750 
Notes on the Cultivation of Tobacco 
quality of the tobacco which they yield has not yet been 
ascertained. 
The leaves having been cut off close to the stem, or the plant 
cut off close to the ground, there are several systems adopted to 
ensure what I call the preliminary drying. In some cases they 
are left loose on the ground for a time, longer or shorter, accord- 
ing to the weather ; in others, they are made at once into 
garlands, as will be presently described, and laid thus upon each 
other ; while under the most approved system they are suspended 
in long garlands from the top of a pole, so as to form a huge 
bunch, which is covered when deemed necessary by a sheaf of 
straw as a cap. Under each system the object is to get rid 
gradually of the moisture contained in the leaf; and straw in 
some shape or another is generally used both to moderate the 
action of excessive heat and of too great moisture. When the 
leaves are deemed sufficiently deprived of their succulence, the 
next stage in the drying process is resorted to ; and I will en- 
deavour to describe briefly its variations as I have observed 
them in the north-west of Europe. 
In the French Departments of the Nord and the Pas de Calais, 
nearly every farm upon which tobacco is grown has either an 
orchard or a special enclosure used for the second stage of the 
drying process ; but the smallest growers are contented with a 
series of pegs under the overhanging eaves of their farm-houses 
and outbuildings, from which to hang their garlands of leaves. 
Under the old system, the drying enclosure on larger farms is 
fitted with a series of erections similar to "parallel bars," but 
much higher. These bars terminate in a shed sufficiently wide 
to receive at night the whole of the series of cross-bars which 
rest and travel upon the " parallel bars." The cross-bars carry 
a number of garlands of tobacco-leaves according to the length 
of the bars, care being taken that there is air-space between each 
leaf, as well as between each garland and its neighbour. The 
garlands are made by 'passing a needle and twine through the 
stalks of from twenty to twenty-five leaves, and thus stringing 
them loosely and at intervals together, — the length of a garland 
being from 4 to 5 feet. The garlands are suspended from the 
cross-bars either by means of a peg, or a hook, or a wooden 
V-shaped twig-joint at the end of the string ; and each garland 
is furnished with one of these appliances at each end, so 
that its position may be reversed every day or two, and thus 
equalize the drying of the individual leaves. At night, tlie 
cross-bars are pushed backwards under the shed, and it requires 
a considerable amount of practical skill to know exactly to how 
much sunshine and sun-heat the leaves should be exposed, as 
well as to how much dew, and other atmospheric influences, so 
