CULTURE AND CURING IN TENNESSEE. 



189 



it and Lave it put in proper merchantable order at the cost of the owner, and if the tobacco be damaged so that the 

 sample does not show the character and extent of the damage, he is required to mark it "Damaged" on the. label. 

 If any hogshead of tobacco is falsely or fraudulently packed with intent to deceive, it is made the duty of the 

 inspector to refuse to classify the same, and, when called upon for the facts, to give information to the grand jury 

 about such hogshead from his books. 



The compensation of warehousemen for receiving, storing, inspecting, coopering, and selling tobacco is 

 regulated by law, as follows : For each hogshead of tobacco received and weighed, 50 cents ; storage, 50 cents ; 

 inspection and cooperage, $1 ; reweighing, 25 cents ; auctioneer's fee, 25 cents ; for selling, rendering an account of 

 sales, collecting the money, and paying it over, $1, and 1 per cent, commission on proceeds of sales the whole 

 cost of selling being $;5 50 per hogshead and commission. Warehousemen are also permitted to charge $1 per 

 hogshead for storage for one year or less, which is to be paid by the purchaser of the tobacco. Any warehouse 

 keeper who shall charge more than is allowed by law subjects himself to a penalty of $10, and is declared guilty 

 of a misdemeanor. 



Planters are protected by being allowed to reject any bid ofi'ered, but iu that case they are charged with the fees. 

 A lien is given on the tobacco to the warehouse keeper for fees and charges ; but no planter is prohibited from 

 selling his tobacco at private sale, with or without inspection, though stored at a licensed warehouse. 



Tobacco goes into "the sweat", or fermentation, with the advent of warm weather, from the middle of April to 

 the middle of August, according to the weather and the order in which it has been prized. If in good order, this 

 sweating process ripens it and improves its color and flavor; but if too damp, it comes out with mold, and is very 

 tender. This applies more particularly to the tobacco grown in western Tennessee and in the Glarksville district, 

 that grown in the Upper Cumberland district being generally injured by becoming harsh, dry, and lifeless. Mr. 

 Wallace, a high authority on tobacco in New York, is of opinion that the tobacco grown in the latter district 

 ought to be used before going into the sweat. But damage is not always confined to this tobacco, fully 50 per 

 cent, of that opened in the Clarksville market in the year 1880 being injured by mold ; but this was exceptional, the 

 season having been very unpropitious for prizing tobacco. The usual proportion injured is about 15 per cent. 



COST OF KAISING TOBACCO. 



All definite estimates of profits in any industry are liable to be fallacious, the difference in the soils and the 

 seasons, the degree of attention given, the reliability and capacity of the labor employed, and the quality of the 

 the article produced, all being important but variable factors iu the solution of the problem. 



The following represents the cost of improved lauds, and their capacity for production in the several tobacco 

 districts of the state : 



The range in prices for different qualities of land in the Upper Cumberland district is far less than in the other 

 portions of the state. The prices paid for labor in the different districts are given below : 



Experts in curing tobacco frequently command much better wages than ordinary hands, especially in those 

 districts where attempts are made to produce fine tobacco, as in Henry county, western Tennessee, and Montgomery 

 and Robertson counties, in the Clarksville district. In all other portions of the state laborers in tobacco are paid 

 the same prices as those engaged in the production of other crops, but in all the tobacco-growing counties labor is 

 employed, for the most part, winter and summer, and wages are from 15 to 20 per cent, higher than iu the stock- 

 growing and cotton-producing counties. 



For stemming tobacco the price paid is 50 cents per hundred pounds of strips made, and when men are employed 



at the factories in prizing tobacco they are paid from $1 to $1 25 per day, without board. 



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