The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-09-02
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Curing Yellow Tobacco foDaec0 Not
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Curing Yellow f0baece 9obaece Not
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We find the following remarks co,
corning the curing of. Yellow Tobac-
co in the Southern Plaater aud Far
naer, by Wai r. Ratchet, an expert
enced cultivator:l sgfes'sj l1sli foiaIo
Your correspondent S. O., d., re-
quests some person yersed in curing
yellow TOBACCO, to give his aa0slxs OPP,
eraadi, that others might profit tbere-
by.oIsNow, bdo1not profess to- be an
adept In this art, although I have had
yenrS OF experience; but win give
the practice Of q most successful cur
er, who generally obtained the
highest prices in Danville.l 10 cure
yellow tobacco, you must use charcoal
for the leaf; the stalk and stem may
be cured with seasoned wood. The
body of the barn should be made as
close as possible. Many planters
around Danyille have cabin roofs on
their barns, covered with boards,
which permit the escape of heat much
better than a single roof When you
cut your tobacco, put eight plants ON
a stick, and place the sticks eight in
ches apart on the tier poles If your
tobacco ripens yellow commence the
lIeat, BY d thermometcr,i at 80 degrees,
and keep up this heat until the tobac-
co is yellow enough to commence dry
ing the leaf then. raise TO Ito de-
grees, and keepit UP for three hours
and then to ll5 degrees, and hold on
to this heat till you see that the tobac-
co is well sapped," and the tails be-
gin to turn and get little dry at the
ends (for you cannot cure yellow to.
bacco iuntilyou can get the sap out Of
the leaf); then raise TO 40 degrees,
and keep up for three hours; and
then 100 degrees, for the same length
of time and then up to 140 degrees,
which continue until the tobacco is
cured. ~ ou may then take out the
thermometer, and make your fires as
hot as you please, to cure the stalk
and stem thoroughly. A wet season
will cause redundancy Of sap in the
tobacco, and will exercise any curer's
patience in drying and yeilowing
early curing is the most. successful,
whilst the weather is warm. If your
tobacco ripens green, commence at 80
degrees, and keep it at that point for
half day; then 80 degrees and pro-
coed as above. l have succeeded ad-
mirabfy by letting the tobacco hang
in the barn till it was as yellow as
necessary, and then starting the fires
at l20 degrees, and proceeding as d.
rected.l For barn sixteen or TWEEN.
ty feet. square, have three rows of
fires and three fires in row. AS
soon as the tobacco comes in orler,,
crowd it together as close IS you can,
or put it in a bulk Oh sticks, and let
1t remain until the, weather becomes
cool, by which time the color will be
fixed !; for if You let it get in high or
der soon after being cured, the leaf
will turn red. 1t was once the GUS
tom among the planters in The region
of country around Danvillc to keep
their doors shut when following and
drying the leaf; but planter i'm that
section told me last year, that this
practice was giving away to one more
rational, which consisted it letting tie
doors remain open during the yellow
ing and drying process; in conse-
quencc of which the tobacco was not
subject to so severe a sweat, and the
leaf dried more specdily-the neccs-
saryi result of the admission Of air.
Relative the open roof theory of j. /
A. b., in curing tobacco, l have wit
messed the experiment so far IS the re-
moval of several courses of shingles
from the apex of the roof, but it was
a failure. agree entirely with w.
A. q. that tobacco is not and in,poy-
erisher but an improver of the soil
for have observed all my life-and l
am now an old man--the corn, wheat,
&C., succeeded better after tobacco
than any other crop. The finest,
highland corn l have ever made was
OH fir, sh land. which had been in to-
bacco the two preceding years, no
manure having been applied to the
land. Old tobacco lots were alike
successful. Years ago, some of ny
had a patch of tobacco in q
bottom, at the foot Of a hill, applying
no manure, which had been in Guilt
vatiOn for at least fifty years the to
baccO was Inferior Of course. The
next year this field was put in corn,
and l could tell the difference as far
as | could see the corn; that portion
OH which the tobacco was grown be-
ing of dark green color and very
thrifty. An intelligent neighbor had
previously observed to me, that he
thought we might put poor land in
tobacco, giving it the necessary Guilt
walton, then follow with corn, and the
result would be, satisfactory. The