408 STRIPPING HOUSES. 
without danger of injuring the tobacco, or the health of the 
stripper. Such buildings however are needed only in tobacco 
sections where the cold is extreme during the winter, when 
most of the tobacco is to be stripped. The stripping room 
or house is provided with astove, a long table, or elevated 
platform, in front of the windows, of which there should 
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STRIPPING ROOM. 
be several to admit plenty of light, and a number of 
chairs to accommodate the strippers. On the stove a 
kettle of water is kept constantly boiling or heated, the 
ascending steam of which keeps the leaves of tobacco from 
drying and consequently from cracking or breaking. When 
in condition for “striking” or taking down, the plants are 
carried to the stripping-room, and covered with boards 
and blankets, when the operation’ called stripping com- 
mences. Many of the stripping-rooms are built large enough 
to contain the cases after the tobacco is packed, thus answer- 
ing a double purpose. 
In Virginia and the other tobacco-growing states of the 
South, the tobacco barn is built altogether different, as the 
method of curing is by fires or flues instead of air curing. 
The height of the building is usually twice its width and 
length. In the center of the smooth earthen floor, is the 
trench for “firing,” while around the sides of the building 
