362 TOBACCO LEAF. 



The last time a little dirt is pulled up to the plants. 

 The number of leaves left in topping the plant is some- 

 times greater. Hardy, vigorous plants are topped very 

 often to 14 leaves, but the general practice is to leave 

 10 or 12, the first topping, and diminish the number in 

 subsequent toppings. A larger number of leaves is 

 usually left where harvesting is done by picking off the 

 leaves. Before topping, the lower leaves are taken off. 

 They form a hiding place for the horn worm during the 

 heat of the day. 



HARVESTING OF YELLOW TOBACCO. 



From two to four weeks in the Champaign districts, 

 and from three to five weeks in the Piedmont districts, 

 and from six to eight weeks in the mountainous dis- 

 tricts, after the plants have been topped, the harvesting 

 begins. Usually in the Champaign districts the first 

 ripening of plants takes place about the 25th of July, 

 while it is two or four weeks later in the Piedmont and 

 mountainous districts. In all the yellow tobacco region 

 two methods are employed in harvesting the crop. One 

 is to strip the leaves from the plant as they ripen, and 

 the other is to cut the whole plant, as in the heavy 

 shipping districts. The first method is growing in pop- 

 ularity, and is almost universally employed in the new 

 districts, where habit has not sanctioned and fixed the 

 second method, that is, of catting the entire plant. 

 The new tobacco districts are more open to improve- 

 ments than the old. Many intelligent growers, who use 

 both methods, say that much better "cures" are made 

 when the leaves are successively stripped from the stalk. 

 Other planters, equally as intelligent, say that the 

 tobacco lacks oil when so cured. When the stripping 

 method is employed, the leaves, as they ripen, are 

 pulled from the stalk, put in baskets (Fig. 104), or tied 

 in a cloth, and sometimes taken directly from the strip- 



