502 TOBACCO 



25 to 30 and strung on poles to dry gradually. Drying or withering 

 takes about 3 weeks, and may be decided by the softness of the 

 mid-rib of the leaf. The process renders the leaves soft and 

 pliable, and prevents their being broken when handled. 



Fermenting or Curing, a most important process, follows, 

 and upon this depends the proper development of the peculiar 

 narcotic principle of tobacco. When sufficiently dry, the leaves 

 (which are sorted according to quality into hands, usually of 

 about 14 leaves each) are placed in heaps on a concrete or wooden 

 floor to ferment, being laid out in double rows with all the tips 

 towards the centre and overlapping. The heaps are then pressed 

 do\vn by weights and turned over at intervals to equalize, and 

 prevent excessive, fermentation. Complete curing takes from 8 to 12 

 weeks, after which the leaves will have acquired the qualities of 

 tobacco. 



Grading the leaves is a very important matter, and is 

 dependent upon their size, colour, aroma, texture, etc., the chief 

 object being to obtain grades of as uniform a character as possi- 

 ble. There are a number of distinct types of tobacco leaf recog- 

 nised by experts, each of which is adapted to definite trade 

 requirements. It is said that even the crop from the same field 

 can sometimes be sorted by an expert into as many as seventy 

 different grades. The various well-recognised forms are, however, 

 usually associated with variations in soil and climatic conditions 

 under which the crop is grown, and also with different methods 

 of production. Thus certain districts are known to possess certain 

 qualities which adapt them to definite purposes. 



Yield Each plant should yield about 8 marketable leaves 

 on an average. In India and Ceylon a good average field gives 

 30 to 40 maunds of cured leaf per acre, and the price usually 

 obtained varies from about Rs. 5 per maund upwards. A maund 

 (80 Ib.) equals about 1 ,000 leaves. 



