The grower has to notify the Customs authorities of his intention to sow, giving the locality and area. Before picking he must again notify the Customs, so that a Customs officer may be present at the picking and weigh the freshly picked leaves. After storing, but before delivering the tobacco to the factory, the Customs officer must again weigh the now dry leaves. The excise duties leviable are: Tobacco leaf, 4-1/2_cp._ per oke, payable on transfer of leaf from grower to wholesale dealer. Tobacco manufactured in Cyprus, whether made into cigarettes or otherwise, in addition to the import duty or transport duty, pays a banderolle duty of 3_s._ 6-1/2_cp._ per oke. These regulations are a relic of the Turkish times, as in those days the State received a definite due called "City Toll" by charging the tobacco cutters and tobacco sellers with a trade tax. They appear to have been administered with more laxity in Turkish than in post-occupation times, and it is said that the abandonment of tobacco cultivation was mainly due to the severity with which these rather vexatious and irritating regulations were enforced. For many years the tobacco imported by local cigarette manufacturers came almost entirely from Macedonia. This tobacco was of very superior quality and cheap, and locally grown tobacco could not compete with it. Of late years the price of Macedonian tobacco has risen considerably and the manufacturers have therefore been induced to import Thessalian tobacco instead, which is not of so fine a flavour and approximates more closely to Cyprus produce. Cypriot smokers have thus had their palates prepared for the flavour of the locally grown tobacco.