158 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



from the stalks? In harvesting tobacco, some of us think 

 it best not to allow it to wilt too much, if we can get it up 

 without bruising it, and that it is more likely to be sound 

 tobacco and less likely to pole-sweat if not over-wilted. 



Dr. Jenkins. Where we string the leaves we do not cut 

 the stalks at all. The men go through the rows with bas- 

 kets, and pick off from the standing stalk three or four of 

 the bottom leaves. At first they have to crawl along, bend 

 down, because the top is thick, so as not to bruise it, and 

 they back along the row with the basket in front, get down 

 between the rows and pick the leaves off, and they keep 

 backing. That is better than going forward, does not seem 

 to do so much damage. The} r lay the leaves in the basket, 

 and they are brought to the barn without wilting at all. I 

 supposed it would be a disadvantage to have them fresh, 

 because they would break more, but they did not seem to 

 break as I should think they would. A little wilting would 

 not hurt them, but I would rather have them only slightly 

 wilted. 



Mr. Lyman. I thought tobacco was cured better if pretty 

 fresh. 



Dr. Jenkins. Yes, we have sometimes had tobacco lie 

 in a basket over night, but it did not do it any good. It 

 warmed it a little in the night, so, afterwards, if we had to 

 keep it over night, we spread it to avoid heating. 



Mr. Lyman. I should like to inquire of Dr. Jenkins, or 

 the audience, if they ever had any experience with what I 

 should call feather-leaf tobacco — a narrow leaf, with a very 

 stiff stem, a thick leaf from the stem out, and a sucker that 

 grows between the leaves which will be very fine. It is some- 

 thing new to me. I should like to know what it is. [A 

 specimen was shown.] 



Dr. Jenkins. I have never seen the thing before. This 

 just grows into shoe strings. Have others in the audience 

 had tobacco like this? 



Mr. Dexter Hager (of South Deerfield). Thirty years 

 ago I was at work for my father, and tore down an old barn 

 (hat had been used us ;i stock barn many years, possibly 

 one hundred years : and after clearing out what was there 



