00 TOBACCO. 



the sticks, which are placed on standards about five 

 or six inches apart, and the plants placed about the 

 same distance asunder. Tobacco may be cured eith- 

 er by fire or by air, and the proper test of its being 

 cured, is the perfect dryness of the stem of the leaf. 

 The tobacco house should be close and tight, with 

 numerous doors and windows. In houses not prop- 

 erly ventilated, the smoke gives a very disagreeable 

 bitter taste to the leaves, and a nauseous flavor, which 

 the tobacco never loses. 



There are several ways of curing tobacco by fire, 

 such as kiln-drying it as plank is dried. Others cut 

 a ditch in the floor and arch it with bricks. In one 

 end of this the fire is made, the heat from which es- 

 capes up into the room, while the smoke is conveyed 

 along the arch into the open air. In general the air is 

 sufficient to cure tobacco ; yet in wet weather fire is 

 necessary. The top leaves of tobacco are always 

 the richest and the best. 



STRIPPING. 



Tobacco can never be stripped except in damp or 

 moist weather, for it is only then that the leaves can 

 be handled without crumbling under the pressure of 

 the fingers. After being stripped, it is tied up in bun- 

 dles and laid in a pile, when care should be taken 

 that it does not ferment. After this, it is straddled 

 again, and in moist weather taken down for packing. 

 The hogsheads in which it is to be packed, should 



