CURING. 101 



the Cuban practice. He advises firstly that the " shoots 

 and the sprouts should be put apart from the principal 

 tobacco, with which it should never be mixed, neither in 

 the heaps hor in the packages. The day after the tobacco 

 has been cut and placed in the curing-houses, the jooles 

 should be pushed together, making thus a compact mass, 

 with the object, that by means of the warmth, which 

 this contact produces, the fermentation should commence, 

 called maduradero. In this state it should remain 2 or 3 

 days, according to the consistency of the tobacco and the 

 state of the atmosphere. By means of this first fermenta- 

 tion it acquires an equal and a yellowish colour: by the 

 second or third day, at the latest, this colour should be 

 uniform, and then without loss of time the poles should 

 be spread apart, and given all the ventilation possible, so 

 that fermentation may not continue, and the drying of the 

 leaves may be facilitated — care being taken that they are 

 not exposed to the dew, the sun, nor to sprinkling of 

 water, should it rain. As the tobacco dries, the poles 

 should be hung on higher pegs, so as to leave the lower 

 ones unoccupied for the fresh leaves brought from the 

 fields. This operation should be performed early in the 

 morning whilst the leaves are flexible and soft ; because 

 later in the day they become crisper, and are more apt to 

 tear. 



" It is not judicious to allow the tobacco to dry too pre- 

 cipitately, by exposing it to a very strong current of air, 

 because strong wind greatly injures its quality ; many 

 leaves break, and that silkine^s of appearance is destroyed 

 which good leaves should have, and which it is desirable 

 to preserve. During heavy winds the doors of the drying- 



