The cigars, when dry, are carefully sorted according to strength, which is estimated by their colour, and classed in a scale of increasing strength as claro, colorado claro, maduro and oscuro.
The capital of the province is Talca (pop. 18 95, 33, 2 3 2; 1902 estimated 42,766), on the Rio Claro, a tributary of the Maule, 156 m.
Of other affluents, the Bonito, Garcas, Cristallino and Tapirape on the west, and the Pitombas, Claro, Vermelho, Tucupa and Chavante on the east, nothing definite is known as the country is still largely unexplored.
Some of the larger tributaries of these rivers, whose economic value has been equally great, are the Mapocho, which flows through Santiago and enters the Maipo from the north; the turbulent Cachapoal, which joins the Rapel from the north; the Claro, which waters an extensive part of the province of Talca and enters the Maule from the north; the Nuble, which rises in the higher Andes north of the peaks of Chillan and flows entirely across the province of Nuble to join the Itata on its western frontier; the Laja, which rises in a lake of the same name near the Argentine frontier in about lat.