CURING TOBACCO. 209 



CURING THE YELLOW TOBACCO. 



Probably in no other tobacco region in the world 

 are so much experience and good judgment required in 

 the curing of the crop as in the yello vv -tobacco States. 

 Barns are purposely built small in order that they may 

 be filled quickly. A difference of one day in cutting 

 the plants will be hazardous in the curing of the tobacco 

 a uniform color. Every plant, if possible, should be 

 put in the barn the same day, and heat applied before it 

 is wilted. 



Very minute directions have been given as to the 

 regulation of the heat at varying intervals of time, and 

 these directions, though valuable, are rarely ever appli- 

 cable as a whole to the curing of a barn full of tobacco. 

 They require to be modified to suit the change of condi- 

 tions. Tobacco cut full of sap, superinduced by a rainy 

 season, requires a different formula for curing to that 

 cut after a season of dry weather. The sole object, in 

 curing, is to expel the sap in such a way as to make the 

 desired colors, and to prevent the exudation of the juices, 

 which give flavor and suppleness, by improper or too 

 rapid curing, or in drying preceded or accompanied 

 by fermentation. The cells of the leaf must not be 

 broken so that the contents are dissipated. This is 

 done in tobacco that is house burned or pole sweated. 

 Nor must the process of curing be so rapid as to destroy 

 the colors. 



Mr. K. L. Ragland, of Virginia, first laid down -a 

 plan to be followed in curing yellow tobacco, and this 

 has been the basis of all subsequent formulas. The 

 agent for curing is dry, artificial heat. The heat is either 

 made by having heaps of charcoal on the floors under- 

 neath the tobacco, or by means of flues running around 

 three sides of the barn and heated by wood fed from 

 the outside in a furnace (see Fig. 58). A thermometer 

 is put inside the barn, so as to determine and regulate 

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