28 



HOW TO EAISE TOBACCO. 



and pliant ; taen it should be taken down and strip- 

 ped from the stalk. Stripping should be done as soon 

 as possible after the leaf is cured, as the freezing cold 

 of winter may be followed closely by balmy days ; 

 and as every mild day causes the stalk to exude juices 

 which discolor the leaf, it is patent that the earlier the 

 tobacco is stripped the better it is. 



Stripping is done by holding the but of the stalk 

 in the right hand, so that the different qualities of 

 leaf may be seen, and then with the left hand strip- 

 ping the leaves from ft^p stalk, keeping the leaves 

 held in the hand until about one third or one half 

 of a pound is thus held. Then wind a leaf about the 

 upper portion of the bundle for about three or four 

 inches of its length, tucking the end of the leaf in 

 the middle of the bundle to confine it. These bun- 

 dles are called " hands." While stripping, the tobacco 

 should be divided into three qualities, respectively, 

 "first," "second," and "fat," keeping each quality in 

 " hands" by itself. First quality tobacco is that com- 

 posed of the best leaves, being those that are not torn 

 .and are not discolored. Second quality is that which 

 is or may have been discolored or torn in handling. 

 Fat tobacco is that which remains in a wet, sodden 

 state, even after the stems of the large first quality 

 leaves have become dry and brittle, being of a dark 

 color — almost black — it is the top leaves of the stalk, 

 which had yet not become ripened. With proper 

 cultivation, the grower need not be bothered with this 

 almost worthless quality. 



Bulking. — As fast as stripped, the hands should be 

 laid in piles, the different qualities by themselves ; the 

 piles should be formed in double rows, the leaves 

 being straightened before laid down, the buts of the 

 " hands" being outside, the points nearly meeting. 



When the piles are carried to a convenient hight, 

 say three or four feet, heavy planks with weights may 

 be laid upon the rows, to keep them in place, and to 

 form a more compact body and assist in the future 

 packing. Here let me say that all the hands that 

 were too damp or soft should be exposed to the sun 

 for a few hours, or else subjected to the action of a 

 fire to dry them, before placing them in the bulk. 

 All the "/ai" tobacco must be treated in this way 

 before laid in the pile. 



While in the " bulk," as we must now call the piled 

 tobacco, much care must be taken lest the pile heats ; 

 if the slightest warmth is perceptible, the pile must 

 be overhauled and re-bulked in piles of less hight, 

 without weights upon the top •, but generally the to- 

 bacco will " condition" for packing in a short time, 

 when it will remain without packing without much 

 injury, in the same shape for a long time. If it is 

 not convenient to pack, however, the tobacco had 

 better be " re-bulked " in piles of greater hight, and 

 pressed with heavy weights. 



Packing. — In order to pack tobacco, a little ma- 

 chinery is required, as heavy pressure must be brought 



to bear upon the crop in order to get a reasonable 

 quantity in a box — for all practical purposes, a lever 

 formed of a scantling properly arranged, or better 

 yet, a screw, such as are used for cider-presses or to 

 raise buildings, is all that is required. 



The size for boxes differ, but the hc&t size is the 

 following : three feet six inches long, two feet four 

 inches wide, two feet six inches in depth, manufac- 

 tured from planed pine boards, one inch in thickness, 

 with standards two inches square, inside at each cor- 

 ner to nail to. * 



Having thus your boxes prepared, and the tobacco 

 in good condition, the first s^ft, mUd day that cornea 

 proceed to packing; the bundles or "hands" of to- 

 bacco must be taken from the bulk and laid in courses 

 in the box, laying the buts of the "hands" to the 

 outside of the box, allowing the ends to lap over 

 each other, and endeavoring to keep the center of 

 the box a little higher than the edges — these courses 

 to be packed as solid as possible by the liand. 



If any of the bundles are soft or have an ill smell, 

 they must be exposed to the fire or sun until sweet 

 and dry before being packed. 



When the box is nearly full, a false cover (just 

 large enough to slip inside the box) must be placed 

 on the tobacco, and pressed as heavily as possible 

 with the lever or screw power ; remove the pressure 

 and re-fill, pressure finally being applied to the real 

 cover, which may then be tacked down. 



A box of the size I have mentioned, when filled, 

 should contain about four hundred pounds of tobacco, 

 and thus packed, will keep for years. 



This concludes the labor of preparing this beauti- 

 ful crop for market. Marketing here has, until of 

 late, been done through commission-houses in New- 

 York ; but our crop has so increased in amount that 

 buyers and speculators have thronged the tobacco- 

 houses here during the past season of stripping. 



ffiiiiiiH l 





Tobacco-House. 



Houses. — A building twenty-four feet square, and 

 seventeen feet high, exclusive of foundation-wall, is 

 of suflicient capacity to store the growth of one acre 

 of tobacco. 



The common size of tobacco-houses built with us 

 is about one hundred feet long, by twenty-four feet 

 wide, posts seventeen feet long, and are built upon a 

 wall eighteen inches high ; the buildings are framed 

 with girths from bent to bent, for boarding up and 

 down, the bents being twelve feet apart. 



