PREFACE



THE object of the present book is to afford a help to the
T    grower, buyer, dealer, and manufacturer of Turkish
      tobacco, an article in which a great deal of study,
observation and experience is required in order to become
skilful, or, as it is generally called in trade parlance
an " expert."  The author, however, does not pretend to
teach all this in the inadequate form that such an article
of wide extent and variety as Turkish tobacco presents; this
book purports simply to help one over his dilemmas by use-
ful hints which a lifelong experience enables the writer to
offer.

    In order to arrive at a satisfactory state of knowledge
it is necessary for one to exercise both diligence and keen
observation, indeed a great deal of the latter; he must
follow every item of interest connected with his research to
the most obscure recesses, and only then will he be able to
arrive at a somewhat satisfactory result. In order to illus-
trate the importance of the minute observation required I
will relate two instances wherein I was enabled to judge
with success cases of doubt. I called once at a broker's
office in the middle of a dispute between him and another
broker as to the origin of some oriental tobaccos, the samples
of which where lying before them.  Being a specialist, I
was called upon to decide whether it was Bulgarian or
Trebizonde ; at first siglit I wvas very much puzzled with the
similarity of the leaf, but I was soon enabled to pronounce
my verdict, being guided by the ties which, in the case of
Trebizonde, are always made of maize; my verdict in the
second instance was more wonderful still as I was able to