TOXICACEOUS HERBS. 



695 



was bestowed, except keeping the ground clean, until their lateral shoots 

 began to show themselves, which were constantly kept pinched off as they 

 appeared : these, if suffered to remain, would have had the effect of very 

 much reducing the supply of sap from the useful leaves of the plants. They 

 were topped at sixteen or eighteen leaves, according to their strength. The 

 tobacco was ripe in the beginning of September, as was indicated by the 

 leaves becoming mottled with yellow spots, those at the bottom more so 

 than at the top of the plant ; they were also more glossy and shining than 

 before." 



1599. After management. — " In most gardens the leaves are stripped off 

 the plants in a green state, and thrown together in a heap to ferment ; while, 

 little or no attention being paid to the degree of temperature which such 

 fermentation should reach, the usual consequence is burning or rotting the 

 leaves. Tobacco so treated has neither the taste, the smell, nor the efficacy 

 of tobacco, and when burnt in hothouses is by no means effective in killing 

 insects, without a great proportion of regularly cured and manufactured 

 tobacco being burnt along with it. Hothouses also smell very disagreeably 

 for eight or ten days after being fumigated Avith it." 



1600. Curing. — " The mushroom-house being at this time disengaged, was 

 thought an eligible place for the curing process. The plants were taken up 

 quite dry, with a few of their roots ; but no particular attention was paid to 

 saving many of the latter, as the object was only to avoid breaking the bottom 

 leaves (which might have been the case by cutting the stems). The plants 

 were carried immediately to the house, and hung on nails in the walls, and 

 on ropes in the middle of it. When all had been brought into the house, it 

 was shut up quite close, the fire lighted, and the temperature kept to 70°, 

 until the leaves got completely yellow, which they did in four or five days. 

 The heat was then raised to 75° ; and in about a week the leaves, with the 

 exception of the midribs, were cured, and of a fine brown colour. The heat 

 was then increased to between 80° and 90° ; and in five days the midribs 

 were so completely killed, that the thick ends of them would have broken 

 immediately on attempting to bend them. The leaves were now very much 

 curled, and dry as fire could make them, and if subjected to any pressure 

 would have crumbled to snuff. Fire was discontinued, and the floor of the 

 house well watered. This was repeated as it evaporated, and in twenty- 

 four hours the leaves were as soft and pliable as could be desired : they 

 could now be handled without breaking or wasting them. When stripped 

 off the stalks, they were stretched out singly, and laid above one another, 

 smoothing them gently with the hands. When all were laid out neatly, 

 they were well pressed, to give them form and keep them smooth ; they 

 were then tied in hands, of about half a dozen leaves in each, and packed into a 

 tub, being well pressed as tliey were put in. In this way they remained 

 a fortnight, when they began to mould slightly at the midribs, in conse- 

 quence of the weather being moist and warm. They were then rehung in 

 the house, and very gradually dried by fire-heat ; were afterwards brought 

 to a moist state in the manner above described, and finally were repacked in 

 the tub, where they now remain, well pressed, and in a good keeping state. 

 1 he tobacco continues to improve in smell and appearance with its age. 



" The important points in the above mode of curing are, to carry the 

 plants to the house whenever they are taken up ; for if the sun be bright, 

 the leaves would sunburn in a short time. The leaves require to be yellow 



