12 



stalks are cut down and utilized in different ways; some growers 

 run them through a cutting machine and plow them under or 

 use them for top-dressing grass. 



Curing. 



The curing shed is really the factor limiting the increase of 

 tobacco acreage. It is useless for the grower to set more plants 

 than he has shed room to take care of. To hang an acre of 

 tobacco requires a shed 30 by 30 feet. A building this size will 

 cost from $300 up, depending upon whether it is of frame or 

 of pole construction. 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 by far the most common. The frame 

 shed is built so that every third board is a door for ventilating 

 purposes. 



With the crop in the barn the grower has to watch it closely, 

 opening the ventilating doors on some days and closing them on 

 others; at all times there should be a man near at hand to note 

 the changes in the weather and to act accordingly. With tons 

 of water in the crop which must evaporate in a few weeks this 

 is an anxious time for the grower. Too much moisture will 

 retard evaporation; then, too, there is danger of "pole sweat," 

 while a dry season with the doors open all the time will dry 

 and not cure the crop. 



Taking Dow^n. 

 With the crop cured the next step is to take it down. The 

 tobacco has now changed from a heavy green leaf to a light 

 thin brown, and is so dry that it will crumble if grasped by 

 the hand. To get the crop down whole, therefore, it has to be 

 handled at a damp time, when the leaf is said to be in "case" 

 or, more commonly, "in good shape." "As soft as a kid 

 glove" is an expression often used in describing this condition. 

 When this warm, damp spell comes, no matter if in the middle 

 of the night or on Sunday, the grower gets very busy with all 

 the help he can command and takes down all he can handle. 

 With the lath method the laths are simply slipped off the pole, 

 and with a man on each tier are handed very carefully and 

 quickly to the floor. There the tobacco is pulled off the lath 

 and piled with the butts laid both ways, making a pile about 



