206 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



regulating the plants on each stick as placed in position, so as to secure free circulation of the heat and prevent 

 sweating and house-burn. The curing process is usually commenced as soon as the barn is filled, but some planters 

 wait a few days before applying heat. Another practice, more rarely adopted, is to place the tobacco on scaffolds 

 first. Still another mode is followed by a few planters, who place the tobacco in the barn as soon as it is cut and 

 crowd it close on the tier poles, thus to remain two or three days to yellow, when it is opened. The sticks are 

 placed at a suitable distance apart, and heat is applied. While each of the plans above described has its advocates, 

 a majority of the most skillful and successful growers claim that the desired color can be more readily and certainly 

 obtained on tobacco to which heat is applied as soou as cut. 



In the dark tobacco district the harvest is conducted as follows : Two cutters cut two rows each, placing the 

 plants, top down, upon the ground, the upper leaves forming a base upon which the reversed plant stands erect. 

 A third man gathers the cut plants, placing the requisite number in piles for each stick. A boy follows the 

 gatherer, dropping a stick at. each pile. Two men complete this part of the work by hanging the plants upon the 

 sticks, which are immediately carried to the scaffold or barn by carriers or on a wagon. 



In the yellow belt a " stick-holder" follows two cutters, from whom the holder receives the plants as cut, places 

 them upon the stick, which is passed, when filled, to a "carrier", who places it upon a wagon. For want of the 

 necessary number of hands the sticks, when filled, are sometimes carefully laid upon the ground by the stick-holder, 

 and the " cutting-team " assists in housing or scaffolding. When the force is adequate, and the tobacco is carried 

 direct from the cutter to the scaffold, there is perfect immunity from sunburn, and the leaves are kept clean. 

 When distance makes it necessary to haul from the field to the barn, crates, so constructed as to carry two tiers of 

 sticks with the tobacco hanging at full length, are placed upon the wagons, by which means there need be no 

 breaking nor bruising in handling. 



Eough and careless handling prevails to a large extent, often causing damage to fully one-half the value of the 

 product. 



The broken leaves, of which there are very many in the heavy shipping tobacco, are either split with knives 

 or are pierced with short, sharpened sticks, and strung upon ordinary sticks for hanging. A few use the Shelton 

 hanger, already described. Some tie eight or ten of the green leaves closely with small willow withes, imbedding 

 the tie deep into the pulpy butt stems, so that they may not fall apart when dried an expeditious and economical 

 method. 



Frames of peculiar construction, on which tobacco hung upon sticks is carried to the barn and hoisted therein, 

 so as to be rapidly placed upon the tier poles, have been patented, and are used to a very limited extent. 



TOBACCO-HOUSES. 



Most of these tobacco-houses are built of logs from 16 to 24 feet long. In the shipping belt there may be 

 found many large and costly framed barns, while in the yellow district the houses are small, and are rarely built 

 of other material than hewn logs. 



A barn 20 by 20 feet, with five firing tiers, one above the other, in the body of the house, with additional tiers 

 in the roof space, will hold from 700 to 800 sticks of shipping, or 600 to 700 sticks of tobacco to be cured by the air, 

 or with flues, or charcoal fires. Such a house, 20 feet high in the body, built of good oak logs, hewn on the outside, 

 boarded at the gables with heart weatherboarding, and covered with heart shingles, will cost from $80 to $110, 

 according to locality and workmanship. 



Framed barns are from 20 feet square to 30 by 60 feet, and their cost depends upon local cost of materials and 

 labor. These barns are now being provided with flues, and are used successfully in curing both shipping and 

 yellow manufacturing tobacco. 



The small planters, among whom are found the most successful producers of the finest grades, prefer small 

 houses, 16 to 18 feet square. These small barns can be quickly filled by a small working force ; and it is claimed, 

 with good reason, that the color can be fixed more readily in a small than in a large barn. 



TOBACCO CURING. 



The process of curing to be adopted by the planter depends upon the character of the tobacco as it comes to 

 the knife. If of medium size, thoroughly ripe, of a yellowish green color, grown upon gray saiidy or gravelly land, 

 it will suit for fillers, and ought to be cured by sun and air; if of fine texture, smooth or dappled yellow on the hill 

 when ripe or nearly ripe, properly cured with flues or charcoal, it will command good prices for wrappers and 

 smokers. 



The north-side counties (Caroline, Spotsylvania, Hanover, and Louisa) produce mainly sun- and air-cured fillers. 

 After being scaffolded until the leaf is nearly cured, generally in from four to seven days, the tobacco is then 

 removed to the house, where it hangs until cured. In unfavorable weather the tobacco sometimes gets but little 

 sun, when especial care is given to prevent crowding, the sticks being placed far enough apart to keep it irom 

 touching, and dried without fire, unless in very damp weather, when it is fired very gently, to keep off mold. For 



800 



