CULTURE AND CURING IN VIRGINIA. 211 



With the construction -f better barns, the introduction of flues or other mean* of applying artificial heat, and 

 a better understanding of the processes of curing and handling, the quality of Virginia tobacco has been improved. 

 In Pittsylvania county, for instance, tobacco skillfully cured with flues brings from $20 to $30 per hundred pounds, 

 crop round; the same tobacco cured with charcoal, and with equal skill, sells for $15 to $25; while that cured with 

 open wood fires in the old way, supplies a demand for lower quality at $4 to $10. 



A still greater range of prices is found in the sales of manufacturing and smoking tobaccos, market values 

 ranging from $5 to $75 per hundred pounds, this difference of prices being due almost entirely to different skill in 

 curing and handling. 



TOBACCO STBIPS. 



Strips are not put up by tobacco growers, but by dealers and manufacturers in Richmond, Petersburg, Lynchburg, 

 and Fannville. Some parties make this a special business, and the larger manufacturers make strips of such 

 portion of their stock as is better suited for that purpose than for their own special line of goods. 



Formerly only long, dark mahogany or red leaf was selected for strips; but the demand of late years for other 

 types to suit the various export markets has greatly diversified the character of leaf used. 



In making strips the loss of weight by drying is from 8 to 12 per cent. ; by removal of stems, 18 to 20 per cent., 

 and about 5 per cent, by waste a total loss of weight of about 31 per cent, of dark leaf and 30 per cent, of bright 

 tobacco, that purchased in winter order losing by drying much more than that bought after March. 



Making strips is a large industry in Lynchburg. An account of the methods there employed will fairly describe 

 those followed elsewhere. 



Loose tobacco is taken to the factory and placed upon the floor of a room adjoining that in which the work of 

 stemming is done, each lot or pilebeing kept separate as purchased, or, if want of space makes it necessary, several 

 lots of the same grade, style, and quality are bulked together. The number of pounds of leaf needed to make a 

 hogshead or a tierce of strips of a given grade is carried from the storage-room into the stemming apartment, 

 sprinkled with water to soften, and heated in a steam-box, a few basketsful at a time. The bundles are then 

 ready for the stemmers, the leaves being supple, pliant, and in such condition that the stems may be quickly 

 removed without tearing the strips. 



Stemming is mostly done by negro women, who are very dexterous at the work. They are assisted by children, 

 who untie the bundles and place them ready for the stemmer, and straighten and tie up the stems. The stemmers 

 tie the strips in bundles of moderate thickness, and are paid 50 cents per hundred pounds, weighed at the close of 

 the day's work, thus earning from $2 to $4 per week. After the weighing is done, the stemmers are required to put 

 the bundles of strips upon sticks (in which work they are assisted by their children) and to carry them to the 

 drying-rooni to be hung up. Each lot intended for the filling of a hogshead or other package is hung by itself, the 

 time required for drying varying from eight to twelve hours, according to the quality of the tobacco, The bundles 

 dry more slowly at the ties, and care is necessary to insure perfect dryness throughout. 



When the tobacco is thoroughly dry, the windows of the drying-room are opened to let it cool off usually all 

 night. They are then closed again, and soft steam is turned into the room through perforated pipes, so managed 

 as to render the tobacco fit for handling.' It is then carefully laid upon the floor in "coops" one stick with 

 tobacco overlapping another and built up straight to a height of five feet or more, each coop containing one tierce, 

 or two to make one hogshead. Here it remains two days, to cool off and toughen, when it is ready for packing. 

 In the work of packing steam is again used to soften the tobacco, six or eight sticks of bundles at a time being 

 carefully placed within the steam-box, the door of which is slightly closed, and soft steam being turned on for one or 

 two iniuutes. The sticks are then carried to the packing table, opened, the bundles shaken out and straightened, 

 and neatly packed with the least possible delay. 



DISEASES OF TOBACCO AND INSECT ENEMIES. 



The damage from diseases is rarely very great ; still there is more or less loss every year, principally because 

 of what is known as "red-fire". "Freuching," "Walloon," "hollow stalk," and "white speck", all occur when soil 

 or atmospheric conditions favor their development. 



There are but two insect enemies whose depredations are seriously dreaded by the tobacco-planter the 

 flea-beetle, which attacks the seedling in the plant-bed, and the horn-worm. Cut- worms are sometimes troublesome 

 upon sod lands, or upon clover leas planted in tobacco. 



COST OF EAISING AND MARKETING TOBACCO. 



The average value per acre of farms in the tobacco region may be estimated at $12. A good rich lot, suitable 

 for tobacco growing, will sell for $25 to $40 per acre; but such lots are very rarely purchasable separate from the 

 adjoining lands. The best soils will produce from 800 to 1,500 pounds, according to variety, cultivation, and 



management. Inferior lands are worth from $5 to $10, and produce from 300 to 500 pounds of tobacco per acre. 



805 



