EXPEEIENCE OF PRACTICAL GROWERS. 



13 



for drying ; strong and rough winds will do it too 

 quick, and wet, damp weather will hinder it altogether. 

 Should the latter continue for some time, the place of 

 the sticks or strings must be changed, and if, notwith- 

 standing this, the tobacco gets mouldy, it must be 

 "fired." A fire is built in one or more excavations in 

 the ground of the house, and the heat and smoke are 

 allowed to go as evenly as possible through the plants. 

 Care must be taken that the fire does not get too near 

 the tobacco, so that it gets singed or burned. The 

 place directly above the fire should, therefore, be free 

 of tobacco. Stoves, with pipes to convey the smoke 

 (which is of no value in drying) outside of the house 

 are still better. The heat in the house may be kept 

 up to eighty or ninety degrees. 



The best arrangements for drying will not be of 

 much avail unless the tobacco has been fully matured 

 before harvesting, for if this has not been the case, it 

 will never lose the well-known "green taste," and no 

 after manipulation, no drying or sweating, will free it. 

 Curing. — When the leaves are dry, which is seen 

 when the stems become of a brovra color, and break 

 when bent, the next work is to make tobacco out of 

 them, for up to now we have nothing but a tasteless 

 dry weed. Its hidden qualities must be developed. 

 This is done by a process of fermentation, the sweativff 

 of the tobacco. 



The leaves are broken one by one from the stalks, 

 in damp weather, (otherwise they would break,) 

 stretched out nice and even, and, with the ends in the 

 same direction, put up in heaps. These heaps, of 

 which every workman makes one, are afterwards put 

 into one or more large conical heaps, from four to six 

 feet in diameter at the base and from one and a half 

 to two feet at the top. These are covered with wool- . 

 l,en blankets, straw mats, or any thing that will press 

 the heap lightly, and shut out the air. In twenty-four 

 to thirty hours a fermentation sets in, the heap gets 

 warm, and when it is so hot inside that the hand can 

 iiot bear it very well, the heap is broken up and packed 



over again, pulling the tobacco that had been outside 

 upon the inside, and vice versa, and treating the same 

 way as at first. In such heaps the tobacco remains 

 twenty to forty days, until all the heat is gone ; then 

 the heaps are again broken up in damp weather, the 

 leaves tied up in bundles of one half to one pound in 

 weight, stretched even and packed in boxes or hogs- 

 heads, pressed tightly and covered. Now the tobacco 

 is done — is a salable article. 



The process of sweating must be conducted with 

 every possible care, for on this depends the color of 

 the tobacco, and in a large degree its fine flavor. If 

 the fermentation is too strong, the tobacco gets black 

 and the flavor is driven out ; if too little fermented, 

 the color remains green and whitish yellow, and the 

 flavor is not developed. 



Those who raise the plant principally to get wrap- 

 pers for segars will need to sort it. 



Sorting is done right after the last breaking up of 

 the heaps, and consists in laying the damaged leaves 

 apart from the whole ones ; and these again are sepa- 

 rated, according to color or other qualities, for wrap- 

 pers, into two, three, or four different kinds, so that 

 every variety is of the same quality and color. 



First quality — Color, dark brown; even over the 

 whole leaf 



Second quality — Color, light brown ; even. 



Third quality — Color, dark yellow ; even. 



Fourth quality — Color, light yellow ; even. 



Fifth quality — Color, green, black, whitish yellow, 

 spotted. 



The first four kinds include the larger leaves, while 

 the smaller ones go into the fifth quality. 



Every kind is bundled by itself This work is not 

 difficult, and increases the price considerably. The 

 first three sorts, and even the fourth, may be sold as 

 wrappers, which bring the highest price. The fifth is 

 mixed with the damaged leaves together, and sold for 

 fillers or chewing tobacco and snuff. 



No. IV.-BY WILLIAM H. WHITE, HARTFOED COUNTY, CONN. 



In the following essay I shall endeavor to give some 

 plain and practical directions for the culture of tobacco, 

 derived from actual experience, and from observation 

 of the experience of the most successful producers in 

 the valley of the Connecticut River, where the crop is 

 praduced in as great, if not a greater degree of perfec- 

 tion than in any other section of our extended coun- 

 try ; and as generally cultivated as any crop raised. 

 Nearly every man who has an acre or more of ground, 

 raises from one fourth an acre to five, six, or more 

 acres. In the first place, it will be necessary to decide 

 upon the best kind to raise. The Connecticut seed- 

 leaf is the best kind, and is sought for more generally 

 by manufacturers, speculators, and dealers generally, 

 than any other so^ produced in the above States ; 



also brings a better price, the latter being the one 

 object in raising tobacco. I take it for granted, you 

 will look no farther, but will procure a suitable quan- 

 tity of pure seed from some reliable source. It can 

 be had from the seedsmen generally, or, better, of some 

 acquaintance in this section. 



Seed-Bed. — Having decided upon the kind, and 

 procured your seed, we will next proceed to select 

 a good spot, and prepare the seed-bed. It is 

 best to have it in some rich, warm, and sheltered 

 soil, where the bleak north and north-western winds 

 will be broken ofi", either by buildings or by tight board- 

 fences, where the soil is a rich sandy loam, neither 

 very wet nor dry, as in either case the plants will be 

 Ukely to fail partially or wholly. A spot where cabbage 



