644 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ed and free for any person’s use.) These 
guides are boards of sufficient width, which 
are hung to the lower beams so that by draw¬ 
ing on guiding cords fastened to the adjoining 
beams they can be deflected in such a way as 
to close partly or wholly any <>f the spaces and 
direct the warm dry current to any part of 
the barn. In case the tobacco at the center is 
drying and curiug faster than the rest, the 
heat can be shut from it and turned to the 
sides. This arrangement was found exceed¬ 
ingly useful last season when it was first used. 
The curing goes on slowly; the beat is 
raised at first to 80 degrees; then gradually to 
100 degrees until the tobacco is nearly dry 
and of a yellow color, as desired. As soon as 
this appears, the heat is raised to 120 degrees, 
or 140 degrees to finish the curing quickly and 
tlx the color. This is where the experience of 
grower. In general, the managament of the 
crop is as follows: As the plant nears its 
full growth, suckers start from the axils of 
the leaves, and these suckers are pinched off 
as soon as they appear, lest they might in¬ 
terfere with the growth and ripening of the 
leaves. The blossom buds are also pinched 
off and the upward growth of the plant is 
stopped in this way at 0, 8, 10, 12 or 14 
leaves, as the variety may vary or the fancy 
of the grower may dictate. In North Carolina 
where the yellow-leaf tobacco is grown all 
along the mountain region and foot-hill 
country, from six to ten leaves are left on 
the plant. In Kentucky and Virginia, where 
the dark tobacco is grown, from 10 to 14 
leaves are left In Texas “a happy mean” 
would be 10 leaves, and when the fifth pair 
of leaves are about two inches long, the tip of 
the stalk is pinched off. Then the plants 
are watched to save them from the 
worms, the large green-striped larva? of a 
sphinx moth, which are otherwise known as the 
tomato worms. The plant is meanwhile slow¬ 
ly maturing, and as it ripens, the leaves be¬ 
gin to turn yellow. It is then ready to cut. 
It is cut as follows: the stem at the lower 
part, for about 10 inches, is slit with a sharp 
knife, beginning about the stalks of the low¬ 
est leaves, and leaving about three inches of 
stem below the cut. The plants are strung 
upon a lath four feet long, one after another, 
by means of this slit, which is also made to 
help to dry the plant. When the lath is full 
of plants, so placed that they do not touch, 
it is hung in a rack on a wagon, and when 
the rack is filled, the load is taken to the 
tobacco house where the laths are ranged on 
beams placed lengthwise of the house so that 
as many plants can be hung In it as possible 
without touching. The lowest tier of beams 
is about eight feet above the floor, so that a 
man can move about easily under the plants. 
The curing is now done by means of flues 
arranged as shown at Fig. 314. The O O 
grape-vines three years oia. wnicn yieiaeu a 
ton of raisins per acre. An orange tree, 30 
years old, yielded 4,000 oranges this season, at 
Marysville. 
A gentleman from Oroville told me the 
greatest cold ever known at Oroville occurred 
three years ago—the mercury falling to 20° 
below the freezing point. Orange trees at 
Oroville make a growth of from six to eight 
feet in a year, and sometimes bear at six years 
from the seed. At the time of the severe cold 
the orange trees were not injured: the lemon 
trees lost their leaves and did not bear fruit 
the succeeding year. On the Oroville counter 
were also photographs of orange groves at 
Christmas time—looking like a mid-summer 
scene in Pennsylvania, Pomegranates are 
liked by Mexicans and Spaniards—and not 
much by Americans. The Japanese persim¬ 
mons are very ornamental, and the fruit here 
has an extraordinary keeping quality. A 
New Castle lady sold 10,000 oranges at Christ¬ 
mas time at two cents apiece. A Tehama 
County man has an orange grove of 200 bear¬ 
ing trees, 10 years old—trees thrifty, and 
fruit fine. Indeed if auyone asks: 
exact rules for any one case because success 
depends upon many accidental conditions. 
After curing one crop one will know how to 
manage a second. A fter the t obacco is cured, 
it must come *‘in case” by which is meant it 
must be left to absorb sufficient moisture from 
the air to sweat and become soft and pliable. 
It is then stripped from the stalk. put in hands 
and tied and bulked, or put in piles and weigh¬ 
ted, when it undergoes a fermentation or 
sweating by which the flavor is brought out 
by some chemical change in the gum and 
other parks of the leaf. This is also one of 
the technical parte of the curing which can 
be learned only by experience. And at every 
point in all this intricate curing of the leaf 
the operator runs the risk of damage or des¬ 
truction of bis crop by some bluuder or care¬ 
lessness which ruins the whole business. 
FRUIT QUERIES. 
H IV'., Wheeling , UVs? la—1. Will it pay 
to plant an apple orchard on farm land 
worth from 880 to 8100 per acre? 2. If so, 
what varieties shall I plant from earliest to 
latest? 3. What grape will make as good 
wine as Catawba, and ripen a week or 10 days 
earlier? 4. At wbat age does the Transcend¬ 
ent crab begin to bear ? 
Ans. —1. Where apples do well, and are 
treated with care, an orchard will pay ex¬ 
tremely well on such land—better than almost 
anything else. 2. For market, no one should 
plant a large number of varieties, and as a 
rule extremely early apples do not pay, except 
one ha s a local market, that will take them. 
We might give a list, but the best way is to 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS, 
Alaska. 
FORT Wrangel, July 10.—Crops of all kinds 
are two or three weeks later than usual. Oats 
and barley are just heading out and promise 
well. No wheat that L know of is grown in 
Alaska this year, though I raised good Spring 
wheat last year. Early potatoes, rutabagas, 
carrots and beets are doing well, but they are 
late. Cabbages and cauliflowers promise first- 
rate. Hay—Timothy aud native Red-top— 
very heavy; just commenced harvesting the 
latter. We have had more rain than usual in 
this wet country. Cattle do well, and there 
ought to be thousands of them here. We have 
only to feed from three to four months in 
Winter. J> w - Y - 
Dakota. 
Mitchell, Davison Co., July 15.—We have 
had a peculiar season for Dakota. Up to May 
we had three or four times the usual raiufnll 
for the spring mouths, but since then we have, 
had scarcely any. In June we had less than 
an inch and a half; in July so far not over a 
quarter of an inch. These are our wet months 
generally. Wheat and oats are making a 
brave effort, however, and will be from half 
to a full crop. Corn never looked better, bar¬ 
ring a few localities; but unless we get rain it 
would seem it could not make a crop. Pota¬ 
toes are nearly a failure; shipping stock will 
be small, aud crop light. Flax is the worst, 
the moisture not being sufficient, to sprout the 
seed and start it, especially the late seeding. 
There are opportunities here for persons of 
moderate means to secure farms, though gov¬ 
ernment land is all occupied. w. H. s. 
Illinois. 
Champaign, Champaign Co., July 23.—The 
grape crop this year in Central Illinois is a 
very remarkably good one, and so of almost 
every other kind of fruit, small and large. 
No rust, no blight, no mildew, no fungus, no 
insects, and one thing remarkable, only a few 
birds. B - F - J - 
Michigan. 
Menominee, Menominee Co., July 17.—We 
have had a long and severe drought with great 
heat, so that every thing has suffered, aud many 
vegetables are literally burned up. w. G. B. 
New York. 
Stockton, Chaut. Co. July 20.—Farmers are 
mostly through haying. The crop promises to 
be an average one. Pastures are very short 
on account of the dry weather, and cows are 
shrinking badly. Corn is looking well; most 
fields are tasseled out. Oats promise an aver- 
Fig. 314. 
represent the beams, and the horizontal lines 
are the laths upon which the tobacco plants are 
hung. At A is a furnace haviug hot air-pipes 
leading from it to side flues, B B, and a cen¬ 
tral flue, all leading to the chimney or outlet at 
the back of the barn. Fig. 0 shows the 
arrangement of the tobacco, and the flues so 
placed as to supply the requisite heat in an 
even manner all through the barn. Fig. 315 
shows the plan of the flues. At Figs 3162117 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to Insure attention. Before 
asking a question, please sec If U Is uot answered In 
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MANAGEMENT OF THE TOBACCO CROP. 
W. M. Belleville , Texas .—When should 
the tobacco plant be cut, and how can one 
tell by the appearance of the plant when it 
should be done? How is tobacco cured? 
ANSWERED BY H. STEWART (NORTH CARO¬ 
LINA). 
This question brings up the whole intricate 
business of cutting and curing tobacco, and 
the answer depends largely upon the kind of 
tobacco growflj and the experience of the 
Fig. 317. 
Is an arrangement of guides to distribute the 
heat, which is my own invention (QQt 
