Tobacco as a Farm Crop for England. 
233 
delay in arranging with the fire insurance office. Those who re- 
member the total destruction of Mr. Bateman's crop by fire will 
see how necessary it is to provide against it. 
My hop-oast is a large barn 99 feet by 18 feet, with a floor 
raised 7^ feet above the ground, and a thatched roof. Three 
kilns are built on to it ; two of them square, 16 feet by 16 feet, 
and one round ; these kilns being very similar to malt kilns. 
The tobacco was hung in tiers 15 feet above the fire, which was 
of anthracite coal, such as is used for hop-drying. Between 
the fire and the tobacco, and close under the latter, was a hair- 
cloth which distributed the heat more evenly, and likewise 
arrested the dust from the fire. We closely followed the 
directions given in the American Reports as concerning drying, 
using a far greater degree of heat than any other tobacco growers 
in England, raising the temperature as high as 190^, whereas 
the maximum temperature of Lord W'alsingham and Messrs. 
Carter & Co. was 90°. 
Mr. L. McCormick, in his Report furnished to Beale's 
" English ^Tobacco Culture,"* mentions that his temperature 
never exceeded 80°, which he considers a correct maximum heat, 
since he found that those plants which were at first subjected 
to a high degree of heat (at first) dried green, whereas those 
dried gradually assumed a light brown colour. 
This statement, in which we all coincide, is interesting, 
because on it hangs the whole process of fixing the colour ; for 
to fix the colour, and to fix it at the right time, is doubtless 
one of the great arts of dry ing tobacco ; and, curiously enough, 
of all the numerous visitors to my tobacco who professed a 
knowledge of tobacco-curing, only one of the number, Mr. J. R. 
Hamilton, seemed to be acquainted with the art of fixing the 
colour. 
Mr. W. L. Wigan's experiments in this direction are interest- 
ing and instructive. He does not see the value of raising the 
temperature to 170° F., thinking that such an extreme degree of 
heat is only used to dry the stalk. I myself think that very little 
is known about the effect of these high temperatures on tobacco, 
and from the information I have derived from Mr. Wigan, I 
am led to believe that upon this point further knowledge is 
required. 
Q. — I conclude you have already smoked some of your 
tobacco. 
A. — Yes, I had some of the leaves made into cigarettes bv 
Messrs. Cope & Co., who kindly supplied me with much 
information about the manufacture of tobacco, and I sent them 
♦ Vide p. 252 of this article. 
