YELLOW TOBACCO. 363 



pers to a wagon and carried to the barn, where they are 

 strung upon sticks, either with wire or twine. Others 

 carry them to a brush harbor, which protects them from 

 the sun, and where they are strung on sticks before 

 being taken to the curing house. 



Mr. John Sims, of Halifax county, Virginia, who is 

 an old and successful tobacco grower, writes that there 

 are several patents for stringing with wire. One of 

 these consists of a stick four and a half feet long, with 

 several wires twisted around at intervals of about eight 

 inches. These wires extend out in opposite directions, 

 about five inches perpendicular to the stick, Fig. 105. 

 On each of these projections four 

 or five leaves of tobacco are strung, 

 by piercing the thick part of the 

 stem with the wire. Each stick 

 will hold from 60 to 70 leaves. 

 Another patent has simply the wire 

 bent in the middle so as to hug the 

 stick. These wires, after they are 

 filled with leaves, are slipped over 

 the stick. We doubt the validity DKAW TWIST FOR TYING 

 of these patents, as similar devices LEAVES T0 POLES - 

 (Fig. 106) were used in the Connecticut valley long 

 before these patents were taken out. The objection to 

 the use of both of these appliances is that they are 

 expensive, and that the tobacco cannot be bulked down 

 while remaining on the sticks, which is often necessary, 

 and it is also frequently necessary to hang it up on the 

 tier poles again for reordering. 



Mr. Sims says: "The easiest, cheapest and most 

 convenient way is to use ordinary twine, or cotton 

 strings large enough for bag strings. Cut off a piece 

 about twice as long as a tobacco stick, and loop the mid- 

 dle of the string over the center of the stick. Place one 

 end of the stick against the wall of the barn, and the 



