CULTURE AND CURING IN KENTUCKY. 71 



The casks used are from 56 to 60 inches in length by 40 to 42 inches across the head, and cost, including the 

 lumber for heads and' nails for fastening, $2 50 to $2 75 each. Of heavy tobacco, 1,400 to 1,650 pounds of leaf and 

 1,600 to 2,000 pounds of inferior grades are packed in each cask. The prizing is so managed that the bundles of 

 tobacco will open loosely and freely when taken out of the package. Different grades are, as far as possible, put 

 into separate casks. 



Lighter types, suitable for manufacturing fillers, are prized in the same way as the heavy tobacco, but are not 

 so heavily pressed, from 1,000 to 1,400 pounds being put into a cask of the dimensions above given. Bright wrappers 

 are packed in smaller casks and pressed lightly, the net weight varying from 500 to 700 pounds. 



The presses used in prizing are mostly such as are known as "beam prizes", consisting of a single stout wooden 

 lever or a combination of two or more levers, somewhat clumsy and slow of operation, but very effective, and of 

 moderate cost. These presses are usually built upon the farm, and of home material, and may be estimated to cost 

 from $25 to $40 each. Local dealers in tobacco use screw-presses mostly, because of the economy of space and 

 convenience and rapidity of operation. These presses cost from $50 to $75 each. 



In the Paducah district fully three-fourths of the crop prized by the planters is marketed from the middle of 

 April to the middle of June. That sold loose from wagons to dealers is delivered during the winter months, when 

 it i.s often in unfit condition to be put into hogsheads, and, as estimated, forms about one-third of the whole product 

 of the district. Paducah and Mayfield are the principal markets. The former city, beside the Kentucky product, 

 receives a considerable amount of tobacco from western Tennessee, Arkansas, and the lower counties of southeastern 

 Missouri. From Missouri and Arkansas the receipts are about 100 hogsheads annually. When placed upon the 

 market, a sample, consisting of several bundles, is drawn from the cask, in accordance with legal requirements, and 

 this sample is properly labeled, so as to identify it with the package from which it is taken, and the contents of 

 which it must fairly represent. The package of tobacco is sold by sample to the highest bidder, the planter reserving 

 the right to accept or reject the price thus offered. 



The larger part of the product of the Ohio River district is sold to local dealers. The loose leaf, which goes into 

 the hands of local dealers and prizers, is sold by them in the Ilopkiusville, Clarksville, Padncah, and Louisville 

 markets, and a small portion is .shipped direct to New York. That portion of the product stemmed into strips is 

 always shipped direct to England, and the redried leaf is sold mostly in American markets, a small part going to 

 England. The crop is thus distributed according to its adaptation to various uses, foreign or domestic. 



In the Lower Green River district much the larger part of the crop is sold in bulk to stemrners and redriers at 

 Owensboro', Henderson, and other places of minor importance. These two towns are the largest markets in the 

 West for the sale of tobacco in bulk. Tobacco is usually carried to these towns on wagons. Samples are drawn by 

 dealers from each load, so as to represent the grades of which the load is made up, and the price is fixed according 

 to the quality of the sample, the highest offer, of course, determining the sale. In some cases crops are sold to the 

 agents of factories, who are sent out into the country to buy the product of the more important plantations. 



At Henderson there are 17 factories, most of them of large capacity, employing a total of 700 laborers, and 

 making an aggregate of 6,000 hogsheads of strips annually. These factories require from 10,000,000 to 11,000,000 

 pounds of tobacco every year to employ them to their full capacity. At Owensboro' there are about 20 factories, 

 using about 10,000,000 pounds of tobacco annually; and at several other points in this district are factories regularly 

 engaged in buying tobacco in bulk from the producers, making it into strips or redrying the leaf for the English 

 markets. 



Strips, as removed from the stem, are tied together in large bunches and hung on sticks about 4 feet in 

 length, which are placed in tiers in drying-rooms for drying out and reordering. They are rarely taken down and 

 put in bulk before the 1st of June, when no mistake can be made as to their exact degree of humidity. From and 

 after this date they are taken down in a very dry condition, barely moist or pliable enough to prevent injury in 

 handling and prizing, and put into bulks, from which they are packed and prized in casks, 1,200 to 1,300 pounds 

 in each. Strips are always packed into casks, with the leaves loose from each other, the ties on the bundles being 

 first removed. From November until June the employes are busy in stemming and ordering the stock, and during 

 the remainder of the season they are employed in getting the tobacco into bulk and prizing into casks. 



At Henderson the average yield of strips from 100 pounds of leaf is 68 pounds; at Oweusboro' it is estimated 

 at 66 pounds. The difference is because of the heavier class of tobacco stemmed at the former place. The loss in 

 weight includes the weight of the stems removed, in addition to an average loss of 10 per cent, by difference of 

 order when received from the planter and when in proper condition for prizing for export. 



Redryiug leaf is done in the same manner as with strips. Almost always the bundles as tied by the planters 

 arc ordered, redried, and packed without other rehandliug. Some large factories are exclusively employed in 

 redryiug leaf for use in domestic manufacture. 



Strips are annually shipped direct to English markets, being very rarely offered for sale in America. The strips 

 of this district will absorb 15 to 33 per cent, of moisture and flavoring matters in procesaof manufacture. Redried 

 leaf i.s shipped to some extent diiect to England; but a large part of it is taken in American markets for domestic 

 manufacture, for which purpose it may be prized to weigh 1,401) to .1,600 pounds net. 



A large number of local dealers throughout the Lower Green River district make a business of purchasing 

 tobacco from the planters, prizing it into casks or otherwise packing it in the same condition as received from the 



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