CHAPTER XII. 



TOBACCO HOUSES. 



HE drying houses or sheds for the curing and 

 storing of tobacco are among the most interesting 

 objects to be seen on the tobacco plantation. These 

 sheds vary in size from a small structure capable of 

 holding only a few thousand plants to the immense sheds 

 with sufficient capacity for hanging the products of several 

 acres. In the Connecticut valley, the Southern States, at the 

 West, and in the Philippine Islands these tobacco sheds are 

 often several hundred feet in length, built in the most substan- 

 tial manner and provided with suitable side doors and venti- 

 lators for the free passage of air, and the most perfect system 

 of ventilation. The most substantial and finest tobacco sheds 

 are to be found in the Connecticut valley, which are provided 

 with every convenience for hanging and taking down or 

 " striking " the crop. Many of them are painted and adorned 

 with a cupola, which serves the double purpose of an orna- 

 ment and a ventilator for the hot air to pass off from the 

 curing and heated plants. Formerly, the tobacco being har- 

 vested was hung in barns and sheds, used for storing grain 

 and hay, and better adapted to other purposes than to that 

 of a tobacco shed, where thorough ventilation is necessary to 

 avoid sweat and pole-rot, attending upon the curing of the 

 plants. Of late, tobacco growers, throughout the world, have 

 paid considerable attention to the method of curing, and to 

 erecting more suitable buildings for the purpose. At the 

 South and West, the log tobacco barns are giving way to the 

 more substantial frame buildings, and better facilities are 



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