No. 4.] TOBACCO RAISING. 151 



to make a formal statement of what it costs to raise tobacco 

 in this way or that way. I have given you a statement of 

 the principal items of expense made necessary by the shade, 

 which we encountered this year. You know very well that 

 such a statement is valuable, and you know the limitations 

 of its value. 



The priming- and stringing of tobacco is a thing to which 

 we are quite unused, therefore its difficulties are apt to be 

 exaggerated ; and yet, under our conditions, it certainly 

 involves considerable expense, besides the difficulty in 

 getting the right kind of help when needed. We therefore 

 tried the experiment of harvesting a part of our shade-grown 

 leaf on the stalk. We cannot learn the effect of this on the 

 quality of the leaf until the fermentation is finished, but we 

 are convinced that in using this method a considerable 

 damage to the leaves is unavoidable. Each stalk was cut 

 in two in the middle, the upper halves being hung on 

 hooks, ten to a lath, the lower halves, six to the lath. A 

 considerable percentage of this leaf is more or less torn, 

 while it is hard to find a single hole or tear in the leaf which 

 was cured on the string. 



To decide when the leaf is ripe and ready to prime is the 

 most difficult problem in the growing of shaded tobacco. It 

 is not possible to give very clear instructions regarding it ; 

 experience is the only teacher. But I believe the tendency 

 is to pick it before it is fully ripe, and there is generally 

 more danger of erring in this way than of letting the leaf 

 get over-ripe. The shading off to a lighter green, a yellow 

 tinge on and near the tip, darker green spots on the leaf sur- 

 face, a slight puckering of the leaf, are all signs of ripeness. 



It is not wise to cure primed leaves in the same barn with 

 tobacco hung on the stalk. We have been forced to do it, 

 and have done it very successful \y, but only with very 

 special care and great inconvenience. The primed leaves 

 dry out much more rapidly, and are much more likely to 

 "hay down " than leaves on the stalk ; and the barn must be 

 managed with this in mind. When partly cured, it is often 

 an advantage to close up the lath so the leaves nearly touch, 

 to check too rapid drying. 



