230 HOW TO jrAKE THE FARM PAY. 



taken, iu liandling and hanging tobacco, not to hi uise, break, or 

 tear a leaf. There are still great risks before the tobacco is 

 finally cured. Where the crop is large, we believe fully in the 

 utility and economy of curing by furnace heat. From five 

 days to a week is all that is required to cure it, and the best 

 quality and greatest weight is thus secured. 



Dr. Dorsey, an intelligent and experienced cultivator, in Cal- 

 vert county, Maryland, writes to the Maryland Farmer: 



" Owing to the great uncertainty which always attends the 

 curing, in the natural way, I adopted, several years ago, Bibb 

 k Co.'s Tobacco Curing Apparatus, with which I have been 

 entirely successful, not only saving my whole crop from injury, 

 but greatly enhancing if not doubling its value. The 'Furnace' 

 is so arranged, in a barn, as to take up but little room, the 

 pipes running so near the floor the hands walk over them with- 

 out difficult}'-, enabling the planter to fill every part of the 

 building except a small space near the apparatus. The heat is 

 distributed very uniformly throughout the barn by means of 

 two distinct sets of pipes — one set conveying the smoke to the 

 chimney or smoke stack, and the other distributing hot air, 

 drawn ofl" from under a jacket thrown over the ' furnace.' This • 

 jacket answers the double purpose of protecting the tobacco 

 from scorching overhead, and holding for distribution the sur- 

 plus heat at the furnace end of the building. Either wood or 

 coal may be used in firing with this arrangement. My plan is 

 to use wood (of any kind well seasoned) during the day, and 

 up to bed time, when two or three bushels of coal are thrown 

 in, which insures ample heat for the night. The door of the 

 barn may then be locked, and the fireman retire." 



The peculiar color of the leaf is obtained by sweating Three 

 or four hundred pounds are packed in a case and pressed. If 

 quite dry, it should be moistened before packing. 



