TOBACCO. 179 



and the more lively and better the quality of the tobacco. If 

 it remains long in the field the rays of the sun scorch it, which 

 detracts materially from the value of the leaves. Two men 

 go forward with a properly rigged wagon, and we have a 

 " horse," as we call it, for sticking. A lath is stuck into a 

 socket, a knife or spear put upon it, and the plants are handed 

 by one man to another about as fast as the other man can 

 put them on — from four to six plants to a lath — depending 

 upon the size of your crop. Mine admitted only five this year. 



Question. — What is the length of the lath ? 



Dr. Riggs, — Four feet. Mr. Marston, in Hartford, a lum- 

 ber dealer, who owns a mill, has laths sawed on purpose. 

 They are a little thicker than ordinary laths for plastering. 

 As the five plants are put upon the lath, another man takes it 

 and carries it right to the cart, and pushes it on to the frame- 

 work, slipping it along at right-angles with the body. There 

 is a frame-work made on purpose, nearly four feet broad, and 

 it slips on them so that the tops of the leaves just touch, or do 

 not quite touch, the bottom of the wagon. They are pressed 

 forward from time to time until they have packed on all they 

 can get upon the two-horse wagon or cart. You may make 

 the frame-work as long as you please, if you can get it into 

 the barn. The wagon is drawn right to the barn, the two 

 men following, and there the tobacco is placed upon the laths 

 not more than from eight to ten inches apart, so that the 

 plants crowd upon each otlier considerably. Commonly they 

 are placed farther apart, but with my method of ventilation 

 I can place them a good deal nearer. The whole field is then 

 gone through with in that way. When we have cut all we 

 can dispose of that day, the men go to the barn and begin to 

 pass it to the roof, that is, to the upper tiers. My barns are 

 so constructed as to take in four tiers four and a half feet in 

 height, with one tier in the roof. They put that day's work 

 overhead, and the next day's work is carried in and put on the 

 lower poles, to get as much into the barn as possible. The 

 doors are shut, the ventilators opened, and they go on in that 

 way, putting up at night or early in the morning the tobacco 

 they got the day before, and in that way the work is carried 



