No. 4.] TOBACCO RAISING. 143 



face was still visibly dump, while outside it was dry and 



powder}'. We have no measure of the amount of sunlight 

 intercepted by the cloth, but the " shade" was scarcely evi- 

 dent to the senses, and the light beneath it was more trying 

 than the clear sun, probably because of the greater heat and. 

 humidity. Probably the close planting shaded the leaves 

 much more than the cheese-cloth shaded them. 



Two rows each of Havana seed leaf and of Sumatra crown 



O 



under the shade were topped, rather high. The leaf from 

 the topped plants, however, after curing, was seen to be dis- 

 tinctly inferior to that from the untopped plants. The un- 

 topped tobacco of both varieties grew r to the cover, 9 feet 

 from the ground, and the Sumatra stalks bent over and grew 

 to a length of 10 or 11 feet. 



The occasional wind and rain storms of the summer did 

 no serious damage to the cheese-cloth, except where, through 

 errors in fastening, it chafed badly in the wind. To make 

 repairs required perhaps a day's work of three or four men 

 during the season. After harvest came a very severe wind 

 storm, following the Galveston hurricane, which blew down 

 trees and did considerable damage, but did not injure the 

 cheese-cloth shade at all. 



Under the superintendence of Mr. Floyd, the leaves were 

 picked or "primed" when they were thought to be ripe, 

 strung on strings, cured in the usual way, and then fer- 

 mented in a pile or " bulk." When ready for market, sam- 

 ples were taken from the several primings, except the first, 

 which included only inferior bottom, or sand, leaves. The 

 samples consisted of a number of hands taken at random, 

 and each hand was a single string of leaves just as it was 

 strung by the girls, and therefore represented the general 

 run of the leaves, and not a selection. I may say here that 

 after taking samples this little broken lot of Sumatra leaf, 

 from only one-sixth of an acre, sold for 71 cents a pound. 

 The samples were sent to a number of the leading dealers and 

 manufacturers in the country, with the request to examine 

 carefully and give opinion of the quality of the leaf, and 

 to state fully its defects also. Let us notice briefly their 

 replies : — 



