grower's efforts. Under the cloth coverings he will be 

 engaged in daily warfare against insect pests and plant 

 diseases. Even while that continual battle is under way, 

 the farmer may lose his carefully constructed tent or find 

 it seriously damaged by summer hailstones, by a freak 

 wind that will tear it apart or, most dangerous, by acci- 

 dental fire. 



Attempts have been made to eliminate, or at least re- 

 duce, damage from wind and fire. Plastic materials, fire- 

 resistant cloth and other fabrics have been experimented 

 with. The search has not resulted in an acceptable ma- 

 terial of reasonable cost but the search goes on. 



'ewlng:, stripping, selling 



Harvested shade-grown leaves ready for curing in 

 barns are threaded through each base in pairs of 15 to 22 

 —front to front, back to back— and then strung on a 

 wooden lath. This sewing, by hand or by hand-feeding 

 onto automatic sewing equipment, is usually done by 

 young women from high schools and colleges during 

 their summer vacations. These occasional workers in- 

 crease the farm population of Massacluisetts by several 

 thousand. During the curing period of a month or more, 

 heat will frequently be used within the barns to main- 

 tain a favorable temperature. The leaves will be taken 

 down when humid weather has restored their pliability. 

 They are then "in order." 



Following a long-established tradition, binder leaf is 

 bought at farmers' barns when stripped from its stalks. 

 There will be difi^erent prices paid for it; leaf suitable for 

 cigars will obviously command higher prices than those 

 of the "stemming grades," intended for scrap chewing 

 tobacco. (The latter phrase is an Internal Rexenue Serv- 

 ice classification. It refers to fragments of good leaf 

 suitable for use in chewing— sometimes smoking— tobac- 



