30 



PROFITABLE FARMING. 



This " limbering up " process, of high heat at the start, must be of short'dura- 

 tion, or else great injury will be done to the tobacco. 



Following this mode the yellowing process is greatly shortened, requiring 

 from four to eight hours less to yellow sufficiently, and also hastens the second 

 stage of curing, fixing the color. 



It is well to state that there is so great a difference in the character of tobacco 

 grown in different localities that no rule can be given for the yellowing process 

 applicable to all. The tobacco of Middle and Western North Carolina will yellow 

 in much less time than that grown in Middle Virginia. Then, again, tobacco will 

 bear higher temperature in the yellowing process during some years than in 

 others. Notably, the season of 1884 was so dry, and tobacco held so little sap 

 when ripe, that many commenced yellowing at 100 degrees, and had the leaf cured 

 in fifty hours. But this is, exceptional, and for general practice' would spoil both 

 color and tobacco. 



The season, therefore, it must be borne in mind, greatly determines the 

 amount of heat the tobacco will require t6 be yellowed and cured. 



Some of the patented flues are so con- 

 structed that the heat is easily controlled, 

 and the tobacco smoked or steamed, or 

 both, as may be necessary in the j'^ellowing 

 stage. Some tobacco will require neither 

 to yellow right, while some other will 

 dry up green or red without yellowing, 

 if smoke or steam be not used to assist 

 the yellowing process. Smoke or steam 

 will facilitate the yellowing of thin poor 

 tobacco holding very little sap. Wetting 

 the barn floor from time to time will 

 assist in yellowing tobacco. Then there 

 is an occasional barn of tobacco that 

 defies all the known modes and applianciBS 

 to yellow or cure bright. 

 But for all practical purposes, whenever the curer has mastered a knowledge 

 of the effects of too much or too little heat, as evidenced in the color of the 

 tobacco, clearly described heretofore, he possesses a key to solve the difficult 

 problem in the science of curing tobacco. By close observation this lesson may 

 soon be learned, and then success is easy. 



After curing, as soon as the tobacco is sufficiently soft to move, you may run 

 it up in the roof of the barn and crowd it close, or if the barn is needed for other 

 curings, the tobacco may be carried to the storage barn or bulked down in any 

 dry house on the premises. But be sure that nothing is bulked with green stalks 

 or swelled stems, for if such are placed down in bulk it will be sure to heat and 

 Utterly ruin. 





Common Sense Bam. 



THE SCIENCE OP CURING YELLOW TOBACCO. 



The first step in explaining the process is to give in outline the chemical eoo.- 

 stituents of green tobacco. 



