The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-09-18
| BRMM nRlCca.
HOW T0s PRESERVE THE BRIGT
COLOR OF THE LEAF.
An Article From Which Planters Nay
Get Suggestions that will Probably
be Of Value to Them.

A great deal of tobacco which has
been properly cured, is allowed to
damage in handling, and does not
bring anything like the price it ought
to. The subsequent management Of
crop of tobacco, is Of as much inn
portance, and requires, if anything,
more care than the curing. We pub
lis below An article from the Southern
7o6aefoaist, from which our readers
may get suggestions which will be Of
value to them: =
We have a sample of heavy old
ground North Carolina tobacco before
US, cured by fues. It--runs clear
orange, muddy orange and a green
ish orange, and from the weight of the
leaves indicates yield of about 900
pounds per acre, and is worth on the
basis of old tobacco on same face val
ue to-day about $40 to $33 per
hundred pounds. This tobacco will
constitute very large portion Of the
1890 crop owing to the effects Of the
recent heavy rains and sticky warm.
atmosphere, following the ideal wealth
er up to one month past, and hence
the importance Of suggesting a means
to the planter, to save the color and
thereby preserve its value. To give
the planter clear idea Of the import
ance of color as the basis of the value
of his crop, let US state that the value
of 50 cent lemon wrapper is four-ffths
yellow and one-fifth white light CHINA
mon. If he exposes his lemon wrap
per to the atmosphere after saving
his fine color through flue-curing, and
suffers it to come in and 60 out of case
just few times, the weather being
warm and givey, he will lose just
one-ffth of the lemon yellow, which
reduces the value to forty dollars per
hundred, since the loss Of a mere
shade of color makes wonderful differ
ences in the manufacturing value of
bright wrappers. 1t left to come and
60 in and out of case once or twice,
more, the color still fades, reducing
the value to twenty-five or thirty
dollars wrapper. If exposed to a
third atmospheric change, it depreci-
ates to the value of a S15 to S18
wrapper; if to the fourth damp atmos,
pheric exposure, it is reduced to the
price Of poor cinnamon color filler,
and no longer attains any Of the
original color, arti6cially fixed in its
face and texture by the skill of the
cure. 1t returns to the color nature
would have made it without the aid of
artificial heat. Now we sum up the
loss on this fifty dollar wrapper amounts
to at least forty to forty-three dollars
per hundred, almost entire value of
the original cure. The coarse sample
before US described above l put at
$40 to $23 per hundred it is a thick
and gummy leaf that cannot stand
the atmospheric moisture, without
suffering per cent. loss in value since
the last deepening of the orange and
muddy orange will run it into a foxy
red and reduce it at once to the rank
of filler, but as it has more gum and
richness than the fancy ffty-dollar
lemon wrapper described, it will nat
urally make better filler, and could
depreciate over 50 per cent, yet, by
saving that SO per cent. of money
value which consists in this fugitive
orange color, the planter saves him.
self not less than one hundred dollars
per acre, or in crop of ten acres one
thousand dollars, at the expenditure Of
only a little caution at the proper
time. 1t should be the rule of every
planter to hastily strip his tobacco off
the stalk, not attempting to assort it,
tying all up into large fodder-like
hands, SO as to injure as few the leaves
as possible, and always using the green
est leaves at that, placing all closely
on sticks and crowding it closely in a
tight barn, starting at the top and
filling downward. then by drying it
out slowly by aues and closing the
doors, it will remain stationary till
cold weather and shipping time, when
the doors can be thrown open the fisrt