CULTURE AND CURING IN NEW YORK. 109 



it is often sold to dealers at a certain price for each quality. The buyer frequently makes an estimate of the amount 

 of each grade, and " averaging up ", as it is called, oS'ers the average round ; for instance, 3 cents for C's, 4, 5, or 6 

 cents for B's, and 20 cents for A's, averaging 12 cents. The following example shows the method : 



2,000 A's, at 20 cents $400 



1,500 Short A's, at 14 cents 210 



2, 500 B's, at 5 cents 1-25 



800 C's, at 3 cents 24 



6, 800 pounds 759 



The average will be $11 1C per hundred pounds. Tobacco is delivered at some convenient point, but usually 

 at buyers' warehouses, and cash is paid on delivery. After tobacco is sold to the buyer, it is usually left in the 

 warehouse until the following August, or even until January, when it is sampled by New York samplers, although 

 sometimes shipped without being sampled. It is now generally sold from second hands by sample. This method 

 greatly facilitates sales, and is growing in favor each year. Many home manufacturers of domestic cigars come 

 from surrounding states, and often from Canada, to buy leaf, and frequently make their purchases directly from 

 the grower. 



WHERE SOLD. 



New York leaf is sold largely in the United States and Canada for cigar-making. Very little is used for cutting 

 into smoking- or chewing-tobacco, although some is so used, and is mixed with and sold as genuine southern leaf. 

 Domestic cigar manufacturers furnish the great market, although considerable quantities are sold in Bremen and 

 in some other foreign markets. 



SWEATING AND SHRINKAGE OF TOBACCO. 



When tobacco is stored for sweating the cases are placed on the sides, so that the moisture, when fermentation 

 takes place, will condense on the sides of the case. It is also said that when thus stored it comes out more easily 

 when the boxes are stripped off than when stored top up. The product is of no use to the cigar manufacturer until 

 it has gone through the sweat or fermentation. This begins with warm weather, generally in May, although when 

 it once begins cold weather will not cause it to cease, and unless disturbed it will continue until October or November. 

 Sometimes crops are seriously injured by growers becoming alarmed and interrupting the sweat. 



Manufacturers generally practice artificial sweating, especially when the natural process has been interrupted. 

 This is done in sweaiing-rootns with steam-heating pipes. The temperature is raised from 125 to 140 F., and 

 steam is let into the room in proper quantities, but not excessively. A second fermentation sets in, which lasts 

 about forty days. This artificial process is found to be perfectly satisfactory. Tobacco shrinks about 10 per cent, 

 in one year in the natural sweat. 



SAMPLING OF TOBACCO. 



A licensed samj)Ier, regarded as fair and impartial, is procured, and the boxes are placed in position in the 

 warehouse. The covers are removed, and a " stripping jacket" is used to remove the case from the tobacco. This 

 is placed over the top of the box, and two men, one at each end, take hold of the handles, turn the box bottom 

 upward, and lift it from the tobacco, leaving it exposed. The sampler takes six hands from different places, at 

 either end or at both ends, usually one or two in a place, and in order to draw them easily two strippers "break" 

 the mass in different parts, so that the sampler can get at its real condition. The case is replaced over the 

 tobacco, and the box reversed and closed up as before. The boxes are weighed before and after stripping, to 

 ascertain the net weight, the tares and gross weights being placed on the ends, and each box is numbered 

 from 1 up, according to the number sampled. Sometimes the cases are also marked, according to the fancy of 

 the owner, <A) or <3v, or some other mark. The six samples from each box are tied tightly together with strong 

 cord, and a card is attached by a tape, over which a seal is affixed by the sampler. This card contains the number 

 of the box, the gross weight, the tare, and the date of sampling, all corresponding with the case-marks. The 

 sample is then ready for examination by buyers, and the cases may be sold from these samples in any part of the 

 world, the tobacco remaining in the warehouse of the owner. The cases are generally forwarded after a sale by 

 sample. 



PRICE OF LANDS, ETC. 



Lands in the Big Flats and in the valleys are worth from $75 to $150 per acre, according to location and 

 improvements. On the hills in tho vicinity of the bottoms the lands are cheap, running from $15 to $35 an acre; 

 but in Ouondaga, Cayuga, and Oswego counties the prices vary according to location and soil, the best farms selling 

 at from $75 to $175 an acre, and the great majority may be set down as ranging from $10 to $75 per acre. The 

 fanners in these counties generally have fair buildings and most of the mdderu conveniences. The average cost of 

 production is estimated to be about 8 cents per pound for the state. 



703 



