_Sorting._—Tobacco intended for smoking should be carefully sorted when stripped. There should be four sorts: 1st, large, equally good coloured, untorn leaves; 2nd, leaves of good size and colour, but torn; 3rd, leaves of inferior colour, and bottom leaves; 4th, refuse, shrivelled-up leaves, &c., to which may be added the suckers No. 1 leaves, when thin, elastic, and of good sorts, are mostly valued as wrappers (outside covers) for cigars, No. 2 may also be used as wrappers, but are less valued than No. 1; they are adapted for fillers and cut tobacco. The different sorts are kept separate. The best plan is to let the most intelligent man strip the leaves from the stem, and at once separate them according to quality. The leaves should then be made into hands, i.e. 10–20 leaves should be tied together by twisting a leaf round the end of the stalks, each sort being attended by a special man, to avoid mixing. The leaves of the first sort being large, 10–15 will be sufficient for a hand; more are required of the other sorts. When making the hands of the two first sorts, each leaf is taken separately, smoothened on a flat board, and left there while another is treated in the same way, continuing thus until a sufficient number is ready to make a hand. When the hand is ready, it is laid aside, and a weight is placed upon it to keep the leaves smooth. To sell well, according to Perry Hull, tobacco “should be assorted into three classes or grades, Wrappers, Seconds, and Fillers. The wrappers will include the soundest, best-coloured leaves, the colour (a dark cinnamon) should be as uniform as possible; this quality should include nothing but what is fit for wrappers. The Seconds, which are used as binders for cigars, &c., will include the small top leaves, of which, if the tobacco was topped too high, there will be one or two to each plant—the bad colours, and those leaves somewhat damaged by worms and bad handling, but not so much so as to be ragged. The third class, or Fillers, will include the balance of the crop, bottom leaves, ragged leaves, &c. The tobacco should be done up into hanks of about ⅓ lb. each, or about what can be encompassed by the thumb and fingers, winding at the butt with a pliable leaf, drawing the end through the hank to secure it.” The Cuban system of sorting is described at considerable length by Mitjen, whose remarks are interpreted by Burton as follows. The operation consists in “separating one from the other the different leaves, according to their strength and quality, and dividing the produce of the crop into various classes. These are, in practice, styled _Libra_, 1st quality; _Quebrado_, 2nd quality, broken; _Injuriado de primera_; _Injuriado de segunda_, _de tercera_, _de cuarta_, _de quinta_, _de sexta_, _de setima_; _Libra de pie_, and _capadura_.