558 



FARM, ORCHARD, DAIRY AND GARDEN. 



covered with cast-iron caps twenty inches 

 square, and so made as to lap each other 

 half an inch where they join, with a 

 brick furnace to receive the fuel on the 

 outside of the barn, and a chimney six or 

 :seven feet high on the opposite outside of 

 the barn, to carry off the smoke, com- 

 pletes the flue. The flue should extend 

 through and a few feet beyond the barn, 

 -and the chimney should be that distance 

 from the logs or planks to avoid danger, 

 as the blaze sometimes reaches through 

 and out at the top of the chimney. Such 

 a flue can be built at a cost of $75 or 

 $85. The cast caps should be slightly 

 -arched, as they throw out the heat better. 



As soon as the tobacco is housed, the 

 fire should be started in the flue, and a 

 low degree of temperature, say about 95 

 •deg., kept up for ten .or twelve hours, un- 

 til the leaves are yellow, when the heat 

 •should be gradually increased to 120 deg., 

 and so remain until tails are partially 

 ■cured and curl up, when the heat should 

 be increased to 160 deg-, and kept so un- 

 til the leaf is thoroughly cured, and the 

 stalk nearly so. 



In order to regulate the heat, a ther- 

 mometer must be kept hanging in the 

 barn in a corner and frequently referred 

 to. While the above is as near a rule as 

 can be given, yet the judgment of each 

 farmer and m each particular curing will 

 be needed, as the amount of heat 

 necessary will vary according as the 

 tobacco is light or heavy, the season wet 

 •or dry, etc. 



Coat-curing is practiced successfully in 

 Virginia, North Carolina and portions of 

 Kentucky, and throughout Missouri, but it 

 is not so certain of success as to color, is 

 more trouble, and in the end more ex- 

 pensive than flues. To cure with coal, 

 a thermometer is needed, and the amount 

 of heat necessary the same as with 

 flues. 



After the fires are withdrawn, the 

 tobacco in a short time will come in case, 

 unless the stalks are entirely dried; and 

 then, if a good bright color has been ob- 

 tained, it should be hung in the barn as 

 close as possible, by putting two or three 

 sticks in the space occupied by one, to 

 prevent its losing its color by the damp 

 spells of the weather during the winter. 

 It will dry in this condition, and remain 

 so until stripping time in the spring; or, 



if stripped during the winter, should be 

 hung back on sticks, and kept crowded 

 until ready to prize. 



Having rather tediously followed you 

 through the laborious and disagreeable 

 part of your work, we now come to the 

 comparatively easy, but decidedly most 

 important, because most profitable part, 

 namely: stripping, assorting and prizing; 

 and here allow us to say that the farmers 

 of Missouri, as a class, are far behind 

 those of the other tobacco growing States. 

 This is attributable mainly to the fact that 

 our farmers, after working a year and 

 making a crop, in order to save a few 

 weeks' extra labor, are in the habit of not 

 marketing that crop, but turning it over 

 to some country re-handler or speculator 

 at a sacrifice, and he about half way pre- 

 pares it for market. 



It looks reasonable that if re-hand- 

 lers can take the tobacco as the 

 farmers deliver it, tied in large bundles, 

 lugs, leaf and trash altogether, and assort 

 it, and make one bundle into four or five, 

 at an expense of one dollar and a half or 

 more per 100 pounds, that the farmer can 

 better afford to do it right at first. The 

 farmers are told that " we buyers " would 

 rather have it tied thus, so that we 

 can assort and classify it to suit our- 

 selves, and when so tied, the competition 

 is gone, except as between the two or 

 three country buyers in each county; 

 whereas, by properly assorting, tying and 

 prizing, which the farmer can do much 

 cheaper than any one else, he gets not 

 only the competition of all the great 

 American markets, but has his crop in 

 a condition to ship to any market in the 

 world. 



It would not cost farmers over fifty 

 cents per 100 pounds in excess of the 

 present mode of delivering to country 

 dealers, to prize their crops properly, and 

 the work, in a great majority of cases, 

 would pay them better than any other 

 they could do. 



Shipping leaf should be carefully 

 assorted, putting all the ground leaves, 

 bruised or sunburnt, etc., into lugs, a'nd 

 leaf should be neatly tied in bundles of 

 not over six leaves. The lugs even pay 

 to tie into small hands. At present 

 prices there is a difference of at least $1 

 per hundred pounds in favor of small 



