When intended for the manufacture of snuff, the leaves are put into machines and chopped into strips of the width of a finger; they are then moistened with pure water or tobacco juice of various strengths, the necessary quantity and quality of which is determined by chemical analysis. These strips are then piled up in masses containing from 35,000 to 40,000 kilogrammes, in rooms where a high and even temperature is maintained by steam-pipes and ventilators. Here they remain to ferment during a month or six weeks, when they are dried, ground into powder, and sifted. This powder then receives a wetting, is packed in stout wooden bins, in quantities ranging from 25,000 to 30,000 _kilo._, and so remain to ferment for several months. During the course of the final fermentation, the powder is tested and moved from one bin to another from time to time, in order to ensure a successful issue of the process. When the samples taken from the bins indicate maturity, the snuff is packed in barrels and casks, and is ready for the market. For the manufacture of smoking-tobacco, the leaves, after the stemming process, receive their first moistening, which lasts 24 hours. They are then neatly arranged, with their edges parallel, and are taken to the chopping machines; the machines in use at the Régie are capable of chopping 220 lb. per hour, the knives being renewed twice during that time. The tobacco, on leaving the choppers, contains about 25 per cent. of humidity, and is immediately conveyed into one end of a revolving drying cylinder, heated to a uniform temperature of 203° Fahrenheit, from the opposite end of which it issues, at the expiration of fifteen minutes, in a dried state and freed from albumen. It is then put through a second cylinder, similar in construction to the last, but which subjects the tobacco to a strong draught of cold air to eliminate all dust and heat. The tobacco is then packed in well-aired bins, where it remains from four to six weeks, after which it is carefully overhauled by hand to remove the pieces of stems and foreign matter that may have escaped notice in the previous operations. It is then put up in packages, varying in weight from 40 grammes upwards. These packages are surrounded with a paper band, upon which are printed the Government tax stamp, the date of manufacture, the weight, the price, and the letter “H,” followed by figures. The last mark signifies the amount of humidity contained in the tobacco at the time it was put into the packets. Consul Scidmore says that in no instance since its inauguration has there been a year without enormous profits to the tobacco monopoly in France, and in a table appended to his report, it appears that from the date of its foundation (1811) to the end of 1878, the net total gain to the French Government amounted to 287,703,881_l._ The following table from a recent report shows that the consumption of tobacco in France has been steadily increasing:—