CURING TOBACCO. 



211 



He says: "Our barns are simple structures, 20 feet 

 square, 16 feet from the ground to the plate, with a roof 

 not too sharp, a moderately flat roof being, in the opin- 

 ion of experienced tobacco farmers, 

 the best. In curing, we generally 

 start at 95, and consume from 24 to 

 30 hours between that heat and 110. 

 From this point, advance two and 

 one-half degrees per hour until 120 is 

 reached, where that degree of heat is 

 retained for about four hours. Then 

 it is advanced to 125, where it re- 

 mains about the same length of time. 

 From that point, the heat is advanced 

 slowly to 135, where it remains until 

 the leaf is thoroughly cured. When 

 this is done, the critical point is past, 

 and the heat can be moved up five 

 degrees an hour until it reaches 170, 

 where it should remain until the stem 

 is cured so perfectly that it will break 

 like a dead twig. The fire is then 

 drawn, the door opened, and in 24 

 hours the tobacco is ready to come out 

 of the barn and go to the pack house. 

 It takes four days to cure a barn of 

 tobacco, and in a 20-foot barn there will be about 800 

 pounds." 



Mr. K. B. Davis, who raises yellow tobacco very 

 successfully in the Piedmont district of North Carolina, 



*The instrument consists of two accurately graduated thermome- 

 ters, of which the bulbs are placed at some distance apart. The bulb 

 of one is surrounded by thin muslin, which is connected by a wick of 

 clean cotton to a cup hung a short distance below, and which, while 

 ihe instrument is in use, should contain more or less of distilled, or 

 clean, rain water. The water from this cup is drawn upward through 

 the wick to the muslin that surrounds one of the bulbs, and thus the 

 surface of this bulb is kept constantly moist, while that of the other 

 bulb is dry. Now, the water on the surface of this wet bulb will evap- 

 orate into the air about it more or less rapidly, according as the air 



FIG. 5T. 



" PSYCHROMETEB. 



