346 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



grower must watch out for. When the moisture is evaporating out 

 of these leaves in the shed and warm, dark, cloudy weather comes, 

 he is likely to have his tobacco pole-burn, and after pole-burn once 

 gets started it iss hard to check, and in the course of four or five 

 hours it will ruin a crop of tobacco. lN)le-burn is a fungus disease 

 that attacks the surface of the leaves and decomposition sets up, and 

 it will become black as if it were rotting and the next day the leaves 

 fall to the ground. This makes the crop practically worthless be- 

 cause you cannot touch the leaf without your fingers going through 

 it. And it is damp, foggy weather that brings about this disease. 

 So that when the grower sees that he is going to experience that kind 

 of weather he closes the ventilators in the shed. So he must have the 

 shed shut up. Then at other times he must open up the shed and 

 let the fresh air in and the shed must be fixed to open up and close up. 

 If hung too close the air cannot circulate through it. 



A Member: How close on the racks do you hang it? 



ME. HIBSHMAN: It depends on the size of the tobacco. Some 

 years it grows very stiff that the leaves stand out, but generally you 

 leave a margin of seven and one-half to eight inches. I know men 

 who hang closer. After it is hung for several days, then many hang 

 it closer. It is just when the leaf is changing color — it is green 

 when it comes into the shed and the first change is to yellow and 

 from yellow to brown — and it is just while the leaf is changing to 

 yellow that the moisture is going off most rapidly and the greater 

 the danger from pole-burn. There are several other diseases that 

 come in through the winter, but they are not nearly so dangerous. 

 After the tobacco is cured the leaves are so brittle you cannot touch 

 it, so the grower must wait until damp weather comes on. As soon 

 as that comes and it gets moisture and becomes soft so he can handle 

 it without breaking it he takes it down from his shed and puts it 

 into a damping cellar. Under one of the sheds he has a large cellar 

 divided into two parts, the stripping room and the damping cellar. 

 The damping cellar has an earth floor and a very little light. It is 

 hung in there and gets damp, and when it gets so damp that he can 

 take it up without breaking, it is then taken to the stripping room 

 and then the stalks are stripped from the leaves. This is what is 

 called stripping tobacco. The term "stripping tobacco" as used 

 means different things. With the grower it means taking the leaves 

 from the stalk and sorting and tying up in hanks. With the manu- 

 facturer it means taking the mid rib out of the leaf. The term 

 "stripping" does apply to both operations. He takes them in the 

 cellar and strips the leaves, and that stem is valuable as a fertilizer. 

 It contains a great deal of potash and I have no doubt about the 

 nitrogen. The farmers apply them to the corn ground. 



A Member: Does he apply them in that condition? 



MR. HIBSHMAN: Usually in this condition and they are put on 

 in the manure spreader. 



Now then he has his leaves stripped from his stalk, but these 

 leaves are not all alike. There are some poor ones in there. The 

 lower leaves of the plant as it grew in the field came in contact with 



