36 BULLETIN 16, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
One thing which the tobacco grower must constantly have in mind 
while the tobacco is in bulk or storage is the danger of damage by 
mold, especially during protracted periods of warm, moist weather. 
In assorting tobacco as it is stripped from the stalk, which is the 
common practice in the Old Belt, about four fundamental grades 
generally will be obtained from a given plant. There will be the 
trashy lugs, clean lugs, leaf, and tips as they are taken from the 
bottom and then on to the top of the plant. In the actual assort- 
ing of an entire curing a number of other secondary grades will be 
made, sometimes as many as 8 or 10 in all, based upon differences 
in color, texture, and body. A great number of grades are recog- 
nized by the trade as wrappers, cutters, export leaf, fillers, smokers, 
etc., and each of these is subdivided into a number of subgrades., but, 
of course, only a few of them would appear in any single crop or 
curing. The better grades of lugs and the leaf are tied into com- 
paratively small hands of about 10 or 15 leaves each, but the poorer 
lug grades are generally tied into larger hands of 20 to 40 leaves each. 
The hands or bundles are tied with a leaf, which is folded for this 
purpose by turning both edges backward and inward so as to form a 
neat band. This is then deftly given a couple of turns tightly around 
2nd partially or completely covering the butts of the leaves forming 
the bundle, beginning with the tip of the tie leaf. The butt end of the 
tie is tucked through the hand between the leaves so as to wedge 
and hold the tie leaf in place. 
Before placing tobacco on the market, it should be brought into 
good but not too high order, and its appearance will be improved 
if it is bulked down either on or off the sticks for a day or two. 
In most sections of the flue-cured district the farmer can dispose of 
his tobacco either by direct sale on the warehouse ficor or through 
the grower’s pooling organization. If sold on the warehouse floor, 
care should be taken to avoid a glutted market, for at such time the 
prices are generally somewhat reduced because the buyers can not 
handle and take care of it as fast as 1t comes in. 
The entire cost of producing and marketing flue-cured tobacco is 
estimated at 6 to 10 cents a pound, according to conditions. 
DDITIONAL COPIES of this publication 
may be procured from the SUPERINTEND- 
ENT OF DOCUMENTS, Government Printing 
Office, Washington, D.C.,at 10 cents per copy 
WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1913 
