Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce

by E. R. Billings

Wailes says of planting by the early planters of tobacco in Mississippi:—

"The larger planters packed it in the usual way in hogsheads. Much of it, however, was put up in carrets, as they were called, resembling in size and form two small sugar-loafs united at the larger ends. The stemmed tobacco was laid smoothly together in that form coated with wrappers of the extended leaf, enveloped in a cloth, and then firmly compressed by a cord wrapped around the parcel, and which was suffered to remain until the carret acquired the necessary dryness and solidity, when together with the surrounding cloth, it was removed, and strips of lime-bark were bound around it at proper distances, in such a manner as to secure it from unwrapping and losing its proportions."

In Turkey, after the tobacco is made into bundles or hands, it is piled against the walls inside the dwelling rooms and a carefully graduated pressure put upon it until ready for baling. In Java, when the tobacco is ready to pack the leaf is examined, and if found quite brown, it is tightly pressed and packed up either in boxes or matting for exportation, or in the bark of the tree plantain, for immediate sale.

The next process on the tobacco plantation is that of

PRIZING, CASING, AND BALING.

The term prizing originated in Virginia, and as performed by the early planters, is thus described by an old writer on tobacco culture:—

"Prizing, in the sense in which it is to be taken here is, perhaps, a local word, which the Virginians may claim the credit of creating, or at least of adopting; it is at best technical, and must be defined to be the act of pressing or squeezing the article which is to be packed into any package, by means of certain levers, screws, or other mechanical powers; so that the size of the article may be reduced in stowage, and the air expressed so as to render it less pregnable by outward accident, or exterior injury, than it would be in its natural condition.

"The operation of prizing, however, requires the combination of judgment and experience; for the commodity may otherwise become bruised by the mechanic action, and this will have an effect similar to that of prizing in too high case, which signifies that degree of moisture which produces all the risks of fermentation, and subjects the plant to be shattered into rags. The ordinary apparatus for prizing consists of the prize beam, the platform, the blocks, and the cover. The prize beam is a lever formed of a young tree or sapling, of about ten inches diameter at the butt or thicker end, and about twenty or twenty-five feet in length; but in crops where many hands are employed, and a sufficient force always near for the occasional assistance of managing a more weighty leverage, this beam is often made of a larger tree, hewn on two of its sides to about six inches thick, and of the natural width, averaging twelve or fourteen inches. The thick end of this beam is so squared as to form a tenon, which is fitted into a mortise that is dug through some growing tree, or other, of those which generally abound convenient to the tobacco house, something more than five feet above the platform. Close to the root of this tree, and immediately under the most powerful point of the lever, a platform or floor of plank is constructed for the hogshead to stand upon during the operation of prizing. This must be laid upon a solid foundation, levelled, upon hewn pieces of wood as sleepers; and so grooved and perforated that any wet or rain which may happen to fall upon the platform may run off without injuring the tobacco. Blocks of wood are prepared about two feet in length, and about three or four inches in diameter, with a few blocks of greater dimensions, for the purpose of raising the beam to a suitable purchase; and a movable roof constructed of clap-boards nailed upon pairs of light rafters, of sufficient size to shelter the platform and hogshead, is made ready to place astride of the beam, as a saddle is put upon a horse's back, in order to secure the tobacco from the weather while it is subjected to this tedious part of the process.