TOBACCO BARNS AND SHEDS. 205 



giving as much ventilation as possible at the top by a 

 ventilator. The sill should be about one foot from the 

 ground, resting on a good-sized stone at each post. On 

 this, boards about a foot wide should be hung, to turn 

 up and let air under the tobacco after it is nearly cured, 

 and the long doors are closed, as shown in the side view 

 of Fig. 40. A four-tier barn may be constructed on the 

 same plan. It should be 36 or 39 feet wide, to use poles 

 12 or 13 feet long, there being three lengths of poles 

 across the barn, instead of two lengths, as in the three- 

 tier barn (Fig. 40). The middle girders need not be 

 braced and all the lower ones should be slip girders. 

 Upon the lower tier the middle bent should be left 

 unhung, to admit of better ventilation. Above the sill 

 there should be a row of doors, three or four feet long, 

 to ventilate with after the long doors above have been 

 closed, or before that, if necessary. 



Jacob Zimmer, an authority on this crop in the 

 Miami valley, Ohio, says a better plan is to have the barn, 

 even for cigar-leaf tobacco, as air-tight as possible, by 

 nailing strips over all cracks, except to cut away six 

 inches lengthwise at bottom, to admit fresh air, and 

 leave an open space at top, under the eaves, thus pro- 

 viding constant circulation of air. Screen space at bot- 

 tom with wire netting to keep out vermin. Fig. 29 

 shows such a space under the eaves, and Fig. 40 shows 

 the open space alongside at bottom. 



In Pennsylvania, barns are of all sizes, from 20 feet 

 square to 40x150 feet, and a width of 36 feet is generally 

 preferred. Fig. 47 shows an elaborate affair, 41x184 

 feet. There is a cellar nine feet high in the clear, 

 under the whole of it, containing a dampening room, 

 into which the tobacco is lowered through trap doors in 

 the floor, where it is bulked after being stripped. 

 A smaller room is used for stripping ; around its four 

 sides are permanent tables or counters, with a raised 



