92 TOBACCO. 



a sure crop, experimenting as he goes along, in order to 

 improve the quality, as he may safely do so. When the 

 stalk becomes dry and entirely cured, which will not 

 usually be for some weeks, the crop is ready to ' strip.' 

 The hanging tobacco yields to the influence of a rainy 

 day or a foggy morning, and ' comes in case,' or softens, 

 so it will not crumble. It must never be handled when 

 dry. When it is just soft, not damp, or when it is barely 

 so soft that it can be handled (if it is approaching that 

 softened state), it may be taken down and taken off the 

 sticks, and ' bulked,' by piling it alongside a partition, or 

 by itself, with the butts of the stalks outward in every 

 direction, and the tops or leaves in the centre. Several 

 hundred pounds may be thus bulked down, and can be 

 worked up while the hanging tobacco has gone out of 

 case, and cannot be touched." 



According to Bishop, it usually requires about 12 

 weeks to cure the plants thoroughly, that is, so that 

 there is no more juice in the leaves or leaf-stems ; it 

 matters not if the main stalk is not dry, you need not 

 expect it, and there will be green leaves that will not 

 cure but freeze while green and are worthless. He calcu- 

 lates that to " hang an acre of good tobacco requires a 

 building about 30 by 24 feet with 15-feet posts. Two 

 girths should be framed into the posts on all sides of the 

 building ; one 5 feet above the sill, and the other 10 feet 

 above, to rest the poles on, also to nail the covering 

 boards to. This gives a space of 5 feet for each tier 

 of plants. Have a beam run across the centre of the 

 building, with a post in the middle with girths to 

 correspond with those on the side, extending lengthwise 



