48 



" The tobacco is commonly removed from the field to 

 the house or scaffold upon the shoulders of the laborers, 

 carefully put on and taken off to avoid bruising; but if 

 the distance is great, carts are used, greater care being 

 necessary to avoid bruising. This is considered so im- 

 portant, that some judicious planters make temporary 

 scaffolds in the field, preferring the risk of injury from 

 a smart rain to that of bruising, by moving it far in a 

 green state. 



" There are two modes of curing tobacco : one in the 

 house, altogether by fire ; the other by the sun on scaf- 

 folds. The first is esteemed the best and most effectual, 

 but it is attended with great risk. Our houses are gen- 

 erally four-sided pens, twenty feet square, built of round 

 poles, and about twelve feet pitch. The joists are placed 

 four feet apart, the rafters immediately over them hav- 

 ing beams corresponding with the joists, three feet per- 

 pendicular from each other, so as to afford ranges or 

 tiers for the tobacco up to the crown; and the same 

 tiers are fixed below the joists and at the same distance, 

 by extending poles across the house, between the logs 

 of the pen. The house is covered tightly with pine 

 boards; and, if it is intended to cure by fire, the open- 

 ings between the logs should be closed to prevent the 

 escape of heat. Such a sized house will cure from two 

 to three thousand weight, according to the quality of 

 the tobacco. 



*'If it be decided to cure by fire, the tobacco is car- 

 ried immediately from the field to the house, hung on 

 sticks as before described, and these sticks crowded as 

 close together on the tiers as they can possibly be, so 

 as to exclude all air from the tobacco. It remains in 

 this situation until the leaves of the plants become yel- 

 low, or of the color of hickory leaves just before they 

 fall. This will generally happen in four or five days, 

 when the sticks must be spread and placed at their pro- 

 per distances apart in the house. About six or seven 

 inches is the proper distance, or any other that will pre- 

 vent the plants on different sticks touching each other. 

 A moderate heat, which is gradually increased to a very 



