626 MISCELLANEOUS VEGETABLES. 



ing, on poles, in such a manner as to keep each plant en- 

 tirely separate from the others, to prevent mouldiness, and 

 to facilitate the drying by permitting a free circulation of the 

 air. Thirty or forty plants may be allowed to each twelve 

 feet of pole. The poles may be laid across the beams, about 

 sixteen inches apart. 



" When erected for the purpose, the sheds are built of suf- 

 ficient height to hang three or four tiers, the beams being 

 about four feet apart, up and down. In this way, a building 

 forty feet by twenty-two will cure an acre and a half of To- 

 bacco. The drying-shed should be provided with several 

 doors on either side, for the free admission of air." 



When the stalk is well dried (which is about the last of 

 November or beginning of December), select a damp day, 

 remove the plants from the poles, strip off the leaves from 

 the stalk, and form them into small bunches, or hanks, by 

 tying the leaves of two or three plants together, winding a 

 leaf about them near the ends of the stems ; then pack down 

 while still damp, lapping the tips of the hanks, or bunches, 

 on each other, about a third of their length, forming a stack 

 with the buts, or ends, of the leaf-stems outward ; cover the 

 top of the stack, but leave the ends or outside of the mass 

 exposed to the air. In cold weather, or by midwinter, it 

 will be ready for market ; for which it is generally packed 

 in damp weather, in boxes containing from two to four hun- 

 dred pounds. 



A fair average yield per acre is from fourteen to eighteen 

 hundred pounds. 



To save Seed. " Allow a few of the best plants to stand 

 without removing the flowering-shoots. In July and August, 

 they will have a fine appearance, and, if the season be favor- 

 able, each plant will produce as much seed as will sow a 

 quarter of an acre by the drill system, or stock half a dozen 

 acres by transplanting." A single capsule, or seed-pod, con- 

 tains about a thousand seeds. 



