26 PROFITABLE FARMING. 



sticks are placed gently on the ground and the plants allowed to wilt before being 

 removed to the barn. But tobacco of medium size bruises less to handle it 

 without wilting. Cutting and housing by this mode you never have any sun- 

 burned tobacco. For brights, it has been found best to commence curing at^once, 

 as soon as the barn can be filled 



SUN-CUEED TOBACCO. 



Just here it may be well to give our practice in sun-curing. If the crop is 

 too rich and coarse for brights, then it may be'good policy to cure it sweet. To 

 do this properly, erect scaffolds at or near the barns, on which place the tobacco 

 as soon as cut. But some, in. order to obviate the hauling of heavy green tobacco, 

 place the scaffolds in or near the tobacco field. But it is never safe to scaffold 

 tobacco away from the barn; for after the leaf is partially dry it ought never to 

 be caught out in the rain; which may happen if tobacco is placed on scaffolds 

 away from the barn. When rain threatens, that on scaffolds near the barn may 

 very soon be placed out of danger, but not so that on scaffolds afar off 



CUEING SWEET FILLERS WITH FLUES. 



To cure fillers with flues, when the tobacco is placed in the barn as soon as 

 cut, raise the heat in the barn to eighty-five or ninety degrees Fahrenheit, and 

 then go about other business. Kindle fires in the flues every morning, raising 

 the heat to ninety degrees, and then leave as before, and continue to do this for 

 four or five days until the tobacco is thoroughly yellowed. If the tobacco has 

 much sap, it maybe necessary to continue the yellowing process from five to 

 seven days to yellow properly. After this very little flue heat will be necessary 

 to dry out the tobacco. If rains occur before the tobacco is thoroughly cured^ 

 raise fires in the flues and dry the leaf, as often as may be necessary. 



TO CUBE MAHOGANY COLOE. 



After the tobacco has yellowed suMciehtly on scaffolds or under flues, and 

 "When the leaves have assumed a mottled, piebald appearance, run the heat to one 

 hundred degrees and let it remain at that point for three or four hours. Then 

 raise the heat two and a half degrees an hour until one hundred and thirty 

 is reached. Keep the heat at this point until the leaf is cured, and then move 

 up gradually to one hundred and sixty or one hundred and seventy, and thus cur& 

 stalk and stem. If cured properly there will be much of the leaf mahogany, 

 while the remainder wiU run from a bright dapple to a cherry red. 



SHIPPING TOBACCO. 



Dark heavy shipping — and nothing which does not possess size and sub- 

 stance is fit for this grade— may be cured with flues better than in any other way. 

 Smoke from the open wood fire is objectionable, and with the flue you get the 

 heat, which is all that is wanted, without the smoke. Curing with open wood 

 fires belongs to the past, and none but the old Bourbons will continue the old prac- 

 tice, because they know no better. Taste and fashion are against smoke, and 

 nothing else is needed to banish the old and recommend the new mode. If a 



