WHITE BURLEY TOBACCO. 347 



cut with a butcher knife, or a tobacco cutter, described 

 in the previous chapter. Each person cutting takes 

 three rows, splits the stalk down below the middle and 

 straddles the plants, as they are cut, over a stick stuck 

 up in the middle row, on the hill of the last plant cut 

 in that row. From five to six plants are put on each 

 stick, according to the size of the plants. In this way 

 the tobacco is cut and housed without coming in contact 

 with the dirt. The sticks are four and one-third feet 

 in length, and when filled with tobacco are taken 

 directly to the curing houses, or barns, and hung 12 

 inches apart on the tier poles. Very many planters 

 put the tobacco on scaffolds in the field, where it 

 remains for three or four days, and it is then taken to 

 the barns. Trestles, five feet high and very much like 

 those used by plasterers and carpenters, are employed to 

 hold up the tier poles of the scaffold (Fig. 99). The 

 tobacco, when taken from the scaffold, may be arranged 

 on the tier poles in the barns as closely as eight inches. 

 By scaffolding, one-third of the capacity of the barn 

 may be saved. The danger in scaffolding is that the 

 tobacco may be caught in a rain. About one-third of 

 the tobacco planters in the district now scaffold their 

 tobacco before taking it to the barns. 



The leaf, after being properly wilted on the stick, 

 or scaffold, is carried to the barn on a frame, made just 

 wide enough to take the sticks conveniently, as shown 

 in Fig. 100. 



Assorting and Stuffing. When fully cured, the 

 tobacco is assorted usually into six grades as follows : 

 1. Flyings, or sand leaves, called also spod, which con- 

 stitute about 10 per cent of the crop. 2. Trash, 15 per 

 cent. 3. Lugs, 15 per cent. 4. Bright leaf, 30 per 

 cent. 5. Red leaf, 25 per cent. 6. Tips, or the short 

 top and often greenish leaves, making up the remaining 

 5 per cent. 



