NICOTIANA 

 WITHERING, DRYING AND FERMENTING Manufacture 



continued. The withering-house may be constructed of any design or w ^y rint ' 

 material providing free circulation of air. In the interior a framework 

 of uprights and cross-rails has to be arranged, across which the sticks with 

 withered leaf or withered plants suspended are placed and retained until 

 the drying is complete. For tlu> tir*t two or three days the sticks with 

 their suspended leaves are removed a foot apart and retained in that 

 position until the mid-ribs are completely dried, which may take from fifteen 

 r thirty days, according to the nature of the weather prevalent. In some 

 parts of the country the first drying is accomplished by the leaves being 

 spread on the floor over a layer of dry straw. Rapid drying produces 

 wllow or almost green leaves, and slow drying darkens the colour. 



Drying and Fermenting. When quite dry, the leaves (or stems with Drying. 

 attached leaves) are taken down, usually assorted and, at the same time, 

 separated from the stems and placed in heaps or stacks to ferment or sweat. 

 For this purpose they are flattened out carefully, the stems or leaf-stalks 

 being placed inwards and the tips of the leaves outwards. It is prefer- 

 able to select a damp day to commence this operation. In the Rangpur 

 houses, the floors being usually mud, the stacks of leaf are placed on board- 

 ing. Great care is taken that the leaves be spread out perfectly flat, and 

 as a rule a selection is made of the finer leaf to be used for wrappers, from 

 the coarser to be used as fillers. For this purpose it is accordingly 

 customary to make two stacks, one of high-class, the other of low-class suckta* 

 leaf. The stacks of leaf may be as much as 2 to 6 feet in height and the 

 top is usually covered with a cloth or sheet of basket-work over which a 

 weight is placed. It is customary on the second or third day to pull down 

 two stacks of the same quality simultaneously, and to construct new 

 stacks, taking leaf alternately from the one and the other, observing 

 the while that the leaf in the centre of the first stacks may be in the 

 exterior of the new ones. A week later the stacks are similarly pulled 

 down and remade, and this may be continued time after time for a month 

 or six weeks in other words, until all the heat of fermentation has dis- 

 appeared. In this way uniform and continuous fermentation is ensured. 



Bundling and Baling. The leaves are then tied into bundles of 25 Baling in 

 or 30, a useless leaf being employed in tying each such bundle. Great India. 

 skill is required in this operation, since the leaves must be left perfectly 

 flat, the bundles being almost fan-shaped. In this condition they are baled, 

 the broom-like ends projecting outwards. 



It may be as well to contrast this (which may be taken as the system old 8ytm. 

 pursued in 1902 when personally inspected by me in Rangpur) with that 

 given by Buchanan-Hamilton as observed in Dinajpur (the adjoining 

 district) during 1809-11. The tobacco, he says, is "fit for cutting in 

 March and April. Each stem contains from 5 to 8 leaves, which in a good 

 soil are 18 inches long, and in a poor are only half the length. The stem 

 is cut, and the plants are allowed to lie three days on the ground. The 

 leaves are then separated, and are tied in handfuls, which are hung in the 

 open air until dry. The handfuls are made into balls, by laying them 

 together in two rows, with their roots outward. The parcels are sur- 

 rounded with straw, are tied very tightly, and the bale is then complete." 



Whitney and Floyd (Growth of Tobacco Industry, U.S. Yearbook, Agri. 

 Dept., 1899, 429-40) show the bundles or l " hands " as produced in Maryland 

 and Virginia, also the forms adopted with the " Cigarette and Manufac- 

 turing Tobaccos," " Connecticut Cigar-wrapper Leaf," the " Ohio Linuner 



805 



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