INTRODUCTION. 



In view of the increasing production of tobacco, the Department of Agri- 

 culture has adopted the following guide for its cultivation and cure, as the 

 best which has come to its notice, and publishes it for the benefit of agricul- 

 turists to whom the subject is new. 



"Shelton's Tobacco-Hanger" seems to be a convenient mode for the first 

 process of gathering and drying, but the description, as contained in the 

 pamphlet, is obscure, and may be thus explained; The long, black lines are 

 supported by forked sticks driven in the ground, and are but the frame-work 

 which supports the sticks upon which the leaves of the tobacco are hung: and 

 :hey may be of any desirable length, and two feet apart is a convenient position; 

 the sticks and wire upon which the tobacco is hung are placed upon, and from 

 one to the other of these, at convenient distances apart. Why there should 

 be so many tables, as represented in the drawing. I do not readily perceive; 

 but the operator will soon learn to adapt this to his own convenience. 



Tobacco, after it is removed from the field, is either dried by artificial heat 

 or exposure to the air under a roof; for while dews of the night, or even a 

 shower of rain, after it is put upon the frame, are not decidedly injurious to it. 

 yet ii is letter that it should be cured without wet. This is a subject of which 

 the pamphlet does not treat. 



FRED'K WATTS, 

 Cammis 



Department of Agriculture^ March, 1876. 



