No. 4.] TOBACCO GROWING. 37 



Now, all these various faults in curing, as I have already 

 said, can often be wholly or largely avoided by skill and 

 watchfulness. They cannot be wholly avoided in most sea- 

 sons ; they seriously damage or wholly destroy crops in 

 some seasons. It follows, then, that the present way of 

 curing is imperfect. It sometimes, often, let us say, turns 

 out unsound tobacco. It does not make out of the crop 

 all that might be made out of it in all cases, and to do just 

 that — to make the best possible thing out of our leaf — is 

 what we are after. 



Is it, then, possible to improve our method, so as to avoid 

 pole-burn, white vein and stem rot or mould, and get the 

 required quality as regards color, elasticity, etc. ? That is 

 the question on which we have worked for the last two 

 years, and successfully, too, in spite of our disaster. 



The further question we have not yet got at, viz., can 

 an improved system be used in our barns, built as they are ? 



It is possible to avoid danger of pole-burn, of white vein 

 (so far as this is caused by too rapid cure) and stem rot, or 

 mould, and to produce perfectly sound cured leaves, by ap- 

 plying heat at the proper times to barns in which tobacco is 

 hung in the usual way — that is, on the stalk — for curing. 

 We have done it, so we know of what we speak. 



What, now, do we mean by artificial curing, or curing by 

 artificial heat? There is a common impression that this 

 means keeping the tobacco at a high, moist heat during the 

 cure, and implies a cooking or steaming of the leaf, with a 

 final dry roasting, which leaves it of the right color, per- 

 haps, but without flavor and elasticity or " life." 



All this is precisely what we do not want to do and what 

 we do not do with artificial heat. The only guide in curing 

 tobacco, either with or without heat, is the look and feel of 

 the leaf. No special skill or knowledge is needed for it 

 beyond what every skilful tobacco grower has. 



In our own experiments of the last two years we have 

 endeavored to follow these rules : — 



Never let the air in the barn get as hot as it sometimes 

 does in a curing barn in the purline. It never went higher 

 than 87° and seldom over 82°. You cannot talk of " cook- 

 ing " tobacco at that heat. 



