CURING. 81 



excepting your seed-plants, strip all the leaves from these, 

 and set a stake to each to tie it up to ; let the stake be a 

 foot taller than the plant ; it will answer to keep a piece 

 of old carpet from breaking down the stalk when you wish 

 to cover it up on cold nights. Let the seed-plants stand 

 till the pods or bolls are cured to a brown, and the seed is 

 ripe ; then cut off the top of the seed-stalk, and hang it 

 up in some dry and safe place, where it will be ready to 

 shell and use the next season ; only the ripest and best 

 pods should be used." 



Libhart alludes to the existence of several ways of 

 hanging cut tobacco plants, but specifies the two following 

 as the best and shortest : " first, splitting and hanging it 

 upon laths or poles and leaving it to partially cure in the 

 field ; secondly, nailing it to rails with lathing-nails, at 

 once in the shed. The former method, for high northern 

 latitudes, is by far the best, as it will cure in a much 

 shorter time (and thus prevent the destruction of the crop 

 by freezing in the shed), by the drying of the pith of the 

 stalk, which is the main reservoir of moisture. It is per- 

 formed as follows : Have a chisel about 1 foot long and 3 

 inches broad, the sharp end not bevelled on one side, but 

 coming to an edge by a gradual taper on both sides (a 

 common tenon-saw will do pretty well) ; place the edge 

 of the chisel in the centre of the stalk upon the end where 

 it has been topped, and push it down, guiding it in its 

 course so as not to break or cut off any leaves, to within 

 3-4 inches of the ground ; the stalk may then be cut off 

 with a hatchet, or with the chisel if it be made pretty 

 strong. The splitting may be done in the morning when 

 the leaves are too brittle to admit of the stalk being cut 



G 



