The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1884-03-19
The Culture of Tobacco.
(BY PROF. A. H.. WARD
Continued from last Teek.)

AOVBt
CUTTING AND HOUSING TOBACCO.
Do not be in hurry to begin cutting
your tobacco until it is ripe. A thin
butcher or shoe knife well sharpened,
and wrapped with a soft cloth around the
handle and extending an inch along the
blade, will do the work effectually and be
easy to the hand. Put knives into the
hands of experienced cutters only, men
who know ripe tabacco and will select
plants uniform in color and texture, and
will cut no other. Have your sticks all
ready in the field and placed in convenient
piles. Pine sticks, rived three-fourths
of an inch By one and one-fourth inch,
and four and one half feet long, drawn
smooth, are best. Start together two
cutters and one stakeholder, the cutters
carrying two rows each, and the stick
holder walking between them. The cut
ter takes hold of the plant with his left
hand at the top neal where the knife en-
tiers the stalk with his right hand he
splits the stalk down the center (belng
care to guide the knife SO as not to sever
the ~leayes) to within three inches of the
point he intends to sever the stalks from
the hill and as the knife descends his
left hands follows the slit or opening, and
when the plant is severed from the hill
bv a dexterous movement Of the left hand
the c,,ant is ~straddled across the stuck In
the hands of the holder. When the stick
has received about six medium plants, if
intended for brights, it is ready to go to
the barn, either carried by hand. IT near,
or hauled on a wagon, If distant. II 1T Is
necessary to use a wagon, prepare a bed
sixteen feet long to hold three coops or
piles, on which no place the tobacco as
cut and after placing twenty-five or thirty
sticks of cut tobacco On each coop, drive
to the barn to be unloaded. Tobacco
suitable for brights is best handled in this
way, as it is bruised less than if handled
by any other mode.
Very heavy tobacco will break less If,
after being cut by the above mode, the
sticks are placed gently on the ground
and the plants allowed to wilt before be-
ing removed to the barn. But tobacco
of medium size bruises less to handle it
without willing. Cutting and housing by
this method, you never have any SUM-
burned tobacco.
Care should be taken never to let a
load of tobacco lie long in the wagon or IN
a pile. as it sweats and heats, and is soon
ruined. After it is housed keep the
doors open day and night, so that it may
have the benefit of the warm and dry air
for the purpose of curing, closing the
doors against high winds and beating
rains. When cured, keep the doors
closed.
If the process Of curing is to be hasten
ed heat must be applied. AS soon as it
gets about half yellow a slow fire should
be started; if made too hot at first the
tobacco will turn black. About the second
day the ends of the leaves will begin to
curl up then the fire should be gradu-
alfy increased, till it heats the tobacco
blood warm it should be kept up so till
the leaf is thoroughly cured. The best
arrangements for drying will not be OF
much avail nnless the tobacco has been
fully matured before harvesting, for il
this has not been the case it will never
lose the well-known green taste, and nc
after manipulation, no drying or sweat
ing will free it. When the leaves are
dry, which is seen when the stems become
of a dry color, and break when bent, the
next work is to make tobacco put of them,
weed. Its hidden qualities must be de
VelOpeu. Ills is uouS Wy d pIOCtSo VI
fermentation, during which there is al
ways a formation, during which there is
always a formation of ~ammoniacal salts,
caused by the fweating of the tobacco.
The procest Of sweating must be perform
with every possible care, for on this de
ponds the color of the tobacco, and, in &
large degree, its fine flavor.
If the fermentation is too strong the
lI IL. A. .
driven out. If too little fermented the
color remains green and whitish yellow
and the favor is not developed.
CURING TOBACCO.
In curing, the leaves are broken one b,
one from the stalks In damp weather
(otherwise they would break, stretched
nice and even, and. with the ends in thu
same direction, put up in heaps. These
heaps, of which every workman make:
one, are afterwards put into one or more
large conical heaps, from four to six fee
in diameter at the base, and from one anC
a half to two feet at the top. There ar,
covered with woollen blankets, straw mat
or anything that will press the hear
lightly and shut out the air. In twenty
four to thirty hours a fermentation set
in, the head gets warm, and when it i
SO hot inside that the hand cannot bea,
it very well, the heap is broken up ant
packed over again, putting the Tobacco,
that had been on the outside upon tn,
inside, and vice versa, and treating tn,
same way as at first. In such heaps tn,
tobacco remains twenty to forty day
uutil all the heat isgone; then the heap
are again up in damp weather, the leave
tied up in bundles of one-half to on,
pound in weight, stretched even an,
packed in boxes or hogsheads, presse,
lightly and covered. Now the tobacco i
done-isa salable article.
Ii tobacco is sorted and each kind bun
died by itself Fl it will increase the pric
considerably, and is not difficult work t
do. Correspondence on the subject O
tobacco is respectfully requested of read
ers. | shall be happy to answer an,
questions. Next week the wheat GRO
will be thoroughly considered.
The cost Of an acre of tobacco may b
estimated as follows:
Interest and taxes on land 81
Manure aid applying l
Ploughing twice
Narrowing and marking
5000 plants
Setting out plants
Hoeing 4 times
Worming, topping and suckering l
Cutting and handing to dry,
Stripping and packing
1000 pounds, 81 cents, is Sc
NOTE All this is on a New Englan
basis, and is not a guide for Souther