118 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



THE GROWTH OF FLUE-CURING. 



Air-curing was practiced in many counties until the demand for fine leaf required better results* with more 

 certainty. Charcoal-curing was the first step forward. This was found expensive, difficult to regulate, soiling the 

 plant with dust and soot, and often giving it a bad flavor. The first flues were of stone or brick, or were trenches 

 covered with sheet-iron, running through the barn. The flue has been gradually growing into use from about 1807 

 or 18(58, a general adoption dating from about 1872. Twenty reports give but nine counties where air-curing was 

 practiced at all in 187!), and only three in which more than 10 per cent, of the crop was thus cured. Fourteen 

 counties report an average of 50 per cent, flue-cured and 34 per cent, charcoal-cured. As the flue is comparatively 

 recent, this shows that it is rapidly superseding other means of curing. These flues are constructed of brick, 

 stone, and iron, preference being expressed for brick, as being more durable and safer and giving better results, 

 although costing more. The iron flues are cheapest, and the heat can be regulated with the utmost nicety, rapidly 

 raised with dry wood and as rapidly lowered by drawing fires, but requiring greater care and vigilance. Iron 

 flues cost from $15 to $20. 



TREATMENT OF TOBACCO AFTER CURING. 



When the stalk is cured thoroughly dry the fires are allowed to die out. There is a wide difference of opinion 

 as to the after treatment. It is agreed that the plants cannot be safely stripped in the moist, warm weather which 

 follows the curing season, because of the danger of loss of color. The plant comes from the drying barn always 

 with a little greenish tinge. In the after treatment this fades away, and it takes on a solid bright yellow, 

 uniform throughout. The crop is allowed to remain with fires out and doors open for thirty-six hours, until it can 

 be handled. Some, however, recommend throwing wet straw on the flues, which is kept moist, and the tobacco 

 thus is steamed at a safe "temperature, to bring it at once into "order" for removal. It is then " bulked down" in 

 the packing-house on the sticks, butts out, in square piles. . This improves the color and straightens out the leaves, 

 rendering them smooth and neat in appearance. Many farmers allow it to lie in bulk for only three or four days 

 and then rehaug it, crowding very closely, to prevent injury to the color from atmospheric changes. On the other 

 hand, the best opinion favors more permanent bulking down, in such order that it can be handled without breaking, 

 the leaf soft aud stem hard. Those who thus bulk down reliang, to come in order for stripping. After it is stripped, 

 it is tied in hands of six to twelve leaves : bright wrappers, six ; fillers, eight; smokers, ten to twelve, when it is by some 

 rehung and crowded closely, but, according to the best practice, it is bulked down on sticks, heads out, each grade 

 by itself, and carefully covered with carpets, to exclude light, the colors being very sensitive to light as well as to 

 air. In this condition the color is fixed, and after two months in bulk it is no longer subject to change. 



Fine tobacco is packed in tierces of from 350 to 800 pounds, each grade by itself, or it is sold loose at the barn 

 or carried loose to market, where it is placed in piles and sold at auction. Dealers buy enough of each grade to fill 

 a cask, when they prize lightly and ship to the various markets. 



It is sometimes necessary in very small crops to sell loose, because the quantity of each grade is not sufficient 

 to fill a cask; but to pack in casks or boxes before taking to market avoids risks in handling. Sometimes, 

 though rarely, it is put up by farmers in casks or boxes, being usually packed by mere hand pressure. 



The period for stripping, assorting, packing, and marketing is generally from October to August, and the 

 unstripped crop of one year may be on hand until the next. May is probably the season most favored. The 

 spring sweat comes in May if bulked or packed ; if not, it will come later, after which it is bulked down and 

 packed. This sweat sweetens the tobacco, if its condition is dry; if too moist, it is injured in flavor and in color, 

 and has the effect to redden a bright tobacco and brighten a dark leaf. If the tobacco is very moist and the sweat 

 excessive, "funking" to some extent occurs, the injury being estimated at about 5 per cent., which can only be 

 avoided by bulking in good order. Natural seasons are used for stripping and packing. Some experiments 

 have been made with steam or warm air, but not enough as yet to determine their value. 



ASSORTING TOBACCO. 



When the tobacco is kept bulked down on the stalk until the stripping season it is necessary to hang up as 

 much as can be stripped in a day to "order" for stripping, that is, to absorb humidity enough to handle without 

 breakage ; but, to avoid the danger of a possible change of color, it is not allowed to become too soft. An assorter 

 then strips off from each plant one or two leaves, to be tied by a boy as lugs or common smokers, aud from one to three 

 of the next leaves for smooth lugs or fancy smokers. These are tied into hands of eight or ten leaves by the assorter. 

 The remainder of the leaves is then cast together in a pile, to be assorted into the various higher grades of leaf aud 

 tips. All the leaves of each grade must be uniform, and every bruised, worm-eaten, or injured leaf excluded from 

 the best grades. So particular are the best planters, that the assorting-houses are constructed with a window to the 

 north, that a uniform light may fall upon the leaf all day, increase or decrease in the intensity of the light making 

 it very difficult to keep up the narrow line between the finer grades. 

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