236 TOBACCO LEAF. 



ing a barn, even during this process of curing, to find 

 the floor partially covered with the refuse of the pre- 

 vious year's crop, the latter often looking as though a 

 fall of snow had whitened it, so densely is it covered 

 with the mold and spores of this fungus. The slightest 

 current of air serves to separate the spores from their 

 attachment, and carry them through the barn, some 

 finding lodgment upon and at once infecting the curing 

 stems and leaves, others being deposited on the beams 

 or walls of the barn and there remaining to propagate 

 the disease another year. 



"Against such a pest, absolute cleanliness is the best 

 and simplest precaution. After the crop is cured, all 

 the diseased stems and leaves should be carefully col- 

 lected and at once burned, before the fungus has 

 reached maturity. All the refuse remaining on the 

 floor of the barn should then be thoroughly gathered to- 

 gether and burned, and the floor should be liberally 

 sprinkled with a mixture consisting of equal parts of 

 dry, air-slaked lime and sulphur. If the floor is of 

 earth, covering it to the depth of an inch with clean, 

 dry earth would prevent the dissemination of the spores 

 through the air. A more effectual method of reaching 

 the spores in all parts of the barn would be fumigation 

 by means of sulphur, kept boiling for two or three 

 hours in any iron vessel over a small kerosene stove. In 

 the larger barns it would be advisable to have three or 

 four such stoves, and keep the sulphur boiling simul- 

 taneously in different parts of the barn ; of course dur- 

 ing the process of fumigation the building must be 

 kept tightly closed, so that the fumes may thoroughly 

 penetrate every part. If this were done once, after the 

 removal of the cured tobacco, and again the following 

 season, a fortnight before the tobacco is harvested, the 

 danger from stem rot or white vein would be largely 

 decreased, if not entirely obviated." 



