The Tobacco Crop 231 



till the bam is full. Sheet iron flues connected with a 

 brick furnace — sometimes two — run around the house 

 The furnace is fed from the outside, and as soon as the 

 bam is filled the fire is started, and the curer stays by it 

 night and day till the curing is completed, watching the 

 thermometer and the tobacco continually. This flue cur- 

 ing is not practiced in the White Burley section but is con- 

 fined to the Gold Leaf region, though the harvesting in 

 both sections is similar. The degree of heat and the varia- 

 tions in temperature are governed by the experience of the 

 operator and vary with the kind and condition of the 

 tobacco in the house. No attempt to describe the proc- 

 ess can by any means make a skillful curer. Practical 

 experience under a skilled curer is the only way to leam 

 flue-curing. Gathering the leaves instead of cutting the 

 whole plant has the advantage that the tobacco is all of a 

 uniform maturity, and the different grades and qualities 

 are more easily kept separate and much time is saved in 

 the grading and assorting for market. Then the crop is 

 cured more safely and in a shorter time, and less bam 

 room is needed, as bam after barn can be refilled as the crop 

 matures and is cured. The stringing on the curing sticks 

 requires some skill, for the leaves must hang face to face 

 or back to back, since if strung back to face they will enfold 

 in curing and be damaged. In the Gold Leaf district a 

 crop of 900 pounds per acre is a fairly good one, while in 

 the tobacco section of Pennsylvania and Connecticut 2000 

 pounds are often grown, but until recent years the Gold 

 Leaf brought the highest price in the country, the farmers 

 of late years complaining of the monopoly of the American 

 Tobacco Company. 



