CURING TOBACCO. 221 



showers, the tobacco will cure a beautiful bright, golden- 

 red color. Much the same methods are to be followed 

 in curing Burley as is the case with cigar leaf or seed- 

 leaf. 



CURING SEEDLEAF TOBACCO. 



The method of curing practiced in the cigar tobacco 

 sections of the United States, also Cuba and Sumatra, 

 is entirely air curing, it is accomplished by regulating 

 the air and moisture, by opening or closing doors or 

 shutters in the barn. Fire curing, that is, by the aid of 

 artificial heat, or sun curing, by exposure to the direct 

 rays of the sun, is seldom practiced. The modified 

 Snow process has been tried with doubtful results, 

 although at the Pennsylvania experiment station "the 

 general character of the rapidly cured leaf was not 

 inferior to that more slowly cured, and the dangers of 

 disease were removed." The Wisconsin experiment 

 station favors artificial control of temperature and 

 humidity, after two years' experience with it, but does 

 not state how leaf so cured came out of the sweat, or 

 fermentation process, necessary after curing to fit the 

 leaf for cigar making. In the Miami valley, a few 

 planters put small, coal stoves into their barns, with 

 pipe running up through the roof, and keep up a gentle 

 heat during very rainy weather or a long-continued 

 damp spell, admitting cold air at bottom and opening 

 ventilators at top to carry off the hot, moist air. Un- 

 doubtedly this same method of artificial control will be 

 perfected to reduce pole sweat, pole burn or white veins. 



But the system now in vogue is that which has pre- 

 vailed for years. It has been improved by greater care 

 in the construction of barns, but it is at best a crude 

 and imperfect method, and one requiring vigilant 

 attention to details, and a nice perception of alterations 

 of temperature and moisture, to properly carry out. Yet 



