25 



brought the temperature inside the barn, 6 feet above the floor, to within 

 one degree of the temperature of the air outside, and reduced the rela- 

 tive humidity from 91 to 86 c within half an hour. For the test with 

 artificial heat the barn was tightly closed and Are started in two of the 

 four furnaces, thus using only one set of flues. One hour after start- 

 ing the tire the relative humidity was <><> and the temperature 71.5° F. 

 6 feet above the barn floor. "By using only half the available heat- 

 ing facilities for one hour, the relative humidity of the interior of the 

 barn at a height of 6 feet from the ground was reduced from 91° to 

 69°. * * * In conclusion we are justified in considering that, under 

 the atmospheric conditions most favorable to the development of 'pole 

 sweat." the temperature and moisture in the interior of a closed barn 

 can be so regulated by artificial heat as to reduce to a minimum 

 the liability of curing tobacco to damage from fungi or other like 

 organisms." 



No special experiments were made with stem rot, but the author 

 states 1 that this fungus disease which frequently affects the stems of 

 the plants in the last stage of curing seldom matures in the cured 

 stalks, owing to their dryness at this time. As a remedial measure it 

 is suggested that when the crop is cured all stems and refuse attacked 

 by stem rot be burned before the fungus has matured and the barn be 

 fumigated with sulphur immediately after curing a crop and again 

 before the harvesting of the next season's crop. "If this be done 

 * * * the danger from stem rot would be largely decreased if not 

 entirely obviated.*' 



EXPERIMENTS IX CURING TOBACCO. 



Experiments with different methods of curing tobacco have been 

 conducted by the experiment stations of a number of tobacco-growing 

 States. In a series of experiments made in Maryland and reported by 

 the Maryland Experiment Station 2 tobacco was air and flue cured in a 

 frame barn and flue cured in a log barn. Owing to more favorable 

 conditions of humidity, flue curing gave better results in the frame 

 barn than in the log barn. Results in general were favorable to flue 

 curing as compared with air curing. 



At the North Carolina Station in 1891, 3 the ordinary method of cut- 

 ting down the plant and curing it with the leaves on the stalk proved 

 less profitable than curing by the Snow process, in which the leaves are 

 cut from the stalk as they ripen and cured separately. By the ordi- 

 nary method 326 pounds of cured leaves were obtained from 2. Ill 

 pounds of fresh leaves and stalks, and by the Snow process 454 pounds 

 from 2,109 pounds of green plants. The net financial returns amounted 



'Connecticut State Station Rpt., 1891. 2 Maryland Station Bui. No. 26. 



3 North Carolina Station Buls. Xos. 86 and 90a. 



