From: Rabbi Moshe Sofer
To: Almasd
A local decisor rules that Jewish tobacco merchants could declare their tobacco ownerless (hefker) before witnesses on Friday, allowing a non-Jew to process and sell it in the Jew's home on Shabbos. The Chasam Sofer emphatically rejects this on three grounds, demonstrating that even the Bach's lenient hefker ruling is limited to resting one's animal and is never intended to permit active non-Jewish labor on a Jew's behalf.
Source: Shu"t Chasam Sofer OC §63