TOBACCO SHRINKAGE AND LOSSES IN WEIGHT 3 



is packed in boxes, for example, Black Fat. A hogshead is a large 

 cask or barrel made of lightweight thin staves. The dimensions 

 vary for different types of tobacco. Whether packed in leaf form 

 (unstemmed) or strip form (stemmed) all hogshead-packed tobacco 

 is aged before it is used in manufactured products. It is never used 

 until it has gone through at least one sweat. Most of it is aged for 

 2 or more years. The length of time it remains in storage depends 

 upon manufacturers' needs and upon the nature and characteristics 

 of the crops of certain years. 



Hogsheads of tobacco are stored in warehouses built especially for 

 tobacco storage, and are usually stacked in tiers two or three hogsheads 

 high in the manner shown in figure 1. Various types of construction 

 are used for storage warehouses in the South. There are one-story, 

 two-story, and three-story warehouses of wood, brick, concrete, and 

 steel. The most modern and most popular type of construction is the 

 single-story steel or wood frame sheathed and roofed with metal. 



Figure 1. — Interior view of warehouse. Hogsheads of tobacco in storage. 



The sides are flared outward within 4 or 5 feet of the ground, and in 

 the offset thus formed, heavy screen wire is placed for ventilation 



The change in weight of southern tobacco in storage varies with 

 the construction and with the location of the warehouses. For 

 example, in a two-story warehouse, tobacco stored on the upper floor 

 may show a loss at the end of the first year, whereas that stored in the 

 basement may show a slight gain. Tobacco stored at inland points 

 may show a loss and that stored near the seaboard may show a gain. 



In packing domestic cigar-leaf tobacco for storage and shipment, 

 the filler types are packed in wooden cases, bales, or barrels, the 

 binder types, in cases and bales, and the wrapper types only in bales. 

 The dimensions and weights of cases and bales will be discussed sepa- 

 rately for each type. 



All of the cigar-leaf types, with the exception of Georgia and 

 Florida sun-grown and Puerto Bican, are packed in unstemmed form, 

 and the storage, aging, and fermentation are under more definite 

 control than is the case in southern types. The principal difference 

 is that all southern hogshead tobacco is stored in warehouses and 

 permitted to go through the sweat under natural atmospheric con- 

 ditions, whereas cigar-leaf tobaccos are usually sweated and stored 

 in warehouses in which the temperature is controlled and sometimes 

 the humidity. When definite temperature control is practiced it is 



