the looseleaf package can be quickly unloaded, weighed, and trucked to the sales row 

 ■without using a basket, and the warehouse cost for baskets can be eliminated. After 

 the auction sale, the sheet is retied and the package quickly removed to the buyer's 

 truck, Labor used in dumping baskets over on the sheets is also eliminated, 



• On leaving the auction warehouse, bundle-tied tobacco is usually repacked into 

 collapsible hogsheads at the local market if it is to be shipped by truck or rail to 

 a distant processing plant. Looseleaf tobacco in sheets is usually stacked on a truck 

 for direct transporting to processing plants. Tobacco in the new package can be 

 stacked in trucks or placed in square, collapsible hogsheads for palletized truck 

 or rail shipments. Much less labor is needed to place the packages in square hogs- 

 heads than to pack the bundle-tied tobacco in round hogsheads for shipment. 



Placing leaves with the butts together in the package is advantageous in new 

 processing plants. Modern tobacco processing lines begin with conveyor belts on 

 which the tobacco is laid instead of chain conveyors which move tobacco hung on sticks. 

 At the beginning of the conveyor belt, the bundle cutter cuts the tie leaf. Rotating 

 knives cut off the tips of the leaves, and sometimes the butts are also removed. 

 Because the stem is small in the tip, this part of the leaf does not have to be threshed; 

 and plant capacity is increased 20 to 30 percent by not running the tips through the 

 threshing cylinders and separators. The butts may be cut off and threshed in a separate 

 threshing line where the machinery can be adjusted for handling the thick part of the 

 midrib. Because of these processing techniques, which improve the quanlity control 

 of the strips being packed for storage, the direction of leaves in the grower's package 

 has become very important. 



Knit-paper sheets have an advantage to the processor as well as to the grower. 

 The paper material, unlike burlap, is nonshedding. The fibers which are shed from 

 the conventional sheets into the tobacco must be cleaned from the tobacco during 

 processing and kept from accumulating in the machinery. A sheet material which 

 does not shed will aid in the packing of a higher quality strip product. 



The overall economic advantages of a new package to the flue-cured tobacco 

 marketing systems are many. Some of them have already been described in this 

 report. One other very important factor is present in the world markets. Southern 

 Rhodesia and Canada are our strongest competitors in the world market for flue-cured 

 tobacco. These countries have what the world tobacco trade considers to be superior 

 farm- packaging methods and covering materials for the package. All tobacco in 

 Canada is sold straight-laid without tying into bundles; and each bale of Southern 

 Rhodesian tobacco has a neatly sewed cover of waterproof paper and burlap. Both 

 countries prepare their tobacco in compact, rectangular packages. For these reasons 

 it is imperative that U.S. growers of flue-cured tobacco meet this competition with 

 the highest quality tobacco and package that are economically practicable. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 



Tobacco packaging research is closely interrelated with changing technology in 

 all segments to the tobacco industry. The most acceptable package is a compromise 

 that is best suited to minimize costs in all these segments. For the continued 

 improvement of tobacco packaging and handling, the technological and economic factors 

 must be first identified and assimilated into the best overall compromise. 



Several areas have been identified forfuture research. To ensure the development 

 of a suitable sheet at minimum cost, further testing is required on manufacturing 



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