318 TOBACCO LEAF. 



the team, it was hauled to the barn, the team unhitched, 

 and an empty sled taken to the field to be filled in turn. 

 The tobacco was hung from the sleds under the shade 

 of the barn, and immediately elevated to the tier poles. 

 This method saves much handling, and lessens the prob- 

 ability of injury from sunburn or from a shower of rain. 

 Sleds were used because they were cheaply made, and 

 may be built of a bight most convenient for putting on 

 and taking off the plants. Low wagons or carts are 

 more easily drawn and equally as convenient, and the 

 style shown in Fig. 91 is coming into general use. 



When taken directly to the barn from the field, a 

 distance of eight inches should intervene between the 

 sticks, when adjusted on the tier poles. Put closer than 

 this would be to invite danger from house burn or 

 pole sweat. When taken from the scaffold, the in- 

 terval between the sticks need not he greater than six 

 inches. A good day's work for a man, in cutting and 

 housing tobacco, is from 100 to 150 sticks. When the 

 field is cut clean, a third or more may be housed than 

 when the ripest plants only are selected for the first 

 cutting. 



Curing Heavy- Shipping Tobacco is fully described 

 in the chapter on curing. 



Assorting, Stripping and Preparing Heavy-Ship- 

 ping Tobacco for Market. After the crop has been 

 housed and properly cured, and the colors fixed by re- 

 peatedly "drying the tobacco out" by artificial heat, it 

 is then ready to be assorted and stripped. Usually the 

 stems and stalks are not sufficiently cured to begin this 

 work until about the middle of November. It is not 

 safe to put the tobacco in bulk before that time. After 

 this time, when the leaves become pliant through the 

 influence of damp weather or a warm rain, the tobacco 

 should be taken down, the sticks withdrawn and plants 

 laid on a platform with heads out, and tails overlapping 



