The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-24

his barns hardly dares breathe for fear the dreaded dust will do damage or
 that the plants, hanging upside down,
 will not sweat" just as they should
 Only when the last bit of green has
 disappeared from the leaves and eacn one aa he fondlesi it has a silky feel does he know that his part of the task
 There remains only the stripping and rough sorting of the leaves according to size, which the farmer acomplishes
 with the help of one or two hired men
 This is his early winter work. When
 the bohes are filled they are sold to the
 tobacco dealer In. Hartford or elsewhere
 and woe be to tne farmer if he has
 made any misreprssentations or has
 'dsaconed" the boxes. Once man
 has established a reputation in the val lev for not being square none Of the reputable dealers will buy his stock.
 From the time that the tobacco goes from the farmers drying barns until 1t is shipped in freight car to New
 Yark. St. Louis or Boston 1t undergoes
 almost innumerabie processes which,
 even with the practice of rigid econ-
 omy and improved mechanical process es, add between four and five cents a
 pound to It's value. The dealer who can chop of half a cent from the cost of
 production in this stage Is likely to re-
 tire a rich man.
 Every part of the work has to be ad-
 justed to nicety. The leaves are all sorted to half an inch. Pressure must
 be used to make them sweat" either
 naturally or artihcially. If naturally. they remain in room of ordinary tenn perature for many months. involving the locking up of not little capital,
 though of less immediate expense. Where artificial heat Is applied they Lav tn at an average temperature of 1e0 de- grees for q number of weeks.
 Not only must the thermometer never vary during this period-and different grades of tobacco demand slightly diff
 ferent temperatures, difference of a
 degree or two being sufficient to injure the contents of a room--but the mois- ture must all the time be exactly right
 If the air is the least bit too dry a leaf that will crumple up results: if too
 moist. the tobacco may rot. More than
 thirty distinct varieties of the weed are raised in the Connecticut valley, each
 requiring treatment peculiar to itself. The boxes, heavy with the weed, are finally turned over to the railroad com
 pany for shipment as fourth class freight Even then the possibility of
 damage is not over. The tobacco in its
 case continues to settle, losing weight slowly from week to week. If the
 box stands on end in such a way that the leaves do not lie flat they will fall in an uneven mass. This mishap does
 not ordinarily befa1l.
 It is characteristic of the anxiety
 with which a we'll managed railroad conserves the interests of an industry in its section that especial watchfulness is exercised by the New Haven freight officials over all shipments of tobacco The crop Is one of the roads many valuable assets, and not to guard it | well would indeed be short-sighted. once the tobacco is in the hands of the cigar manufactures 1t is rolled into | the familiar shape and, perhaps within q few days, twenty minutes of vigorous i pufing destroys what human skill has produced with dificulty in half year