90 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



When the day's work is done, let the bundles, neatly pressed through the 

 hands, be put in a winrow — that is, laid straight in a bulk or pile long enough 

 to bold the work of one or two days, and only the width of one bundle and a 

 half, reversing each course so as to have the heads of the bundles out. Here 

 it may remain till stripping season is over. 



Cold, winds, and frosty weather injure the texture and rich flavor of the leaf. 

 The first good drying weather after the stripping get the smoothest and small- 

 est sticks upon which the tobacco was bung, and hang it up again to dry. 

 When the weather becomes moist enough to bring it in case, take it down and 

 carefully bulk away as before directed, only taking more pains to straighten 

 the bundles and make the bulk much Avider ; this is done by lapping the bun- 

 dles over each other like shingling a roof, the bulkor having his knee upon the 

 bulk, carefully laying down the tobacco as it is straightened and handed to him. 

 When tbe bulk is finished, weigh it down heavily with logs or some heavy 

 weight. 



Care must be taken that the tobacco does not imbibe too much moisture, or 

 get too high in case before it is bulked, as it will injure. Whenever it is soft 

 enough to handle without breaking it may be put in bulk ; and should the stems 

 break a little under the pressure of the bulker's knee no material damage will 

 be done, provided the leaves do not crumble. A little attention will soon teach 

 the most ignorant the proper order for safe-keeping. The tobacco Avill be safe 

 in bulk, and will wait the planter's convenience to prize it in hogsheads. 



In prizing, the different qualities should not be mixed, and, if proper care has 

 been taken to keep them separated, no trouble will be had in assorting them. 

 In packing, every bundle should be kept straight, and every leaf to its bundle. 

 From a well-packed hogshead any bundle may be drawn without injury or dis- 

 turbance to others. The usual way of packing is to commence across the mid- 

 dle of the hogshead, placing the heads of the first course about eight or ten 

 inches from the outer edge, and running the course evenly across ; the bundles 

 of the next course are placed in the same direction, the heads against the side 

 of the hogshead, and follow the circumference till the heads of the two courses 

 come in contact. After that course is completed, the other side is finished by 

 placing the heads against the cask as before, so as to have three courses across 

 the cask, the bundles all laid in the same direction. The next layer is reversed, 

 the packer carefully laying each bundle as it is handed to him. When filled, 

 it is subjected to the press or screAV and pressed down. 



Our hogsheads are from forty-four to forty-eight inches across the head, and 

 fifty-eight inches deep. From 1,800 to 2,000 pounds can easily be prized in 

 them. If the tobacco is large, rich, and oily, the harder it is pressed the bet- 

 ter, and the better price it commands. These remarks are especially applicable 

 to those heavy kinds of tobacco grown where the soil and climate are pecu- 

 liarly adapted to its production ; such as is known in Virginia as heavy ship- 

 ping leaf, and in the west as Clarksville -tobacco. In climates and soils not so 

 well adapted to it, tlie same variety will assume a diflerent character, the 

 texture of the leaf being changed, being more light and bulky, and destitute 

 of oil and substance. Tobacco of this description should be managed as above 

 directed, but prized lightly in the casks, so as to admit of a free and open leaf, 

 such being mostly required for cigar leaf. 



The writer has been a close observer of tobacco sales for many years, and 

 has seen a difference of two to five dollars per hundred weight in crops grown 

 on adjoining farms, cultivated in the same manner and sold on the same day. 

 The buyer must take the tobacco as it comes from the planter's hands ; he 

 can only use a certain pai't of it per day. That in safe condition he can keep 

 for future use, and is always willing to pay for it the full market rates ; that 

 out of condition he must keep till Ire can use it, and, if he considers his interest, 

 buys at what it will be worth to him when he shall be ready to work it up ; 



