94: QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Fes., 1898. 
will not need to fire more, unless there should be a continued rainy spell and 
your tobacco gets very soft, when a little fire to dry out the barn will do 
good. 
While firing, watch the tobacco very closely, and see if at any time it begins 
to sweat, which will show itself by the tobacco getting wettish. If this should 
happen there is then danger of pole burn, and you should open the ventilators 
around the bottom of the barn, and get up a free circulation of air; and when 
the sweating ceases, close the ventilators and proceed with your firing. 
If you prefer to air-cure your tobacco, then, as before stated, your barn 
should be so constructed as to be very close or very open, as the season may 
require, and always with plenty of ventilation at top, that hot air may get out 
of the roof. 
After scaffolding, hang in your barn as heretofore directed. In cool, 
pleasant weather, and at night, keep your barn open to the fullest. In very 
hot weather, especially when winds are blowing, or in foggy weather, keep 
your barn closed. 
If the weather be showery, with intervals of sunshine, you may keep 
them open; but if the weather be continuously wet and muggy, close them ; 
and if you find your tobacco getting very soft, with a tendency to mould, 
build a little fire to dry out the barn. 
The idea in curing by air is to keep the tobacco curing uniformly all the 
time, neither too fast nor too slow; and the opening and closing the barn 
must be regulated with that idea. 
In curing tobacco with fire, the tips of the tobacco leaves should never 
be nearer the fire than 5 feet. 
Tobacco is ripe when it grains up, and shows brown spots on the leaf, and 
shows a rough surface, and is very brittle, breaking readily when doubled up. 
Tt should never be allowed to stand until the points of the leaf begin to 
dry up, for then it is beginning to lose weight, and is too far gone to make a 
good cure. 
ae all times be careful not to get your tobacco dirty, for dirty tobacco has 
no value. 
Be careful in handling not to bruise the leaves, for bruised tobacco will 
not cure properly. Good tobacco can only be made by good curing, and good 
curing can come only by painstaking and experience, and close observation. 
It is a profitable crop if well done, and, like all other things, if you do not try 
to do it well, had as well be lett alone.* 
* Norr.—The above directions for curing will not do for cigar tobacco, 
NOTES ON SILOS AND SILAGE, 
In storing a portion of the coarse feed for farm animals, the silo has many 
advantages over the ordinary methods. Fresh green herbage is the natural 
and best rough feed for cattle, sheep, and horses. Silage comes closer to this 
_ feed than any other. 
Silage deteriorates very slowly with age, if at all, and may be fed when 
several years old. 
The storage required for silage per ton of dry matter is only about one- 
third that required for hay. 
A silo makes it possible to keep a larger number of cows on a given area 
of land than is possible in any other way where rough food is not purchased. 
To ensure the best silage and the least loss of dry matter, it 1s important 
that the silage should have a depth at the close of filling of not less than 24 
fect, and 80 feet is better than 24. A perfect silo is one which is absolutely 
air-tight, yet well ventilated. 
