf is exceedingly hygrometric and sensitive to a moist atmosphere. The bundles are now packed symmetrically in boxes or between boards, and heavily weighted.

" The packed material should remain for some months under shelter and in a moderately warm temperature, such as may be afforded by a room in the dwelling-house, or in the same glass structure in which the drying process was effected, but a really damp atmosphere will now be detrimental.

"A species of slow fermentation succeeds, analogous to that of hay in the rick, and until this has worked itself out, the tobacco is not fit for use, in fact it is not proper tobacco at all".