TOBACCO CULTURE. 55 



90 degrees again, and you can work at something else for 

 the day. At night build fires again to 90 degrees, and keep 

 running the heat to 90 degrees each night and morning until 

 the tobacco is yellow three or four inches up the leaves 

 from the tips. Then run the heat up to 1 10 ; let it stay at 1 10 

 degrees for one hour with doors and bottom ventilators open, 

 then raise the heat to 120 till the leaf is cured one-third its 

 length on the bottom tier, raise to 130 degrees, and stay at 130 

 until the bottom tier is cured, advance the heat to 140 and 

 keep it at 140 for five hours. Then raise the heat to 1 60 degrees 

 and have it remain at 160 till the leaf is cured in the top of 

 the barn ; advance to 180 degrees and stay at 180 till the 

 stems are about all cured; then raise heat to 200 degrees for 

 20 minutes; then let the heat down to 180 degrees, and if the 

 stems in the corner of barn are thoroughly cured, stop firing 

 and let the barn cool off ; the work is done. 



Yellow the tobacco with closed doors ; open the doors 

 at no degrees, and keep them open until you reach 160 de- 

 grees, then close the doors ; close bottom ventilators at 180. 

 The reason for letting the heat up and down while yellow- 

 ing, is that the tobacco has time to dry and will stand the 

 heat in drying better, and does not begin to dry before it is 

 yellow. 



Some claim that it is not best to carry the heat to over 

 180 degrees, but experience shows that if the heat is run to 

 200 degrees for 15 or 20 minutes, it takes out all the green 

 taste and smell and the tobacco will keep sound and sweet 

 and may be packed down better than when cured with less 



