330 MODE OF CURE. 
appearance of being too hard fired, indeed so much so as to 
have the flavor of. being baked.” The early culture of to- 
‘bacco in the State attracted the attention of tobacco buyers, 
especially those who had dealt largely in Maryland leaf, and 
so much so, that one large firm issued a circular and sent to 
all the prominent growers in the tobacco growing section 
giving instructions in regard to its cultivation and manage- 
ment. We copy from one lying before us, and dated 1842. 
It reads as follows: “As tobacco is every year becoming a 
more prominent article in your State, we deem it of so much 
importance that we have had this circular printed on the sub- 
ject of its Cultivation and Management, and take the liberty 
to address it to you. New ground produces the finest and 
highest priced tobacco. The plants should be set about 2 
feet 9 inches or three feet apart, which will give them suffi- 
cient air and sun to ripen, and give the leaf a good body. It 
should be topped as soon as it buttons, kept clear of suck- 
ers, and cut as soon as it is ripe—if favorable weather, it will 
be fit for the house in 15 to twenty days after it is topped. 
“When cut, let it remain until sufficiently lank to handle 
without breaking ; but it should be housed before it is sun- 
killed, or much deadened, to prevent which, put it up in 
small heaps, say as much as a man can carry, with the heads 
to the sun, as soon as cut, and even then the top plants may 
be too much deadened, unless soon removed to the house. 
If sun-killed, it will not cure fine. The Maryland system is 
to fire without flues, and when the precaution is taken to lay 
planks or boards directly over the fire, accidents seldom occur. 
“Slow fires are kept up for the first four or five days after 
the house is filled, so as to give it a moderate heat through- 
out, until the Tobacco is generally yellow, then the fires are 
raised or increased so as to kill the leaf and stem in forty- 
eight hours or less. When cured on the stock, as is done in 
Maryland, it can be better assorted, or the different qualities 
more readily, separated than when stripped in the field and 
cured in the leaf. When stripping and tying up in bundles, 
it should be assorted according to the following classifica- 
tions: Ist, Fine Yellow; 2d, Yellow; 3d, Spangled; 4th, 
Fine Red; 5th, Good Red; 6th, Brown and Common. It 
is often put up as if there were but two or three qualities, 
hence there is a great’ mixture of the several sorts, which is 
a very serious disadvantage in selling, as the purchaser gener- 
ally values it at the price of the most inferior in the sample. 
