EXPERIENCE OF PRACTICAL GROWERS. 



41 



broad, the sharp end not beveled on one side, but com- 

 ing to an edge by a gradual taper on both sides, ( a 

 common tenon-saw will do pretty well ;) place the edge 

 of the chisel in the center of the stalk upon the end 

 where it has been topped, and push it down, guiding 

 it in its course so as not to break or cut off any leaves, 

 to within three or four inches of the ground ; the stalk 

 may then be cut off with a hatchet, or with the chisel 

 if it be made pretty strong. The splitting may be done 

 in the morning when the leaves are too brittle to ad- 

 mit of the stalk being cut down, and then when the 

 sun has sufficiently wilted the leaves, the stalk may be 

 cut and left to lie until it will bear handling without 

 breaking the leaves. The lath being previously pre- 

 pared, four feet in length and about an inch in thick- 

 ness on one edge, and one half inch on the other, and 

 two inches broad, (or poles cut in the forest will answer 

 pretty well ;) then have trestles prepared high enough 

 to allow the stalks to hang suspended without touch- 

 ing the ground, and set far enough apart in the field 

 to admit of the lath reaching from one to another ; 

 now place the stalks of tobacco upon the lath, (pre- 

 viously laid across the trestles,) by slipping them over 

 and domi until they will hang perpendicular and six 

 or eight inches apart, so they will merely touch, with- 

 out crowding too much. It may be left hanging thus 

 exposed to the weather until the leaves are so wilted 

 that the stalks hang apart without touching and the 

 lower leaves begin to dry, when it is taken ^ff the tres- 

 tle s, each lath entire, and laid upon a wagon and 

 hauled to the 



Shed or Drying-Housk. — The shed must be con- 

 structed of timbers strong enough to resist storms, and 

 should be boarded " up and down." About every three 

 feet one board should be hinged, to readily open and 

 shut. If it is intended to split and lath the tobacco, 

 the inside of the shed must be divided by rails into 

 widths to accommodate the lath, and likewise into 

 tiers, one above the other, far enough apart to al- 

 low the stalks to hang from, well separate. The 

 frame of rails and timbers inside the shed destined to 

 sustain the weight of the tiers of tobacco (which, when 

 green, is exceedingly heavy) should be strongly con- 

 structed, so as to preclude the possibility of breaking 

 down, for if this should happen to the upper tier, in 

 all probability the whole would be tumbled to the 

 ground. When ready to hang up, beginning at the 

 top tier of the shed, slip on one lath after the other, 

 until the whole is filled. The process of nailing it up 

 to rails or strips of board, in some respects may be 

 superior to the former method, as the tobacco is more 

 expeditiously secured in the shed and does not require 

 so much handling, but in general there is more tobacco 

 lost by being frozen in the shed than will pay for the 

 difierence in time and labor. The stalk should be cut 

 down after the dew is ofif in the morning and left to 

 wilt. If the sun be very hot the tobacco must be 

 watched that it does not scorch, and if this be found to 



^ 



les not 



be the case, it should be thrown in heaps about a food 

 high and three feet or less in width, and then hauled 

 into the shed ; here it must not be piled more than a 

 foot high, or it will soon heat and spoil. It should be 

 nailed up as rapidly as possible ; one person sticking 

 the nail in the pith of the stalk exposed by cutting it 

 off from the ground, and shaking it to loosen the leaves, 

 hands it to a second person, who nails it to the rail, 

 far enough apart to allow of the circulation of the air 

 throughout. After the crop is in, the doors and shutters 

 should be opened all round, so as to aUow a strong 

 draft of air to pass through the tobacco and prevent 

 what is technically called " burning." This is literally 

 nothing more than a partial decomposition of the leaf, 

 consequent upon the exclusion of air from passing 

 through it whUe in the green state, which destroys its 

 quality and texture. When dried it has a blackish 

 brown color and crumbles beneath the touch. When 

 the tobacco is pretty thoroughly cured, and during dry 

 weather when it is very brittle, the high winds that 

 prevail about that season will damage it very much if 

 allowed to blow through the shed, hence at such timea 

 the shed should be closed on the sides whence the 

 wind comes, and opened again when it has ceased to 

 blow. When the leaves are all dry, or after the 

 weather has been severe enough to freeze the remain- 

 ing green ones, the tobacco is ready to be stripped. 



Stripping. — At the setting in of a warm, drizzling, 

 wet, foggy spell of weather, the shed must be opened 

 on all sides to allow the damp atmosphere to pervade 

 the whole interior; after the dry leaves have become 

 damp enough to allow handling in any degree without 

 breaking, the stalks must be taken off the lath or 

 pulled down and laid in heaps about eighteen inches 

 or two feet high, and any desired length ; if it is not 

 intended to strip it immediately, it should be conveyed 

 to a cellar or other apartment, where it will remain 

 damp ; it should not, however, be suffered to remain 

 longer than two or three days in he.ips, without ex- 

 amination, as there is sometimes sufficient moisture 

 remaining in the stalks or frozen leaves to create heat 

 and rot the good tobacco. If found to be heating, it 

 should be changed about and aired arid be stripped 

 immediately. If found to be drying out, further evap- 

 oration may be checked by covering the heaps with 

 damp straw or corn-fodder. Tobacco is usually strip- 

 ped into two quaUties, "ground-leaf," or "fillers," 

 and " wrappers ;" the leaves that lie next the ground, 

 generally from two to four, are always more or less 

 damaged by sand beaten on by the rain and other 

 causes, hence they only command about half the price of 

 the good tobacco or "wrappers." The ground-leaves 

 are taken off first and tied up separately in bunches 

 or " hands ;" this is performed in the following man- 

 ner: take off one leaf after another, until there ia 

 contained in the hand a sufiicient number to make a 

 bunch about an inch in diameter at the foot-stalks, 

 which must be kept even at the ends, and holding the 



