48 TOBACCO CULTURE. 



upon slats, laths, or sticks, before being removed to the cur- 

 ing barn. The method most commonly used in the seed- 

 leaf districts is that of stringing the plants upon a lath, one 

 end of which is held in a portable " horse, " while the other 

 is fitted with a needle, or spear the butt of which is provided 

 with a socket into which the end of the lath is inserted. In 

 the White Burley and Heavy Tobacco districts, the plants 

 are split half-way down, and straddled on sticks. 



Bright Leaf Tobacco is cured by artificial heat, and is 

 more commonly straddled on a stick, though frequently the 

 leaves are pulled from the stalk and tied by twine to the 

 sticks. 



White Burley Tobacco is generally allowed to remain 

 suspended from a scaffold in the field two or three days be- 

 fore removal to the barn. The most satisfactory way for 

 hauling the crop from the field to the barn consists of a 

 frame placed upon the bed of a two-horse wagon, so high 

 that the suspended plants do not touch the bottom of the 

 wagon, and so wide that the ends of the lath rest upon the 

 side pieces of the frame. By this means space is saved, and 

 the tobacco has very much the same position as when it 

 hangs in the barn, and little injury is done by the hauling. 



HOW TO BUILD FRAME AND LOG CURING BARNS, 



After the curing of Bright tobacco, the most important 

 .iiing is that the curing barn should be well built. The 

 planter may raise fine tobacco crops, but without good 



