274 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



shed is built so that every third board is a door for ventilating 

 purposes. 



With the crop in the barn the grower has to watch it closely, 

 opening the ventilating doors on some days and closing them on 

 others; at all times there should be a man near at hand to note 

 the changes in the weather and to act accordingly. With tons 

 of water in the crop which must evaporate in a few weeks this 

 is an anxious time for the grower. Too much moisture will 

 retard evaporation; then, too, there is danger of "pole sweat," 

 while a dry season with the doors open all the time will dry 

 and not cure the crop. 



Taking Down. 



With the crop cured the next step is to take it down. The 

 tobacco has now changed from a heavy green leaf to a light 

 thin brown, and is so dry that it will crumble if grasped by 

 the hand. To get the crop down whole, therefore, it has to be 

 handled at a damp time, when the leaf is said to be in "case" 

 or, more commonly, "in good shape." "As soft as a kid 

 glove" is an expression often used in describing this condition. 

 When this warm, damp spell comes, no matter if in the middle 

 of the night or on Sunday, the grower gets very busy with all 

 the help he can command and takes down all he can handle. 

 With the lath method the laths are simply slipped off the pole, 

 and with a man on each tier are handed very carefully and 

 quickly to the floor. There the tobacco is pulled off the lath 

 and piled with the butts laid both ways, making a pile about 

 6 feet wide and as high as the weather will allow. Early in the 

 fall the pile cannot be made as high as later, because the stalks 

 are green and there is more danger of the pile heating. 



When hung on string a man at each end of the pole pushes 

 the tobacco into a bunch in the middle of the pole. One man 

 with a sharp knife then cuts the string, the other man handing 

 the bundle to the man lower down, when it is piled as before. 

 With the primed tobacco it is simply slipped off the string and 

 placed at once into a bundle. After the pile is made it must 

 be at once covered so as to retain the moisture. Different 

 materials are used for this purpose, such as damp cornstalks. 



