CURING BY SMOKE. 458 
habitually Wéeather-wise, from the sowing of his plants, until 
the delivery of his crop to the inspector. To regulate this 
effect upon the plants he must take care to be often among 
them, and when too much moisture is discovered, it is tem- 
pered by the help of smoke, which is generated by means of 
small smothered fires made of old bark, and of rotten wood, 
kindled ‘about upon various parts of the floor where they 
may seem to be most needed. 
“In this operation it is necessary that a careful hand should 
be always near: for the fires must not be permitted to blaze, 
and burn furiously; which might not only endanger the 
house, but which, by occasioning a sudden over-heat’ while 
the leaf is in a moist condition, might add to the malady of 
‘firing’ which often occurs in the field.” 
In Virginia the manner of curing tobacco at the present 
time, is thus described by a planter. “ For curing tobacco 
the simplest method is sun-curing or air curing and the one - 
most likely to prove successful. The tobacco barn should 
be so constructed as to contain four, five or six rooms four 
feet wide, so that four and a half feet sticks may fit, all alike. 
Log barns are best for coal curing. All should be built high 
enough to contain four firing tiers under joists covered with 
shingles or boards and daubed close. Fire with hickory all 
rich, heavy, shipping tobacco. 
“ As soon as the barn is filled kindle small fires of coals or 
hickory wood, about twenty fires to a barn twenty feet square, 
four under each room. Coal is best, but hickory saplings, 
chopped about two feet long, make a good steaming heat. 
The successful coal-curer is an artist, and all engaged in the 
business are experimenters in nature’s great laboratory.” A 
North Carolina planter gives an interesting account of cur- 
ing tobacco yellow. “Curing tobacco yellow, for which this 
section is so famous, is a very nice process and requires some 
experience, observation, and a thorough knowledge of the 
character and quality of the tobacco with which you have to 
deal, in order to insure uniform success. Much depends 
upon the character of the crop when taken from the hill. 
If it is of good size, well matured and of good yellowish 
color, there is necessarily but little difficulty in the operation. 
_As soon as the tobacco is taken from the hill and housed, we 
commence with a low degree of heat, say 95° to 100° Fahr., 
‘the yellowing’ or ‘steaming’ process. This is the first and 
simplest part of the whole process, and requires from fifteen 
to thirty-six hours, according to the size and quality of the 
