The Turk and his family love to cultivate tobacco as well as to smoke it; and give it their attention from seed-sowing until it is sold to the merchant. The Turk is very particular in cultivating it, as on its color depends in a great measure its value. He commences work on his plant-bed in March, sowing the seed about the same time as the Virginia planters. After the leaves are gathered the same scrupulous care is taken with them; especially in drying and baling, that the leaf may be in just the right condition to ferment properly, and be ready to be assorted by the "tobacco pickers." The Turk presses his whole family into the cultivation of the plants. The children are engaged in weeding while he waters the beds or prepares the tobacco field for the planting of the tobacco. In pruning and picking the leaves he removes only those that are small--the removal of which will still further advance the growth of the plants, and is careful to gather only those leaves that are turning yellow, giving evidence of their maturity. Says one in regard to the cultivation of tobacco in Turkey: [Illustration: Turkish tobacco going to market.] "The Turk and his family, it will seem, have now been occupied upon their tobacco crop for nearly a whole year. The leaf is just becoming a bright light yellow when it falls into the hands of the merchant, and it is during this period that the process of fermentation or heating generally occurs, before which the tobacco can not be shipped. The bales having been placed in the merchant's store, are left end up until a fermentation or baking has taken place, the ends being reversed every three or four days. In the course of a few weeks a bale is reduced to about two-thirds of its original size. It is then placed upon its sides to cool. When it is discovered to be cold it is broken open by the native tobacco-pickers, and every leaf sorted and classified. The patience with which this operation is carried out is truly astonishing. There is a good deal of difference in their rate of work. One man may pick only fifty pounds weight a day, while another does twice that quantity. It is necessary to watch them closely, or they will put a dirty brown leaf with a pale yellow. They neither know nor care about the losses that may be incurred by the merchant, whose samples may be thus spoiled. A bale of leaf purchased at five piastres per _oque_, when dissected by the Greek for various markets will be found to contain varieties ranging in price from 5 to 60 piastres; of these some are dispatched to Odessa, some to Smyrna, others to Constantinople, Alexandria, and England--the mixed and common qualities generally to the latter country, the price there obtained being the least remunerative to the Greek shippers. The bales are brought from the interior to the