CONNECTICUT VALLEY CIGAR LEAF TOBACCO. 185 



The seventh function is sampUng. After a case comes out of the sweat 

 and is cooled to normal, it is opened and four hands are taken from various 

 parts of the case and tied together as a sample, which is guaranteed in 

 any part of the United States. 



Sorting and Tying. — When the tobacco comes into the sorting shops 

 from the farm it is loose in the bimdle and is not graded. This tobacco 

 needs to be assorted according to grade, length, texture and color, and 

 tied in small bundles of from fifteen to twenty leaves, called hands. This 

 means a lot of labor, for each leaf must be handled. Tliis kind of work 

 is mainly done by women and children. 



Each sorter has a sorting table consisting of boxed-off compartments 

 from 10 to 12 inches deep and 8 to 10 inches wide, and of varying lengths, 

 perhaps 16 to 22 inches, to fit leaves of different sizes. Each leaf is placed 

 in the compartment corresponding most closely to its length, and vdih 

 skilled labor no time is wasted in placing the leaves in their proper places. 

 The leaves of different grades are kept separate, — light wrappers, dark 

 WTappers, medium wrappers, brokens, seconds, fillers and binders. The 

 various grades are packed in hands of from fifteen to twenty leaves each, 

 tied with a leaf of tobacco; then the tobacco is readj^ to be packed in 

 cases and placed in the sweating room. 



Sweating. — There are three methods of fermentation, or sweating, 

 now in use in the Connecticut valley. By the first and most common 

 method from 300 to 350 pounds of sorted leaf tied in hands are tightly 

 and smoothly packed into a wooden box which is fairly tight on the sides, 

 but with one-half inch spaces between the end boards. The leaf is packed 

 with the tips toward the center and the butts toward the ends of the 

 case. The cases are piled in an unheated storehouse as they are packed, 

 turned once or twice, and after l^ing over one sununer are sampled and 

 ready for sale to manufacturers or jobbers. 



This is the natural method, but in recent years a method known as 

 "forced sweating" has been largely used in order to get tobacco into 

 market quicklj^, or to finish tobacco which has not fermented enough. 

 The tobacco, packed in cases, is kept for about six weeks in a room with 

 a moist atmosphere maintained at 90° to 120° F. This method enables 

 the packer to clean out his sweat room and put in a fresh supply of 

 tobacco every five or six weeks, and consequently he is not crowded for 

 space. 



The "bulk method" of sweating is used to some extent for Havana 

 seed and exclusively with shade-grown, though it has not been successful 

 with broadleaf. With the bulk method, the sweat room is kept at a 

 temperature of from 80° to 90° F., with humidity high enough to keep 

 the leaf soft. Under these conditions the bulk immediately heats and 

 fermentation proceeds rapidly. As soon as the thermometer inside 

 "the bulk shows a temperature of 110° to 130° F., the bulk is pulled down, 

 the leaf lightly shaken out and immediately bulked again, putting that 

 leaf which was on the outside of the former bulk on the inside of the new 

 one. 



