272 Brodigan's Treatise on the Tobacco Plant. 



fermentation. A quantity of hay must be placed between the tobacco and 

 the ground, and the heap may be made of an oblong or conic figure, the ends 

 of the stems being placed inwards. The heap being made, it isto be sur- 

 rounded with hay, blankets, or other close covering. The period for this 

 fermentation will depend upon the state of the weather, and the dryness 

 and size of the leaves. In four or five days, I generally found the heat was 

 sufficiently high to penetrate and reduce the stems ; and when that is accom- 

 plished, the heap is to be cooled by spreading it out to dry. In reducing 

 very strong tobacco, I found it necessary to permit the heat to ascend to 

 126°. In 60 hours, I found the heat had attained 110°; and, in 72 hours, 

 126° ; but the general range of the second fermentation was from 120° to 

 125° Fahrenheit. In some cases I had to resort to a third fermentation of 

 the same tobacco, but the heat did not rise beyond 90°. Upon this import- 

 ant point of fermentation, or sweating the tobacco, I have given the result 

 of my practice. For greater accuracy, and the benefit of the inexperienced, 

 I have given it from a thermometer ; but, at the same time, the hand and 

 feeling of a practised overseer can direct the process. As soon as the 

 tobacco has been perfectly dried, by exposure to the sun and the weather, 

 it is still necessary to dry any remaining moisture in the midribs, for which 

 purpose they must be packed so as to be outside, that the air may have its 

 influence upon them. When they are perfectly dry and hard, the tobacco 

 may be considered as fit for use, although it will possess more or less of 

 crudeness, until the month of March following. To correct this crudity, 

 or any acrimony that may exist, different preparations are used in different 

 countries. - In Brazil, the leaves are steeped in a decoction of tobacco and 

 gum copal. In Virginia, I understand, they sprinkle the tobacco, in the 

 packing process, with diluted rum and molasses ; and, in Ireland, they 

 sprinkle, in the packing process, with a decoction of the green tobacco 

 stems, or a decoction of hay, with a small portion of molasses : the effect of 

 this innocent application is to soften and improve the flavour, darken the 

 colour of the tobacco, and render it, in appearance, a more merchantable 

 commodity. The next and last operation is, to tie the leaves in hands, and 

 pack them in bales or portable packages." (p. 166.) 



Improvements in the curing Process. — Some of Mr. Brodigan's tobacco, 

 he informs us, only wanted age to be as good as Virginia. Tobacco im- 

 proves by a sea voyage, as it undergoes a certain degree of fermentation in 

 the hogsheads in the spring or summer months. Drying-houses, heated by 

 flues or steam, as now erected in America, he thinks, would be an improve- 

 ment in Ireland. Captain Basil Hall visited a tobacco plantation on James's 

 River, and found the house, in which the hands were hung up, with fires of 

 wood made upon the earthen floor. The flavour of the wood burnt in this 

 way, Mr. Brodigan states, is now strongly perceptible in the tobacco of late 

 years imported from America. 



As suggestions derived from considering what we have read and observed 

 on the subject of cultivating and curing tobacco, we submit the following : — 

 When a farmer, who thoroughly understands and successfully practises the 

 Northumberland mode of cultivating turnips, intends growing tobacco as a 

 field crop, we would recommend him to prepare the soil exactly as for 

 Swedish turnips, give a double dose of well rotted manure, mix the seed 

 with fifty times its bulk of sand or bone-dust, and sow with Common's 

 turnip drill, usually called French's, about the middle of May. When the 

 plants come up, they may be thinned out as turnips are, to 16 or 18 in. 

 apart, and topped in the beginning of August. The rest of the process may 

 be conducted as by Brodigan, drying, however, in a barn or house heated by 

 an iron stove. A cottager or spade-cultivator may find it worth his while 

 to sow in a hot-bed or in a flower-pot, and transplant ; he may dry his 

 leaves the first time under the eaves of his cottage, and the second time in 

 his garret ; or, if the quantity is small for home use, in his kitchen. For 



