HEAVY SHIPPING TOBACCO. 313 



the dews heavy. If the weather is threatening, so there 

 is a probability that a rain will occur before the tobacco 

 can be carried to the barn, it should not be cut. Noth- 

 ing injures tobacco more than to be caught in a shower 

 of rain after it has been severed from the ground, and 

 the plants inverted upon the hills. The water deposits 

 mud upon the upturned leaves or spatters them with 

 dirt. The plants also get in a "strut," that is, they 

 will not wilt, and if handled in such condition, great 

 breakage of leaves ensues. The bad effects of the dirt 

 that adheres to the leaves will never disappear. The 

 spots covered with mud cure a bad color, and the vitality 

 of the leaf at such places seems to be destroyed. 



Nor should tobacco be cut while the sun is very hot, 

 as in that case it will be parched by the heat, thus mak- 

 ing permanent green spots, an injury from which it 

 never recovers. The very worst time of all to cut to- 

 bacco is in the morning of a hot day while the dew is 

 still on the plant. Cut under such conditions, a great 

 many leaves, owing to their brittleness, will break off 

 from the stalk. The leaves being wet with dew, the 

 dirt will adhere to them when the plants are inverted on 

 the hills, and lastly, the sun is most likely to scorch the 

 plants before they will wilt. 



These negative conditions being given, it will be 

 readily inferred that a hazy, not cloudy, day is the best 

 for cutting tobacco, when the heat of the sun is tempered 

 by the haziness of the atmosphere. In the afternoon, 

 between three and five o'clock, is also a good time. It 

 should be cut late enough in the afternoon to prevent 

 sunburn, and early enough to wilt, or fall, before night, 

 so that it may be put in piles. 



To cut the tobacco plant with a knife, one should 

 stand over the plant, place the blade of the knife at 

 right angles to the two upper leaves, and split the body 

 of the stalk down to within two or three inches of the 



