92 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES 



Insurance may be effected upon tobacco-houses, but at high rates, and, therefore, comparatively few farmers 

 insure their barns. 



CUEING OP TOBACCO. 



In Prince George's county the product is all air-cured. If a damp spell occurs after the barn is filled with 

 tobacco it is sometimes fired with wood to save it; but this is rarely done, as the product then sells only at very 

 reduced prices. Furnaces have been tried to some extent in Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties, and in most 

 cases the results were not satisfactory. In Montgomery about one-twentieth of the product is air-cured, the rest 

 being cured with open wood fires; in Howard four-fifths of the crop is air-dried and one-fifth is cured with wood fires;, 

 and in Calvert, Charles, and Saint Mary's counties the tobacco is all air-cured. Lower Maryland tobacco, cured by 

 open wood fires, is unsalable; but the highest price paid in Baltimore for tobacco grown in Maryland is for the bright 

 "Spangled", raised in the Bay district, and cured with open wood fires. 



Pole-sweat or house-burn does more or less damage every year, and is caused by hanging too close, by crowding 

 on the sticks, or by rehanging too soon while the tobacco is in a sweat. House-burn can be prevented by having 

 plenty of room and by proper attention to ventilation, and can be arrested by judiciously managed artificial heat. 

 Tobacco is often much damaged by continued wet and foggy weather in barns not made tight, and especially is this 

 the case when the tobacco, after being cured, is not run close together, so as to exclude the damp air as much as 

 possible. The best plan to avoid injury, and that adopted by careful managers in the lower Maryland section, is 

 to run the tobacco up in the roof-space of the barn and press the sticks close together as tight as possible, cover 

 the floor with dry straw or hay, and make the barn as close as can be. 



STRIPPING, ASSORTING, AND BULKING OF TOBACCO. 



Maryland planters seldom bulk the tobacco before it is stripped. If bulked at all, it is only as a temporary 

 expedient to keep the leaves in pliable order to be properly sorted and tied up into bundles or "hands". These 

 "hands" contain eight to ten of leaf, ten to twelve of ground leaves, and twelve to fourteen of "tips" the small, 

 inferior top leaves. The air-cured tobacco of southern Maryland is usually sorted into four grades : Brights, seconds, 

 dulls, and tips. In the Bay district more grades are made : Yellow-spangled, crop, seconds, dulls, and tips. 



After the tobacco is stripped and tied it is usually put down in bulk. Bulks are constructed as follows: Logs, 

 poles, or skids, as long as needed, are placed 2 feet above the floor of the barn, resting on blocks or other supports r 

 and the poles, 3J feet apart, are covered with tobacco-sticks, laid across closely, making a platform. Two or three 

 bundles at a time are passed to the bulker, who smoothes out the leaves and lays them on the platform, with the 

 heads even and pointing outward, making a course all around the platform outside. Another bulker follows, laying 

 the heads about midway of the first course, and completes a round in the same manner as the first. The heads of 

 the inner course point outward, tails inward and lapping ; making, in all, four courses of bundles in the width of 

 the platform. A narrow bulk is made by packing on these two courses with the heads outward and a middle 

 course. A still narrower one, made with only two courses, is the "tailing-down" mode, called by some " windrows". 

 The narrower the bulk the less liable is the tobacco to heat; but it is more liable to dry out and get out of order 

 for prizing. 



Tobacco stripped late in the season and in good order is rarely hung up again, but is bulked as stripped or 

 packed for sale. 



The length of time tobacco is permitted to remain in bulk depends upon its condition when thus packed dowa 

 and the option of the planter. If bulked in soft condition, it will not keep sound after the weather becomes warm, 

 but will ferment and spoil. Thoroughly dried out, and then caught in proper condition leaves supple and stems 

 dry and bulked or packed, it will keep safely. A great deal of tobacco is damaged every year in bulk and 

 hogshead by neglecting to bulk or pack in proper condition. 



Bulking gives a fan-like shape to the bundles, prevents injury from atmospheric influences, and is regarded 

 as an essential part of the "conditioning" process necessary to make it ready for prizing into hogsheads. Tf 

 bulked in proper condition, the " sweat", through which tobacco always passes when closely packed, is only 

 moderate, the leaf is improved, and the sweet flavor of a really good tobacco is manifest. If the sweating, either 

 from being bulked or packed in bad condition, is immoderate, or allowed to go on till great heat is attained, the 

 leaf and stem become moldy or "funked", and the quality is seriously damaged or the tobacco utterly ruined. 



The proportion of "funked" tobaccos, or such as are damaged by excessive fermentation, is greater in air-cured 

 than in fire-cured tobacco, the leaf being more thoroughly dried by artificial heat. The proportion of damaged 

 tobacco varies with the seasons, it being in some years less than 5 per cent., and in others more than 10 per cent, 

 of the crop. 



For prizing tobacco the old lever beam is most in use. This is usually made on the farm, is easily constructed, 

 and at small cost, varying from $5 to $10, according to material and workmanship. Screws of wrought or of cast 

 iron are also used by some planters, and cost from $25 to $50 each. The screw is far more convenient than the 

 lever, and is gradually coming more into use. 

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