312 TOBACCO LEAF. 



may be some green plants ; for a plant cut before matur- 

 ity is much more valuable than a frosted one. The 

 instrument used for cutting is a butcher knife, with a 

 thin blade about six inches long. The handle of the 

 knife should be well wrapped with old woolen rags, for 

 however hard the hand may be, in housing a large crop 

 of tobacco it will be made sore by the constant pressure 

 on the back of a wooden handle. Another tobacco cut- 

 ter has been introduced within the past ten years, that 

 does effective work. It is in the shape of a spade, but 

 only about eight inches long. It has a square steel 

 blade two and one-half inches wide, welded to an iron 

 shaft four and one-half inches long, to the end of which 

 a handle an inch in diameter and four inches Jong is 

 fastened. Many prefer this to a butcher knife. Such 

 an implement is much used in the seed leaf districts of 

 Pennsylvania. A hatchet is also used. 



Of two evils, it is better to let tobacco stand a little 

 too long in the field than to cut it green. Thoroughly 

 ripe tobacco has much more weight and thickness, and 

 makes a much better article for shipping purposes, than 

 if cut before it is fully ripe. In about three weeks after 

 tobacco is topped, with seasonable weather, the leaves 

 attain their full expansion. After this they thicken 

 until the plant is ready for the knife, which is shown by 

 the signs of maturity already described. There is as 

 much difference between the flavor of tobacco after it is 

 cured, cut when ripe, and that cut green, as there is 

 between the flavor of a full ripe strawberry and one that 

 is only partially ripe. 



If possible to avoid it, tobacco should not be cut 

 immediately after a heavy rain. Rain water dissolves 

 and washes away much of the gummy matter that adds 

 to the weight of the tobacco leaf and gives it body. In 

 three or four days after a rain, the gummy matter will 

 be again secreted, especially if the nights are cool and 



