The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-02-04
TEN YEARS WITH TOBACCO.
Results OF the experience of a Practical
Planter,

To the Editor Of the Neavs and Courier
Properly constructed tobacco barns are
indispensable on every well.regulated to
bacco farm. Without these the tobacco
growing industry will prove drudgery
to every planter who undertakes it. Af-
ter all it is not difficult to grow tobacco
but the tug of war comes with the curing
process. Tobacco from the same field
may be badly cured and sell for three
cents a pound, while the same tobacco
properly cured would bring fifty cents pei
pound. Therefore it behooves the plan
ter who is going into the business to
make ample preparations for curing hia
crop.
It is true that to get ready for curing
costs some money. Tobacco barns prop
erly constructed cost money, but the
planter must remember that when prop
erly built they last for years. The old
method of constructing log barns and
daubing up the opening with mud is not
recommended to the planter who wishes
to make the most out of his crop. With
the old log barn greater risk is taken in
curing the crop, and the difference in cost
between it and modern one is not very
great. So if you intend planting tobacco
the advice of the writer is to start right,
for it will pay in the long run.
The one man who has done more for
advancing the tobacco.curing process
than any other is Capt. W. 81. Snow, of
High Point, N. O. The captain has de-.
voted the past six years to thorough in
yestigations Of the curing process, and
has finally laid down minute directions
for building a barn best calculated to in.
sure safety in curing the crop. These
directions are full and so plain that any
one can we'll understand them.
Select hillside with slope of about
two and half inches TO the foot. Com
mencing at the lower side dig an ezcava-
ton sixteen by twenty feet into the hill
side. This will bring the upper side
about five and half feet from the sur
face, the floor being level. Then dig
| trench around the four sides of the ex-
cavatiou on the inside, one foot wide, of
the came depth. Fill it with small cob.
BILE stones or coarse gravel to serve as
foundation and act as drain. On top of
the stone or gravel build an eight-inch
wall of good brick or stone, with strong
lime mortar. The wall should be five and
half feet high on the four sides, level
on top, making basement.
In the lower or exposed side of the
wall leave an opening for the door in the
centre of the wall. The opening should
be five feet high and two and half feet
wide. Leave openings on each side of
the door three inches from the ground
and twenty-five inches from the side
walls through which the ends of the
stove may project far enough to be with
in four inches of the outside face of the
wall. The doors of the stoves open out
ward and the fuel is fed from the outside.
Set the stoves three inches above the
ground floor of the basement, and cover
the stoves with brick arches extending
two feet beyond the rear ends of the
stoves and leaving an air space of six
above and on each side Of the stoves,
forming jackets, the rear ends of the
jackets to be left open.
Directly over the stove doors and un.
der the line or crown of the arches leave
openings in the wall two by eight inches,
| the longer line horizontal. These are to
admit fresh air as needed around the
stove and within the arch. Covers to fit
them regulate the quantity of air as re-
quired. In addition to these openings
two others are left, one alongside each
stove, ten inches square and with the tops
level with the surface outside Through
these openings conduits made of one.inch
oak plank ten inches wide for top and
| bottom and eight iucheB for the sides,
project and are extended inside the base
ment its whole length, sunk even with
the tops of the earth floor. Provide these
conduits each with four holes ten inches
long and four inches wide through the
cover, with sliding covers. These are to
allow cool air to be admitted to the base
nent independent of what is let in
through the open arches. This completes
the basement.
The barn superstructure is built as fol-.
lows: Stills four by six inches, and franz
ed and set on the walls. Set the joists and
lay the floor strips three and quarter
by one and q quarter inches, leaving open
spaces cne and quarter inches between
each of them, except those within two
1 l6GG VI GuS Wdllo Oa luiCO oiuOos AASA0
the floor is closely laid. The floor is
open in strips at the door end of the
building. Set the studdiug eighteen
inches apart. Set the rafters one-third
pitch, make the sheeting of good, square
edged planks. Shingle the roof. In the
sheeling and shingles leave an opening
fifteen feet long and eight inches wide at
the peak of the roof for the ventilator.
Sheathing paper is nailed on the joists
and the whole is ceiled. Each pair of
rafters must have collar or wind beams,
made of plank, six inches wide and one
and quarter inches thick, fastened Sc
curely at the foot six inches above the
plates. The first set of scafold beams is
act seven feet from the floor on two sides
and one end of the building. The next
set is set six feet above the first. The
window frames are for two six light ten
by twelve glass. The frames are set one
in each end, eight feet from the floor.
The above minute description gives