182 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 193. 



on poles. Generally the stringing is done by women and children, with 

 large needles, placing about forty leaves on a string. The ends of the 

 string are knotted and hung on a lath which has been notched at the ends. 

 These laths are then hung up tier after tier. In a few days the second 

 priming begins, and so on until the crop is harvested. Sometimes it is 

 possible to cure and take down the first priming before the last is made, 

 thus gi\ang a chance to use the shed a second time in the same season. 

 Consequentl}^ primed tobacco takes less shed space than that harvested 

 by other methods. Wlien the crop is to be primed it is not necessary to 

 top the plant, thus saving considerable labor. 



Curing. 



The curing shed is really one of the limiting factors to increased produc- 

 tion. To hang an acre of tobacco requires a shed 30 by 30 feet. A building 

 of this size will cost from $450 up, depending upon whether it is of frame 

 or of pole construction. In 1916 it cost from S700 to $800 to construct 

 a frame shed of sufficient size to hold an acre of tobacco. The frame shed 

 is constructed so that every third board is a trap door which can be opened 

 for purposes of ventilation. The pole shed is built by setting the posts 

 in the ground, and is not framed, the braces being nailed on. This type 

 of shed is not so common now as it was a few years ago. 



After the crop is placed in the shed the grower must watch it closely, 

 opening the ventilating doors on certain days and closing them on others, 

 depending upon the weather. Crops are ruined each year by neglect of 

 this matter. With tons of water in the crop which must be evaporated 

 within a few weeks, this is a critical time for the grower. Too much mois- 

 ture in the atmosphere retards evaporation. Then, too, there is danger 

 of "pole sweat." In a dry season, with the doors open all the time, the 

 tobacco will dry, and not cure. In recent j'ears the majority of growers 

 have used the fire-cure method, building a charcoal fire under each 

 bent in the shed, and thus to some extent becoming independent of the 

 weather. 



Taking doivn. 



As soon as the crop is cured it is taken down. The tobacco has changed 

 from a heavy green leaf to a thin light broAvn one, and has become so dry 

 that it will easily crumble. Therefore, to get the crop down whole, it 

 must be handled in damp weather when the leaf is said to be in "case." 

 "As soft as a kid glove" is an expression often used in describing this 

 condition. When this warm, rainy weather, or "tobacco damp," comes, 

 no matter if in the middle of the night or on Sunday, the grower gets all the 

 help he can command, and takes down as much tobacco as he thinks he 

 can strip before it dries. With the lath method the laths are simply 

 slipped off the poles, and, with a man on each tier, are handed very care- 

 fully and quickly to the man on the floor. There the tobacco is removed 

 from the laths and piled with the butts laid both ways. If piled too high. 



