36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



there is danger. Every year there is some poorly cured 

 tobacco, and every year there are many crops which would 

 sell better if they had not been damaged in the barn. 



If, as sometimes happens, a wet, foggy spell follows har- 

 vest, before the crop has thoroughly wilted, the plants " full 

 up," which means that water is pumped from the stalks into 

 the leaves faster than it can dry off into the air, so they be- 

 come filled and turgid and stand off from the stem, as they 

 do when they are growing in the field. This stops all cir- 

 culation of air between the lath. And what have you ? A 

 lot of vegetable matter in a dark place, saturated with 

 moisture, no circulation of air, and summer heat. The 

 ideal conditions for a manure pile, but a mighty poor out- 

 look for tobacco. 



It soon gets a strong, ugly smell, and mould sets in ; 

 or, if this condition of things happens a little later in the 

 process, pole-burn is sure to follow. But, if the weather 

 comes off clear, it takes much longer to get the leaves wilted 

 than it did to wilt them at first, because of the general 

 blockade of all the air passages through the tobacco. 



Another trouble, not as much feared because not as evi- 

 dent during the cure, and perhaps not as disastrous, is 

 " white vein." We believe it is caused by a too rapid cure, 

 particularly in the purline, when the weather during the 

 early part of the cure is hot and dry. 



There is a third source of danger, damage and loss, which 

 is still less commonly regarded than the other two. I mean 

 the moulding of the stem. To completely cure the stem 

 takes much longer than to cure the rest of the leaf, and 

 during this long time it wets and dries a good many times, 

 with the changes in the weather. As a consequence, the 

 stem often moulds more or less, sometimes very badly, and 

 the trouble spreads into the leaf tissue and rots it more or 

 less . A little mould is thought nothing of. Any consider- 

 able amount of mould is, however, a loss to the farmer, for 

 it destroys a portion of the stem, which would otherwise 

 dampen up at stripping time and increase the weight of the 

 crop. It is a damage to the leaf from the packer's point of 

 view, also, for it infects it with mould spores, which are 

 likely to make the tobacco mouldy or musty in the case. 



