TOBACCO 243 



depends on the rainfall, temperature, and cultivation, the 

 earlier plantings of late November and first week of 

 December maturing more rapidly than the later plantings 

 of January and February. 



Tobacco curing generally commences from the middle 

 to the end of February, and continues to the middle of 

 July; the average time from transplanting to beginning of 

 harvest is twelve to fifteen weeks. 



Harvesting. 



The terminal bud should always be allowed to grow 

 until it is clear of the small top leaves, but it must be 

 broken off prior to opening into flower, leaving from ten 

 to fourteen leaves to mature. 



After topping, the leaves grow larger, provided the 

 sucker buds in the leaf angles are regularly removed, and 

 two or three weeks later the lower leaves begin to mottle 

 and yellow, and as this ripening condition moves up- 

 wards, the leaves are removed singly by hand and con- 

 veyed to the curing barns in baskets. 



Tobacco should never be harvested when the dew is 

 on it, and great care must always be exercised to handle 

 the leaf as carefully as passible, every injury diminishing 

 the value of the finished product by increasing the per- 

 centage of scrap. 



Curing. 



In the first place, the acreage planted on any estate 

 must not exceed the barn accommodation, and every 

 season sees many acres actually lost, or the value of the 

 leaf reduced by 50 per cent, through lack of foresight in 

 this direction. 



It is well to keep the barns fully occupied during the 

 curing season, but it is madness to grow tobacco and 

 leave it rotting in the fields through deficient barn accom- 

 modation, and a small acreage well cultivated and properly 

 harvested is always more profitable than a larger acreage 

 rushed through the curing barns, imperfectly cured and 

 partially wasted in the fields. 



Nyasaland planters as a whole are inclined to plant a 

 larger acreage of tobacco than they can properly handle, 



