148 



Air curing is the process of curing the plant in the barn, 

 as^seen in figure 16. This cut illustrates a barn 32 feet wide, 

 60 feet long and 27 feet high, with ventilators in the sides 

 and ends, so constructed that they may be opened or closed 

 to admit or exclude air as the condition of the tobacco and 

 weather demands. A barn thus constructed should be closed 

 in very dry or windy weather, closely or partially to give 

 plenty of air during the curing stage, closing the ventilators 

 during the day and opening them at night so that the to- 

 bacco may receive moisture to give it a uniform good color, 

 or closing day and night during warm wet weather to pre- 

 vent mould. 



This illustrates a principal of curing cigar tobacco which 

 should never be cured with fire, especially with flues, as the 

 burning qualities will be impaired thereby. 



Sun curing is the method of curing in the open air, while 

 firing is the process of curing as above stated, either by 

 open fires or flues in the tobacco barn. The latter method 

 is the one generally practiced in the tobacco sections in 

 Virginia, North Carolina, and to some extent in the West, and 

 is considered the best way of curing chewing tobacco. 



Handling for Curing. — There are two common methods 

 practiced of handling tobacco for curing, — the older and 

 long favored method of cutting and hanging the whole stalk 

 with the leaves attached, and the method of detaching the 

 leaves from the stalk before hanging, — a method which is 

 comparatively new in this country, but is employed to con- 

 siderable extent in Germany and France. 



These methods are too long to be discussed fully in this 

 bulletin for the purpose of passing on the merits of either. 



snow's modern tobacco barn. 



This new process of harvesting and cutting tobacco was 

 introduced by W. H. Snow of High Point, North Carolina. 



