CONNECTICUT VALLEY CIGAR LEAF TOBACCO. 165 



ness. However, some small growers are very successful. They begin by 

 changing from ordinary sungrown to priined Havana, and gradually work 

 up to shade-grown tobacco. 



Preparatio7i and Cultivation. — To prepare for producing shade tobacco 

 the entire field is set with posts 9 feet high and about 33 feet apart each 

 way. Heavy- wire is stretched from one post to another. This framework 

 is then covered with a specially woven fabric similar to cheesecloth. 



The plants, transplanted from the seed beds to the fields from May 15 

 to June 15, are set in rows 3 feet apart, and from 15 to 20 inches apart in 

 the row, then the sides of the tent frame are covered, the cloth reaching 

 to the ground. 



The growing plants are well cultivated in order to keep the soil loose and 

 free from weeds. With good soil and thorough cultivation the plants 

 reach a height of nine feet, and bear from 15 to 20 good sound leaves. The 

 plants of shade-grown tobacco are neither topped nor suckered, enabling 

 the plant to produce more and thinner leaves, the quality so much desired 

 in wrappers. 



Harvesting. — Harvesting usually begins about July 20, as soon as the 

 leaves begin to ripen. All the leaves are picked by hand, four or five pick- 

 ings being made at intervals of from seven to ten days. The harvest begins 

 with the bottom leaves, from four to six leaves being removed each time. 

 The best leaves are generally found in the second picking. As the leaves 

 are gathered they are put in baskets which are placed on low trucks and 

 hauled outside the tent. The baskets are transferred to flat wagon beds 

 and taken to the curing sheds. Sometimes small boys do this work, while 

 the older and more experienced laborers are used in priming the tobacco. 



At the curing sheds the leaves are strung on strings attached to laths. 

 This work is usually done by women and children. The leaves are put 

 face to face in pairs, twenty pairs on a lath. Stringers are paid (1917) 

 about 45 cents per bundle of 50 laths. Experienced women and girls can 

 easily earn from $2 to S3. 50 per day. 



The laths thus strung are hung in the curing sheds where they remain 

 from three to five weeks. The up-to-date curing sheds may be ventilated 

 by side openings made by placing every third or fourth board on hinges, 

 and by ventilators placed at intervals of 10 feet along the ridge of the 

 roof. During damp or cold weather charcoal fires are built. The use 

 of charcoal fires has been the means of saving thousands of dollars' worth 

 of tobacco annually. 



Yields per Acre. 



Aside from the question of the cost of producing tobacco, which has 

 been tremendous in recent j^ears, there is the important question of the 

 yield per acre, which largely determines the profit. It costs almost as 

 much to produce a 1,300-pound crop of tobacco as it does to produce a 

 crop of 1,700 pounds, but the money value and the profit per acre are 

 much less. 



Farmers in the Connecticut valley have been disturbed in recent 



