2ft 



to $32.89 for the stalk-cured, and $53.55 for the leaf -cured or Snow 

 process. The tobacco cured by the leaf process was better in quality 

 than the leaf cured on the stalks. This effect is ascribed to be due to 

 harvesting the leaves as they became mature, while by the stalk proc- 

 ess many of the lower leaves were overripe and the upper leaves still 

 green at the time of cutting. Handling the leaves on the stalks also 

 caused a greater loss than handling them separately. It was found 

 that the time and temperature required for curing leaves from differ- 

 ent parts of the plant varied according to their ripeness, and that for 

 this reason the leaf -curing proved the more desirable method, since the 

 leaves cured at one time were all of the same degree of maturity and 

 required like treatment to produce the best results in color, quality, 

 and general appearance. The author states that carefully regulating 

 the drying by artificial heat, as practiced in the Snow curing barn and 

 old style log barn, reduces the fermentative changes in curing to a 

 minimum. It is believed that in these experiments, owing to this fact, 

 practically the whole amount of glucose present in the leaves remained 

 unchanged in the cured product. 



The record of temperature in leaf curing is given briefly as follows: 

 The temperature in the barn on August 18, at 9 a. m., was 90°; at 10 

 a. m., 95°. On August 19, at 10 a. m., 100°; 11 a. m., 105°; 9.30 p. m., 

 120°. August 20, 10 a. m., 125°; 2 p. m„ 130°; 10 p. m., 136?. 

 August 21, 3 a.m., 140°; 6 a. m., 150°; 12 hi., 120 ', after which the 

 temperature was allowed to fall rapidly and the next morning the 

 tobacco was taken out of the barn. In this process the leaves lost 

 81.44 per cent of the green weight. 



The Pennsylvania Station 1 found that on an average 72.70 per cent 

 of the weight of the whole plant was leaf, and that the cured leaf con- 

 stituted 15.80 per cent of the weight of the original leaf with stalk- 

 cured tobacco and 14.40 per cent with leaf -cured tobacco. The per- 

 centage of leaf tissue was also somewhat greater in the stalk-cured 

 product. 



The Wisconsin Station 2 made a series of investigations on the curing 

 of tobacco in 1894, and the results obtained were confirmed by the 

 repetition of the experiments the following season. 3 It was found 

 that the loss of water in curing was about 71 per cent of the weight, 

 of the green plant. The rate at which the water passed off increased 

 gradually from the time the leaves were well wilted until their color 

 was changing from yellow to brown. The water appeared to be elim- 

 inated by the leaves rather than extracted from them by drying. It 

 is stated that the changes in the color of the leaf during the curing 

 process were not directly due to the loss of moisture, but .depended 

 largely upon the degree of ripeness, the riper the leaf the lighter the 



1 Pennsylvania Station Rpt., 1894. 2 Wisconsin Station Rpt., 1894. 3 Ibid., 1895. 



