28 BULLETIN 16, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
HARVESTING. 
When the tobacco is to be harvested by cutting the entire plant, as 
is customary in the Old Belt, the general condition of the whole 
plant must be considered, allowing the top leaves to get as ripe as 
possible without too much offsetting the loss at the bottom of the 
plant. Generally, a plant will be ripe in from 90 to 100 days after 
transplanting, and in about 35 or 40 days after topping, but this is 
subject to great variation, dependent primarily upon seasonal con- 
ditions. When the tobacco is to be harvested by priming, or picking 
the leaves off as they ripen, the harvest begins whenever the bottom 
leaves demand it, generally in about two or three weeks after top- 
ping, or even before topping in some instances. The field subse- 
quently will need to be gone over about once a week until all the 
Fic. 6.—A fine field of tobacco nearly ready for harvest in the Old Belt section. 
leaves are removed, usually about four or five times in all. Figure 6 
shows a fine field of tobacco in the Old Belt section near Winston- 
Salem, N. C., which is about ready for the harvest, and figure 7 
gives a view of a field in the New Belt section near Greenville, N. C., 
which is in actual process of harvest by the priming method. The 
more common form of law-wheel truck for hauling out the leaves 
is shown in figure 8. To cure up sweet and with good color, par- 
ticularly on the stiffer class of soils of the Old Belt section, the 
tobacco must be ripe when harvested, but if it is overripe it will be 
lacking in toughness and luster. 
The question of the comparative merits of the priming method as 
compared with cutting the entire plant is somewhat complicated by 
local conditions and is a matter of considerable controversy. Theo- 
retically the priming method, whereby each leaf is taken at approxi- 
