712 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 12 



which supersedes greatly, the cus om oi no much 

 firing. F will admit to cure tobacco in ibis way 



requires nearly double llie house-room — but ihe 

 question is, liad we not better have this extra room, 

 than to subject our bains to ho much imminent 

 danger by s > constant firing? The seasons are al|- 

 iiur ortant a'so, in making good tobacco. Unless 

 we can have them as the growing cro;; requires, we 

 may not expect to make good tobacco. Ii must 

 ba male good and cm ripe betbre housing: il'no , 

 it cannot be made so nlierwards. I would res; ect- 

 hdly refer those who wish to know the va y tine 

 when tobacco should be cut, to Mr. Jordan Floyd's 

 treatise on tobacco. It can be bought at the book 

 stores in Petersburg. It possesses much more in- 

 teresting and useful instructions, than I am able 

 to impart, without being guilty of plagiarism. I 

 shall content myselfthen by saying, as soon as mv 

 tobacco is cut and put on sticks, say from eight to 

 fifteen plants, agreeably to size, it. is carried di- 

 rectly to the barn, the sicks hoisted from seven to 

 eight inches apart. Fires are immediately put 

 under it, about, ninety degrees temperature, con- 

 tinued at this as near as possible for the first twen- 

 ty-four hours; then raised to about one hundred 

 and ten degrees, and kept at thai until the leaf of 

 ihe tobacco is entirely dried — which is generally 

 effected in forty-eight hours, ifthe weather is warm 

 and sultry: I then raise the fires higher, (say one 

 hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty de- 

 grees.) and keep them going until the stem and 

 stalk are perfectly cured; but if the weather is 

 close and windy, I stop my fires after the leaf is 

 cured, and fire no more, unless damp and warm 

 weather should ensue. When we can cure our 

 tobacco in this way, it seems to me, that, ihe leaf 

 ever afterwards, possesses more life ami elasticity, 

 than when it is cured by a long continuation of 

 fires. Any time after the stem of the, tobacco is 

 cured, it may be stripped, and ihe leaf, or what is 

 called "passable" tobacco, may be tied in bundles 

 from five to eight leaves, agreeably to size. I then 

 hang them on sticks, putting about, thirty bundles, 

 on a stick, which are afterwards hoisted in the 

 barns pretty close together to prevent their com- 

 ing very high in order; where they remain until in 

 "spring season." Experience has taught me, that 

 tobacco prized from winter seasons, will not do to 

 open late in the spring or summer. It will be uni- 

 formly too high, and will most assuredly rot, if not 

 opened and dryed out. Shipping tobacco then 

 should not be taken down, until the arrival of some 

 very warm dry and clear day, when the wind is 

 at the south. If such a season should even take 

 place in March, we may venture with safety; pro- 

 vided that the tobacco is in such order as scarely 

 to prevent crumbling. Tobacco taken down in 

 this order with such a season as above described, 

 will do to prize any winter season afterwards. It 

 will then be able to stand the most severe scrutiny 

 and inspection, of our best Petersburg and Rich- 

 mond buyers and shippers; all they will have to do 

 is to give us prices agreeable to quality, and not 

 to the "fancy colors" — about which, permit me to 

 say one word or two. 



I can well remember when the French people 

 took a great fancy to particular colors of tobacco. 

 It is really laughable to hear the names of the dif- 

 ferent colors by which it was then called; and the 

 very great and unceasing industry taken by all and 

 every tobacco maker to excel each other. Some 



called is the "| ie-hald color,"'"' some, "calico," some 

 '•green streak," some "straw color,'"' some "fawn 

 color," and finally, ihe very best of all, some called 

 it the "hickory leaf color." This was the c n sum- 

 mation of all colors. In the year 1628, I look a 

 fancy to the fawn color, and like mam othns, I 

 thought I should get rich Irom making tobacco. 

 We hod writers then on the different colors. I 

 consulted all of them, and became more | artia! 

 o the fawn color-wri'.er. I had a lot of tobacco 

 that year (say lour acres, or fifteen thousand to- 

 bacco hills,) which had assumed before it was cut, 

 all the variegated color of the most healthy and 

 sprightly fawn. All oflhis tobacco came in nearly 

 at one cutting. Agreeably to my essay on the 

 yawn- color, I cut this tobacco, carried it. iiiimedi- 

 diately to the best barn I hail, regulated it on the 

 sticks, by putting eight plants lo ihe stick, then 

 hoisted the sticks, giving them equal dis'ance of 

 eight inches. Then come the wood, the fire and 

 my thermometer. However it may be unneces- 

 sary to name that several hours elapsed before I 

 could begin with my fires, in consequence of hav- 

 ing to teach my attendant the nama of my he it 

 measurer, and the number of degrees (eighty,) at 

 which he was imperiously required to keep his 

 fires going both day and night. I visited this barn 

 during the firing process as strictly and as con- 

 stantly, both day and night, as a doctor ever visited 

 his palient with typhus fever. On the 16th day 

 about the setting of the sun, mv tobacco firer 

 came and stated, that he believed the tobacco was 

 cured, and that the fires ought to be stopped. I di- 

 rected him to stop them, and bring 10 me my heat 

 measurer. Upon examination of the tobacco, I 

 found, I ha I a barn of as beautiful a fawn color as 

 ever was seen; but the tobacco had no more si.b- 

 stance in it, hanan cak leaf in the month of March. 

 I took great tr< ub e with this tobacco in handling, 

 stripping, squeezing, stretching, packing and pri- 

 zing; and after all this, sold it in July 1S29, in Rich- 

 mond, lor $4.20 per hundred ! far less than I got lor 

 some "refused :" this broke me of paying so much 

 extra attention to the management of tobacco, to the 

 great neglect of the great grain crop. We should 

 however bear in mind that all kinds of tobacco were 

 selling comparatively low at this time, except for 

 manufacturing. 



In conclusion Mr. Editor, permit me to state that 

 I have read with no ordinary interest in your valu- 

 able and ably edited Register, the several interest- 

 ing and ingenious pieces on the cultivation and 

 management of tobacco. However, they display 

 no inconsiderable diversity of opinions. They re- 

 mind me not a little of the five loo-players, who 

 all stood, all played, and all got off. They all seem 

 right in theory. To lollow ihe strict directions of 

 these tobacco- writers, is more than many are able 

 to do for the want of the necessary funds to com- 

 mand the hands, and to build their barns, &c. and 

 for them to carry out those theories to their great- 

 est extent: I am pretty sure, many of us would 

 make no corn, raise no hogs, and have no milk 

 and sweet potatoes for our children. All, all (la- 

 bor) for tobacco. Poverty and starvation would 

 be the inevitable consequence, unless we could do 

 by our tobacco, as Will Boniface of old did by his 

 ale, "live upon it, sleep upon it." That the above 

 writers have reflected much, devoted much time 

 and labor in their several modes of making and 

 managing the tobacco crop, I cannot for one mo- 



