CHAPTER XII. 
TOBACCO HOUSES. 
Mts HE drying houses or sheds for the curing andy 
Me storing of tobacco are among the most interesting 
XX objects to be seen on the tobacco plantation. These 
* sheds vary in size from a small structure capable of 
holding only a few thousand plants to the immense sheds 
with sufficient capacity for hanging the products of several 
acres. In the Connecticut valley, the Southern States, at the 
West, and in the Philippine Islands these tobacco sheds are 
often several hundred feet in length, built in the most substan- 
tial manner and provided with suitable side doors and venti- 
lators for the free passage of air, and the most perfect system 
of ventilation. The most substantial and finest tobacco sheds 
are to be found in the Connecticut valley, which are provided 
with every convenience for hanging and taking down or 
“striking” the crop. Many of them are painted and adorned 
with a cupola, which serves the double purpose of an orna- 
ment and a ventilator for the hot air to pass off from the 
curing and heated plants. Formerly, the tobacco being har- 
vested was hung in barns and sheds, used for storing grain 
and hay, and better adapted to other purposes than to that 
of a tobacco shed, where thorough ventilation is necessary to 
avoid sweat and pole-rot, attending upon the curing of the 
plants. Of late, tobacco growers, throughout the world, have 
paid considerable attention to the method of curing, and to 
erecting more suitable buildings for the purpose. At the 
South and West, the log tobacco barns are giving way to the 
more substantial frame buildings and better facilities are 
40 
