FARMERS' REGISTER— FENCE LAW. 



638 



preparatory fire : (then, small yellow tobacco when 

 cut, requiring a shorter preparation than large, 

 thick, green tobacco;) the heat should then be 

 raised gradually 10°, and continued four or five 

 hours — thus continuing to raise the heat through- 

 out the wiiole process 10° every four or five hours 

 until the thermometor reaches 150°, m hich is call- 

 ed a curing heat. The continuation of this heat 

 depends much on the state of the atmosphere, as 

 veil as on the size of the plant: it should, how- 

 ever, be continued until tlie whole plant is tho- 

 roughly cured. As soon then as the tobacco comes 

 in order to liandle, you may remove it to some 

 other house, hanging it as thick as you can conve- 

 niently press the sticks together, where it will re- 

 main in perfect security until you are ready for 



STRIPPIIVG. 



In the month of November you may safely be- 

 gin to strip ; and much care should be used in 

 making the different qualities, as well as tying the 

 /^liffevent bundles; the " fie leaf" should be stem- 

 med, which looks much neater tiian to have one 

 half of the leaf hanging down the bundle. A good 

 hand will tie from seven hundred to one thousand 

 bundles in the daj\ The tobacco stripped during 

 the day, can be easily packed down in bulk at 

 night, on a platform raised eighteen or twenty 

 inches bom the floor, where it may remain until 

 w inter is nearly over, when it must be re-hung in 

 order to get it in prizing order. 



Much depends on the order for prizing. The 

 stem must be perfectly dry : never strike or take 

 down tobacco for prizing, unless the wind is at 

 some southern point — and it should be taken down 

 as dry as you can possibly handle wilhoj't very 

 much breaking it. When down, it should be well 

 covered with fodder or leaves; if the "season" 

 continues, you ma)* pack it in bulk as straight as 

 possible for prizing — the hogshead weighing from 

 sixteen to eighteen hundred weight. Now, Mr. 

 Editor, 'tis said that theor}^ without practice is 

 like a purse without money ; so I'll give you a few 

 extracts from my notes taken last summer during 

 the curing season. 



" 1.5th Sept. 1833. First barn — tobacco very ripe 

 — weather hot and dry — cut Friday — conunenced 

 firing Monday morning — thermometer 90° at 9 

 o^'clock — 12 o'clock 106° — process too rapid — half 

 past 3 o'clock, 110°— fired all nia-ht— Tuesdav 9 

 o'clock, 120°— 3 o'clock, 150°— fired all night- 

 Wednesday 150° — lired all night — Thursday 150° 

 — Friday 150° — fires kept up irregularly, and 

 stopped in the evening. High wind each day — 

 thermometer at back side of the house." When 

 this tobacco came in order to be examined, I dis- 

 covered that a small portion was somewhat injured 

 by the fires being too strong in the commence- 

 ment, as seen above. 



" 16th Sept. 1833. Second barn — tobacco ripe — 

 not very ripe — weather hot and dry — cut Satur- 

 day — commenced firing Monday — smoked all day 

 at 90° — Tuesday the same half day — Tuesday 

 evening thermometer 100° — Wednesdaj^ morning 

 leaf half cured on the lower tier 140° — fired half 

 night— Thursday 146°— Friday 146°— fired half 



night handsomely cured — thermometer 3 feet 



from the door 5 feet high — windy each day. 



" 22d Sept. Third barn — dry weather — cut Sa- 

 turday — not \cry ripe — commenced firing Mon- 

 day morning 90° — continued all night at same — 

 Tuesday 9 o'clock 110*^ — tails curling — tobacco 



Vol. I.— 80 



looks very well — Wednesday 120° at 9 o'clock — 

 low tier ?eaf nearly cured— Thursday 150°— fired 

 all night— Friday 160°— fired till bed time." This 

 iiouse, on examination, was very well cured. 



I forgot to mention in the proper jilace that my 

 barns are made as tight and close as possible. I 

 do not, however, think that the roof should be 

 very close ; my barns are covered w ith oak Ijoards, 

 and are generally open enough to let off the smoke 

 and vapor as last as they are formed. Some of my 

 neighbors have windows made just under the comb 

 of the house. 



If you think proper to publish the above in the 

 columns of the Register, do so ; if not, lay it aside 

 and give us somlhing else. By so doing, you will 

 obliire yellow pryor. 



ErfORMOrS LOSSES CAUSED BY THE FENCE 

 LAW OF VIRGINIA. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Brunswkk, Feb. 18th, 1834. 



Sir, — If I mistake not, (for I have not the work 

 to refer to,) John Taylor, in his Arator, estimates 

 the time occupied on each plantation in repairing 

 the fences, at two months ; and I am convinced 

 that much of this time might be profitably saved, 

 to be devoted to other objects, by amending our 

 law of enclosures. I must beg leave to sub- 

 mit the following inquiries to the public, through 

 the medium of your invaluable columns. I should 

 be happy to furnish a correct answer to them my- 

 self, but that cannot be done with any degree of 

 accuracy, as we are totally destitute of agricultu- 

 ral statistics. 



How many bottoms are turned out to be tram- 

 pled into mortar, producing neither corn nor grass, 

 because they are too long and narrow to be fenced? 



How often has the landlord to give up his lands 

 rent free to his tenant, upon condition that he will 

 "do up" the fences.' 



How often is a plantation objected (o by one 

 wisliing to purchase, and what proportion of its 

 value is lost to the owner, because tiiough there 

 may he a great deal of good land on the tract, yet 

 he would be compelled to fence in too mucii poor 

 land in order to bring tlie good into cultivation? 



How many tracts of land are now valueless, for 

 want of a sufficient quantity of timber to keep up 

 the immense enclosures? 



How often does lie fail to get a tenant altogether 

 because no one will take his land even upon the 

 foregoing hard condition? 



AV hat proportioti of h is rents is lost every year on 

 account of the difficulty of repairing the enclosures ? 



How much good land is now useless, in detach- 

 ed parcels, being separated from the body of the 

 tract by a stream or road, on account of the im- 

 mense labor necessary to enclose it by itself? 



Hovv' much valuable tobacco land must now be 

 continued in forest, to produce timber to repair our 

 fences, which under a better law of enclosures, 

 might be brought into cultivation? 



How many rich, but small parcels of meadow 

 land, lying on the borders of our crooked streams, 

 are neglected, because the fence on the bank will 

 rot in a lew years, or be carried away bj-fhe fresh- 

 ets; or because the fence cannot well be made to 

 follow the serpentine course of the stream, and if 

 it be made at all straight, it would cut off so many 

 nooks and corners, as to leave the balance unwor- 

 thy of regard? 



