the drying house for three or four days more, when they are in a fit state for packing.  For this operation the leaves are carefully spread on each other and formed into sorts of cakes, the circumference from four to five feet, and three to four inches thick, great care being taken not to break or injure the leaves.

Bags made of strong cloth, but thin and very open at the sides, are filled with these cakes, and pressed very strongly down on each other; the leaves would be broken if this were not attended to.  When the bags are filled, they are placed separately in a drying house, and turned daily.  If the leaves were so dry that there would be a risk of their breaking during the operation of packing, a very slight sprinkling of water is given them to enable them to withstand it without injury.  The leaf is valued for being thick, tough, and of a uniform light yellow color, and of an agreeable aromatic smell.

In India, the Surat, Bilsah, and Sandoway (Arracan) varieties of tobacco are the most celebrated.  The two first are found to be good for cultivation in the district about Calcutta, but the Cabool is still more to be preferred.  Tobacco requires in the East, for its growth, a soil as fertile and as well manured as for the production of the poppy or opium.  It is, therefore, often planted in the spaces enriched by animal and vegetable exuviae, among the huts of the natives.  I have tried seed in different soils, says Capt.  C. Cowles,—­namely a light garden mould with a large portion of old house rubbish, dug to a good depth, which had a top dressing of the sweepings of the farm-yard and cow-houses; a rather heavy loam, highly manured with burnt and decayed vegetables, and old cow dung; the third was a patch of ground, which was originally an unwholesome swamp, from being eighteen inches to two feet, lower than the surrounding land; the soil appeared to be a hard sterile clay, and covered with long coarse grass and rushes.  As there was a tank near it, I cut away one side of it, and threw the soil over the ground, bringing it rather above the level.  Such was its appearance, (a hard compost marly clay,) that I expected no other good from it than that of raising the land so as to throw the water off; contrary, however, to my expectations, it produced a much finer crop of tobacco than either of the other soils, and with somewhat less manure.  The agricultural process is limited to some practical laws founded on experience, and these are subject to two principal agents; viz., the soil and climate.  With respect to the former, it is the practice amongst the growers in tobacco countries, such as Cuba, the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and the Philippine Islands, to select a high and dry piece of land, of a siliceous nature, and combined with iron, if possible; and with respect to the latter, there are seasons of the year too well known to the planters to need any explanation.  The only difference (if there is any) depends on the geographical situation of the place, with respect to its temperature, or in the backwardness or advancement of seasons, and even on the duration of the same—­in which circumstances the planter takes advantage of the one for the other.