414 FOREIGN TOBACCO SHEDS. 
field. In Cuba, the curing houses are located on the vegas, 
and as soon as the tobacco is cut it is placed on the poles to 
dry or cure. In Asia, a large quantity of the tobacco is cured 
in the peasants’ huts, where the smoke is said to impart 
additional flavor to the already fragrant leaves. In the Phil- 
ippines the largest tobacco sheds are found, described by 
Gironiere as “vast sheds,” and of suflicient capacity to hold 
acres of the leaves. In Persia, where the celebrated Shiraz 
tobacco is grown, the sheds are simply covered buildings 
without any boards on the sides, the only protection afforded 
from the weather being supplied by light, thorny bushes, so 
that the plants may be exposed to the wind. After fully cur- 
ing, the tobacco is removed to another drying-house and turned 
every day. ~The drying-houses in other tobacco-growing 
countries differ but little 
from those described, while 
the manner of curing is 
similar, the plants being 
“fired,” sun-cured, or air- 
dried—the three modes 
now employed in drying 
the leaves. If the tobacco 
of the tropics is fragrant 
while growing, it is doubly 
so after being harvested 
and carried to the sheds. 
The odor from the well- 
filled barns is borne on the breeze alike to friend and foe of 
the plant. As the process of drying goes on, the plants. 
gradually lose the strong perfume emitted during the earlier 
stages of curing, and by the time the leaves are “ cured down” 
and the sheds closed, but little odor issues from the plants, 
and this continues to be the case until the leaves are entirely 
dried. 
PERSIAN TOBACCO SHED. 
