314 TOBACCO LEAF. 



lower leaves, Fig. 88. Withdrawing the knife and 

 grasping the stalk about midway with the left hand, the 

 cutter bends it slightly from him, at the same time in- 

 serting the knife under the lower leaves, he severs the 

 stalk. The plant is then turned over and set on the 

 hill. In half an hour, unless it is very cool, the plants 

 will have wilted enough to handle without breakage. 

 The tobacco is then put in piles, each pile containing 

 the number of plants required to fill a stick. This 

 number varies from six to twelve, according to the size 

 of the plants. 



Each person engaged in making and arranging these 

 piles, takes two rows and puts all the piles on one row 

 with the heads of the plants towards the sun. The next 

 two rows are piled on the row adjacent to the first row 

 of piles. That is to say, four rows of tobacco are piled 

 upon two adjacent rows. The object of piling it in this 

 manner is to give an opening wide enough for a wagon 

 to pass. The stick dropper follows, who places one 

 stick at each pile. These sticks are usually rived from 

 red oak or hickory, and are about 4 feet long and about 

 lxl inches thick. 



To hang the tobacco, a stick is punched down in 

 the soft hill, making an angle of about 45 to 60 degrees 

 with the surface of the ground, and sloping a little east 

 of north. The object in sloping it in this direction is to 

 give protection to the leaves from the heat of the sun 

 during the hottest parts of the day. The plants are 

 taken up one at a time and straddled over the stick, 

 with the heads to the south or southwest, Fig. 89. 

 When all the plants in the pile are put upon the stick, 

 the tails of the leaves are drawn closely together and 

 tucked under, so as to expose as little surface as possible. 

 When the tobacco has been hung, it is ready to be car- 

 ried to the curing house or to a scaffold. Some tobacco 

 is still put upon scaffolds in the heavy-tobacco-growing 



