110 THE CULTI'RE OF rOriACCO. 



Stripping, Grading or Packing Houses.— These may be a 

 portion of the tobacco barn, as was the case in the Pennsylvania barn 

 described, or tliey may exist as separate l>uildings where the tobacco 

 from all the barns is handled and stored. The packing honse should 

 be so arranged with poles that the tobacco can again be hung up when 

 necessary. The moisture and temperature conditions should be as 

 much under conti'ol as those of the curing barn ; foi' this reason, the 

 building must be plentifully supplied with ventilators and should have 

 a stove for heating. The best packing hou.ses have a basement where 

 the tobacco may be hung when the weather is dry, to bring it into 

 order or condition for handling. That portion of the building where 

 the grading is done must be well lighted, but not with the direct rays 

 of the sun. The colour of tobacco cannot be correctly determined in a 

 blight sun. For this reason the grading rooms in American packing 

 houses have their windows on the north side. In South Africa the 

 least direct sunlight would be on the south side of the luiilding during 

 the greater poilion i>f the year. 



Fermentation Houses.— These buildings are not used by small 

 farmers. The only growers who do their (jwn fermentation are 

 the large C(.)mpanies. To make this business pi(5fitalile and to pay 

 the large salaries demanded by the experts, requires that a large 

 quantity of tobacco be fermented and packed. The buildings are 

 usually very large, con.structed of brick, and fitted with every 

 modern convenience. The whole building, and particularly the 

 fermentation room, is fitted with steam lieat, and the steam is so 

 ai-ranged that jets may be turned into any poitiiin of the buililing 

 to increase its humidity. The building has a storage I'oom where 

 the unferniented tobacco is stored, one or several fermentation 

 rooms, a well-lighted grading room, a ]jackiiig ii5<:)m, and a storage 

 room for the packed tobacco, as well as any other additions the 

 circumstances suggest. 



PACKING OR PRIZING OF ALL TOBACCOS 

 EXCEPT CIGAR LEAF. 



After tobacco has I'eached the proper condition, it is leady to 

 be packed for stoiuge or shipment. All tobaccos intended f<ii' other 

 purposes than the manufacture oi fine cigars (tobacco for stoo-ies 

 and Eegie cigars is handled as are ordinary tobaccos), are packed in 

 hogsheads. Some of these may lie sixty inches high and from 

 forty-two to foi'ty-eight inches in diameter ; others are fiftv-six 

 inches high and forty-eight inches in diameter. Still others" are 

 forty-eight inches high, thirty-six inches in diameter at the smaller 

 end, and thirty-eight inches at the larger cml ; this difference in 

 width is to allow the package to be easily removed, and replaced 

 when the tobacco is sampled. There is no liulrje in the centre of 

 a tobacco cask. 



The staves of the hogshead are made of white oak or any 

 tough hard wood, although recently tlir ti'mleiicy has been to iise 

 clieaper woods, and pine casks .■u-e often seen. The hoops are 

 usually of hickory or elm. Tn order to s.ivc freight the material 

 is received in the "flat" by the shipper, and the' erection of tli(' 

 hogshead is done at the same place as the paikiiiic. The price of 

 a good cask is from five to seven shillings. 



