The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-09-17

have your tobacco ready, so that at
short notice it can be brought into
proper order. I prefer loading it into
wagons, if the roads are in good con-
dition and the weather good, otherwise
pack into tierc weighing from six
hundred to one thousand pounds On
an average have found Tuesday, Wed
nesday and Thursday the best days for
selling. Then push for market. O;tener
than otherwise you will fad most of
the soon men just in the same notion,
and on hand. You will be surprised
to see so many of them. Ask them
how they ordered their tobacco: A few
will say by a steamer; others will say
by means Of a damp cellar ordering
room or by steam made by pouring
water on heated stones, or putting
stones into water hot. However, many
persons need some ready cash to buy
fertilizer for wheat, to pay their wage
hands, to buy winter shoes and clothes,
to pay that little owing to the mer-
chant. So go to any of our leading
markets at any time when tobacco can
be marketed and you will find good
breaks. But would say keep off the
market just before or after the Christ
mas holidays
Tomake a stripping room build either
of logs or frame and cell room large
enough for six or eight persons to work
in conveniently without being crowded
and large enough to contain a days
strippinfs, and room enough for an or
dinary stove upon which there should
always be a pan of water. There should
be long, low window on one side or
end; another taller one en- the other
side; a good tight foor; underneath
this floor have deep cellar, with the
earth banked up on the outside to the
floor, and have the stripping room so
connected with the storing room that
tabacco can be carried from one to the
other without getting wet. When one
is we'll fixed up for it, tobacco can be
stripped out in the bad days of winter
with comfort, when it is impossible to
work with comfort at anything out of
doors.
It is best to have trap door through
the fl DOR into the cellar, by which the
tobacco can be put in and taken out
Eaough should be put in the day be
fore for a days stripping; 10 to 18
hours will be generally long enough
for the tobacco to come into stripping
order. In the warm, damp days of
winter tobacco will come into order if
opened out and placed in the roof over
head in the stripping room, Or in the
sheds, which should always surround
the storing room. All things being
ready, the leading tobacco picker,
sorter, cIassifier, or whatever you
choose to call him, should take hisseat
with his lug puIler Oh his left, with
their backs to the low window. In
front Of them should be bench two
feet wide and eight feet long. Upon
the left eud Of this the tobacco to be
stripped should be placed. The lug
puller takes eff the lugs, making two
or three classes (5ome times only One)
and passes the plant on to the boss
picker, who generally pulls eff the re
manning leaves, being careful to place
them in different heaps SO that those
who tie or bind into hands can con-
veniently reach it. Three smart hands
can tie es fast as two can sort. It is
the duty of the bCs3 to see that his lug
puller classifes his lugs rightly and
that those who do the tieing do not
mix the classes or sorts and that the
proper number of leaves are put into
each hand or bundle; that leaves of the
same length are tied together. Do not
put short and long leave into the same