CURING TOBACCO. 215 



115 or 120, as the case may be, stop the fire and hold 

 as long as the leaf will sweat. When the leaf begins to 

 dry off, you know then that you have sweated, or 

 steamed, all the water or foreign matter out. Draw all 

 the fires, open both your doors, ventilators and gable 

 windows and give cold, fresh air. Use such fuel as to 

 be able to draw the fire quickly. 



The cold air will "yellow" the barn in, say 30 or 60 

 minutes, or maybe one and one-half hours, or longer. 

 Watch it closely, and when it is sufficiently yellow, be- 

 gin a dry heat at once, and advance your heat fast 

 enough to keep it from sponging, but not too fast, to 

 splotch it. Right along here you are the sole judge. 

 Simply apply to the symptoms which are apparent. If 

 not fast enough, the leaf will sponge ; if too fast, the 

 leaf will splotch. Always advance as fast as the leaf 

 will bear, and rest a few hours at 130 or 135. This is 

 immaterial, and is only done as a safeguard, for when 

 you once pass the sponging and not splotching points, 

 you may go ahead and kill out the barn at 150 to 160. 

 It is a well-established fact that tobacco, at the time it 

 is ripe and ready for curing, contains 80 per cent of 

 water, and that water must come out before the plant 

 can assume an artificial yellow. You cannot cure 

 green tobacco by this method ; it will coddle and turn 

 black before it will sweat. By this process it requires 

 from 24 to 30 hours, and maybe a little longer, to cure 

 a barn. 



The object should be to make as little green tobacco 

 as possible. Curing tobacco yellow is now regarded as 

 an art, which demands the closest attention, the best 

 judgment and the most painstaking experience to attain 

 the perfect results. No novice can succeed without un- 

 dergoing an apprenticeship, however minute in details 

 the instructions he may receive. 



Curing in Leaf vs. Stalk. On this point the North 



