CULTURE AND CURING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 117 



From two to three cords of dry wood suffices for one curing. Barns thus constructed, with flues complete, cost 

 from $50 to $75 each; packing-houses, about $300 each. With bam and flues properly constructed fires are always 

 the result of carelessness, and yet about one barn in twenty is reported as lost by tire. 



CUEING OP TOBACCO. 



The process of curing tobacco by fire is the most difficult and delicate in the whole course. Experience alone 

 will make a curer of fine tobacco, and that only of one who possesses nice judgment, excellent powers of observation, 

 and care. A trifling inattention may, at a critical moment, reduce a barn of the finest yellow tobacco to the lower 

 grades. If the fires are allowed to die out or decline after the leaf is cured, sap remaining in the stalks or stems 

 will diffuse itself through the leaf and mar the color irremediably in twenty-four hours; and, on the other hand, too 

 much heat will cause sweating, which will, unless checked by speedy ventilation, both injure the color and impair 

 the body and texture. In order to prevent this it is necessary to use a thermometer, hung level with the tails of 

 the plants on the lowest tier, and, to guard the degree of heat by constant care, to watch day and night, with 

 frequent inspection of the plants, generally selecting some one plant as a guide, but not by any means omitting 

 general inspection. 



CURING TOBACCO BY CHAECOAL. 



In curing by charcoal, as soon as the crop is housed in a baru 20 by 20 feet square four rows of fires are built, 

 four fires in a row, 1 bushels to the sixteen fires. The entire process requires from three to four entire days. 

 About 100 bushels of charcoal, at 4 cents per bushel, are allowed to 800 pounds of tobacco. 



FLUE-CUEING. 







Since curing by flues promises very soon to supersede all other methods this process is more particularly 

 described. The only difference between that and charcoal-curing is in the manner of applying heat. Two distinct 

 stages are recognized in curing: yellowing with a damp heat at a low temperature, which is generally 90, or, 

 when the tobacco is very light and yellow, 100; but if the weather is very cool, 80. The second is the drying, 

 which may be divided into curing the leaf and curing the stalk. 



A few examples of curing will illustrate the variations in the process. The first is from a Manual of Tobacco 

 Culture, by E. B. Davis, a successful planter of Catawba county : 



YELLOWING. This is done at 90, or at 80 if the weather be cool, in from eighteen to thirty six hours, until 

 the desired color is attained. 



BUYING OR CURING is then effected by the following management of temperature : 95 for two hours, 100 for 

 two hours, 105 for two hours, 110 for two hours, 115 for two hours, 120 for six hours, 130 for two hours, 140 for 

 two hours, 150 for two hours, and 160 for twenty-four hours, the last temperature being kept up until the stalks and 

 stems are dried. This table is for tobacco not gross and very yellow when cut, and to be modified with judgment. 

 If the tobacco is gross and of a gray color, four hours instead of two should be taken to each stage from 100 to 120. 



THE BAGLAND METHOD. This method is for medium tobacco. Eipe tobacco only is to be cut, and is then 

 placed five to seven plants on a stick 4 feet long and from 10 to 12 inches apart on the tier poles. Steaming or 

 yellowing is done at 90 from eighteen to forty-eight hours, according to character of tobacco. When yellowed, 

 the heat is raised from 90 to 95 in from one to two hours, from 95 to 100 in two hours, from 100 to 105 in 

 two hours, from 105 to 110 in from one to three hours, from 110 to 115 in two hours, and from 115 to 120 in 

 two hours, at which the leaf is cured in from four to eight hours. The stalk is cured by a temperature advancing 

 from 120 to 175, at abont 5 an hour, keeping the temperature at 175 until the stalk is thoroughly cured. 



These two curings, from the Border Review, are based on records made at the barn door : 



No. 1. The barn was 18 feet square, four faring tiers high; 450 sticks, grown on old-field land, bright yellow on 

 the hill, leaf long, but thin and light, due to light cultivation. The fires were started and run up to 90 in six 

 hours; then to 100 in six hours ; then to 110 in six hours; leaf thoroughly yellowed at the end of eighteen hours. 

 The temperature was then advanced to 120 in six hours; to 125 in six hours more; to 130 in six hours; to 140 

 in three hours, at which it was allowed to remain six hours; at the end of which time the leaf was about cured. 

 The temperature was then run up to 150 in three hours, and held at that for three hours ; then to 175 in twelve 

 hours, where it stood twelve hours, until the stalk was dry a perfect cure, a bright lemon color, within seventy-five 

 hours. 



No. 2. The barn was of the same size, with the same kind of flues, same number of sticks of tobacco, grown upon 

 the same character of land, but of larger and thicker leaf. The fires were started and run up to 95 in eight hours ; 

 to 100 in six hours; to 110 in ten hours, when the leaf was yellowed. The temperature was then advanced to 

 120 in eight hours ; to 130 in six hours; to 140 in six hours; from 140 to 150 in eighteen hours; from 150 to 

 175 in six hours, where it was held twelve hours; at the expiration of which time leaf, stem, and stalk were fully 

 cured a bright lemon all in eighty hours. The difference in time was due to the difference in size aud grossness. 



