﻿36 BULLETIN 16, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



One thing which the tobacco grower must constantly have in mind 

 while the tobacco is in bulk or storage is the danger of damage by 

 mold, especially during protracted periods of warm, moist weather. 



In assorting tobacco as it is stripped from the stalk, which is the 

 common practice in the Old Belt, about four fundamental grades 

 generally will be obtained from a given plant. There will be the 

 trashy lugs, clean lugs,, leaf, and tips as they are taken from the 

 bottom and then on to the top of the plant, In the actual assort- 

 ing of an entire curing a number of other secondary grades will be 

 made, sometimes as many as 8 or 10 in all ? baged upon differences 

 in colore texture, and body. A great number of grades are recog- 

 nized by the trade as wrappers, cutters, export leaf, fillers, smokers, 

 etc., and each of these is subdivided into a number of subgrades, but, 

 of course, only a few of them would appear in any single crop or 

 curing. The better grades of lugs and the leaf are tied into com- 

 paratively small hands of about 10 or 15 leaves each, but the poorer 

 lug grades are generally tied into larger hands of 20 to 40 leaves each. 

 The hands or bundles are tied with a leaf, which is folded for this 

 purpose by turning both edges backward and inward so as to form a 

 neat band. This is then deftly given a couple of turns tightly around 

 and partially or completely covering the butts of the leaves forming 

 the bundle, beginning with the tip of the tie leaf. The butt end of the 

 tie is tucked through the hand between the leaves so as to wedge 

 and hold the tie leaf in place. 



Before placing tobacco on the market, it should be brought into 

 good but not too high order, and its appearance will be improved 

 if it is bulked down either on or off the sticks for a day or two. 

 In most sections of the flue-cured district the farmer can dispose of 

 his tobacco either by direct sale on the warehouse floor or through 

 the grower's pooling organization. If sold on the warehouse floor, 

 care should be taken to avoid a glutted market, for at such time the 

 prices are generally somewhat reduced because the buyers can not 

 handle and take care of it as fast as it comes in. 



The entire cost of producing and marketing flue-cured tobacco is 

 estimated at 6 to 10 cents a pound, according to conditions. 



ADDITIONAL COPIES of this publication 

 A may be procured from the Superintend- 

 ent of Documents, Government Printing 

 Office, Washington, D. C, at 10 cents per copy 



WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1913 



