No. •!.] TOBACCO RAISING. 157 



each end, — I think that is tho bettor way, — and then have 

 a string about six or eight inches longer than the lath, knot it 

 at one end, — draw it through the notch at one end. A man 

 goes through the field and takes oil* the three or four bottom 

 leaves, and lavs them carefully in a long clothes-basket, 

 laying them Hat, and when the basket is full it is brought 

 to the barn, — brought on wagons, if they are working on 

 a large scale. This basket also has a piece of burlap sewed 

 on each side, so that the leaf can be placed in the centre of 

 the basket and the burlap turned over it. These baskets 

 are placed on tables, and a single lath lies on the table with 

 the string fastened at one end of the lath, and the needle, a 

 sailor's needle, straightened, threaded with the string. The 

 girl takes the leaves and spears them through the midrib 

 of the leaf. She puts them on face to face and back to 

 back, not all in one direction, but faces together and backs 

 together, so that when they begin to curl up and dry they 

 cannot mat together. She strings the leaf in this manner, 

 leaving the second one about a finger's breadth awa} r from 

 the first one, until she has strung it full, — thirty-five or 

 fort}' leaves. 'When she has done that she unthreads her 

 needle and draws the string tight, and puts it through the 

 notch in the other end of the lath and knots it around. 

 You have to leave that string so it is slightly bowing, and 

 the leaves hang equally distant apart, and it is carried off" 

 and put up on the poles of the bent. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. There is a certain space left at the 

 end? 



Dr. Jenkins. Yes, at each end of the lath, three or four 

 or five inches, where the lath rests on the hanging pole. 



Question. At one place I noticed that they strung it 

 through on a wire six or eight feet long, fastened to the pole 

 at each end. 



Dr. Jenkins. Yes, that is also done. They take the 

 wire and carry it to the place they want it, and fasten it by 

 the ends. The advantage of stringing on lath is, I should 

 think, that the tobacco would be more easily handled if you 

 wanted to take it down or move it a little. 



Mr. A. M. Lyman (of Montague). After cutting, how 

 much Is it allowed to wilt before the leaves are stripped 



