566 



THE SOUTH 



EKN PLANTER. 



successful Planter not long since, he described ' 

 his method of tobacco-curing as follows : 



" I always try to get my tobacco to the house 

 as soon after cutting as is practicable. As_ 

 soon as the leaves are sufficiently wilted to per- 

 mit handling without any danger of la-eaking 

 them, I begiu to haul in. For the leaves to 

 wilter requires only a few hours. If the to- 

 bacco is not already as yellow as I wish it, 

 (which is seldom the case) in order to brighten 

 the color, I croiod it close on the sticks, and the 

 sticks svjjUcienily close together for the haves to 

 touch slightly. I leave a space on every tier of 

 si A or eight feet unoccupied, so as to have the 

 opportunity, if it should be desirable, to give 

 the tobacco more space. Having succeeded in 

 obtaining as bright a color as I wish, my next 

 step is to separate the sticks several inches 

 before having a fire kindled of dry, half rotten 

 pine wood. This should not be allowed to 

 Uaze — only to smoke. Fire from wood of this 

 description will not make smoke strong enough 

 to leave behind it either unpleasant smell or 

 taste. It merely warms the tobacco faster than 

 it would do from close crowding, and makes it 

 yellow. When the color is sufficiently bright, 

 I have fires of charcoal made up under each 

 tier hot enough to raise the temperature of the 

 house, (which should be close) to 110° or 120°, 

 Fahrenheit. This heat should be kept up con- 

 stantly. If it is, the tobacco will, in three days, 

 be cured. I take it down for stripping as soon as 

 I can, when it is in order. After stripping, it 

 is again put on the sticks and placed on the 

 tiers in the same close manner as when first 

 brought to the house. If the weather should 

 be unpropitio.us I can then separate the sticks , 

 and give it room so as to kindle a light fire 

 under it at any time I may think it desirable 

 from dampness." 



We append an article from a correspondent 

 of that excellent paper, the North Carolina 

 Planter, on the same subject: 



Walnut Cove, N. C., July '58. 

 To make low-ground Tobacco desirable for 

 the Manufacturer, it is necessary for it to be 

 cured yellow. Until very recently, the idea 

 has prevailed, that Tobacco yellowed before fire 

 is put under it, could not be cured yellow. 

 This is a mistake, and I will endeavor to explain 

 the treatment in a few words. As large To- 

 bacco requires more time to cure it than small, 

 and sappy Tobacco more than that which yel- 

 lows on the hill, you will at once see the 



necessity of cutting as near the same grade as 

 possible, for the same curing. Do not put more 

 than five plants on a stick, and have them at 

 least twelve inches apart in the barn. Before 

 housing put it on a scaffold near the barn door, 

 just high enough from the ground to allow the 

 tails of the Tobacco to rest, from 6 to 10 inches 

 on the straAv, with which the ground should be 

 covered. As soon as the Tobacco gets suffi- 

 ciently limber, crowd it on the scaffold and 

 cover it closely over the tops and sides with 

 leafy brush, and there let it remain until it 

 yellows. If it should rain on it, open it on a 

 higher scaffold and let it dry, and if not suffi- 

 ciently yellow, again crowd it. When it gets 

 nearly yellow, build a log fire in your barn and 

 keep it hot one day so as to dry the ground and 

 walls thoroughly, and at night remove the fire. 

 The next day house the Tobacco, and put from 

 nine to fifteen small fires made of charcoal, at 

 equal distances from each other, over the floor. 

 By hanging a Thermometer on a bottom tier 

 near the centre of the house, you may keep the 

 heat regular. For the first ten or twelve hours, 

 raise the heat to 95 or 100°; then increase it 5° 

 every fifteen or eighteen hours according to the 

 size of the Tobacco, until the leaf is nearly 

 cured, then increase it 5° every two hours until 

 165 or 170° are obtained, and continue at that 

 until stem and stalk are thoroughly cured. 

 The fires should be kept up night and day from 

 the beginning to the end. The walls of the 

 barn should be made close to exclude the air, 

 and if it has a tight roof, a space two or three 

 inches wide should be left under the eaves ; but 

 if a common slab roof, no space will be neces- 

 f^ary as they are generally sufficiently open. It 

 would be well to have air holes under the bot- 

 tom of the house, that could be opened or closed 

 at pleasure, and during the two first days of 

 firing, keep them and the door standing open 

 most of the time. 



In giving the degrees of heat and the changes, 

 I may not be exactly correct, but by observing 

 the following 1 think there will be but little 

 j difficulty in succeeding, as the best curers in 

 Stokes county have never used a Thermometer. 

 The nature of Tobacco is such, that if fire is 

 forced too fast in the beginning, it will cause 

 the leaves to cure of a dark rusty or greenish 

 color ; or in a more advanced stage, if the heat 

 is too great, there is danger of causing the To- 

 bacco to sweat ; which would cause large red 

 splotches to come on the leaves ; and if too 

 slow (which I think is not often the case except 

 when the fires are allowed to go out) there is 

 danger of its drying up of the same color tha^ 

 it would in the sun or air. All of these things 

 should be guarded against. If it should get in 

 a sweat, which you can readily detect by fre- 

 quently feeling the leaves, immediately pull 

 down the fires and give it air freely i)y opening 

 the door, &c. After it dries out of 'the sweat, 

 you may proceed as before, but do not have too 

 much steam. By observing these rules I think 



