Tobacco: Growing, Curing, & Manufacturing / A Handbook for Planters in All Parts of the World

by Unknown

The housing of the crop proceeds, says Dennis, “as fast as it is cured up on the scaffold, or as the indications of rain make it necessary, care being taken not to bruise or tear it in hauling. The sticks of tobacco may be piled upon the waggon or cart, and hauled to the barn and hung up, commencing in the highest part of the building, and filling up as you go downwards. If the leaves are pretty well cured, you may hang it so as to touch, without crowding it; if not, there should be a little space between. If a cold, rainy spell comes on, you will need to introduce some means of artificial drying. A trench is sometimes dug, and a log or two of wood placed in it, and a fire made, taking care to remove the tobacco immediately over the fire, and avoiding much blaze. This is dangerous, and a better plan is to make a trench across the floor of the barn, of mason-work, covered with sheet-iron, and leading from a furnace outside the house on one side, to a chimney at a safe distance on the other. The colour and quality of tobacco may be improved by hanging it closely and curing by artificial heat, watching that it does not become ‘funked,’ or moulded, while curing; but the best plan for a beginner is to dry it safely, and make a sure crop, experimenting as he goes along, in order to improve the quality, as he may safely do so. When the stalk becomes dry and entirely cured, which will not usually be for some weeks, the crop is ready to ‘strip.’ The hanging tobacco yields to the influence of a rainy day or a foggy morning, and ‘comes in case,’ or softens, so it will not crumble. It must never be handled when dry. When it is just soft, not damp, or when it is barely so soft that it can be handled (if it is approaching that softened state), it may be taken down and taken off the sticks, and ‘bulked,’ by piling it alongside a partition, or by itself, with the butts of the stalks outward in every direction, and the tops or leaves in the centre. Several hundred pounds may be thus bulked down, and can be worked up while the hanging tobacco has gone out of case, and cannot be touched.”

According to Bishop, it usually requires about 12 weeks to cure the plants thoroughly, that is, so that there is no more juice in the leaves or leaf-stems; it matters not if the main stalk is not dry, you need not expect it, and there will be green leaves that will not cure but freeze while green and are worthless. He calculates that to “hang an acre of good tobacco requires a building about 30 by 24 feet with 15-feet posts. Two girths should be framed into the posts on all sides of the building; one 5 feet above the sill, and the other 10 feet above, to rest the poles on, also to nail the covering boards to. This gives a space of 5 feet for each tier of plants. Have a beam run across the centre of the building, with a post in the middle with girths to correspond with those on the side, extending lengthwise through the middle of the building for the poles or rails, each 12 feet in length, to be laid upon; or if sticks are to be used (as hereafter described) lay rails or poles once in 4 feet for the sticks to rest upon. Place a ventilator upon the centre of the roof, and have one board in every 4 feet hung on hinges, to be opened or closed at pleasure. If made with a floor and a cellar underneath, to let down the tobacco into when ready stripped, it is all the better. We will now return to the crop, and commence hanging it. A common way of doing it is by tying with common twine. Tie the end of the string tightly around the butt of one plant, and by placing it against the side of the pole nearest you, put another plant on the opposite side and carry the string over and around it, placing the plants alternately on each side of the pole until filled, then fasten the string, place the pole in the right place (it should be nearly right before it is filled), and commence on the next one in like manner, having some one to hand the plants as wanted. As to how thick to hang it depends upon the size of the plants, but in good-sized tobacco about 9 inches on each side is close enough, that will be from 30–32 on each pole of 12 feet; place the poles 15–18 inches apart. Another method of hanging, much practised and approved by many, is to hang on slats or sticks sawed out 4 feet long, 1¼ inches wide, and ⅝ inch thick. Chestnut timber is generally used here. The common lath answers very well for this purpose. An iron made something like a chisel is used to slip on to one end of the sticks, which are sharpened a little at one end to receive it. It is made about 8 inches long, wedge-shaped at the small end, and a socket ½ inch by 1 inch to slip on to the sticks. When ready for use have a place fixed near where you unload, to hold one of these sticks out at right angles from a post and about 4 feet from the ground. Let the plants be handed you from the load and slip them on the stick, piercing the stalk about 6 inches from the butt; put 6 or 7 plants of medium size on each stick, thicker if smaller; when hung it will appear as in Fig. 9. As each stick is filled, it may be carried to its place in the barn. In getting them to the top of the barn, they may be handed up with a pitchfork, lifting them by the middle of the sticks. These sticks should be about 8 inches apart. I think a greater amount can be put into a given space by this method without danger of sweating, as it is more evenly distributed. The loose leaves that have been broken off while handling, may be cured by placing 4 or 5 together and securing to a small pole, in the same way as plants are hung with twine.”

Hanging is done in the following manner:—“The ‘hanger’ stands in an erect position, having for a foothold the poles on the tier below the one which he is hanging; he has a ball of tobacco-twine (a twine made of flax, procurable at any seed-store) which for convenience is carried in the bosom of the loose blouse generally worn; he stands with the left side to the pole on which the tobacco is to be hung, left arm over it; the stalk of tobacco is handed to him by a boy whose duty it is to pass it to him; the stalk is then taken in the left hand and placed against the side of the pole, the butt projecting an inch or two, around which projection the twine is wound from left to right (the twine having previously been fastened to the pole); the next stalk is placed on the other side of the pole, just far enough along so that the leaves of the two stalks will not touch and ‘pole-burn,’ and so continue, the stalks being hung alternately on the sides of the pole, as seen in Fig. 9. After the house is filled, some put fires under the crop to hasten its drying; but it is found by experience that the practice is not a good one.”

Fig. 9.

Fig. 10.

Tobacco-house.

Bishop describes the common size of tobacco-house as about 100 feet long by 24 feet wide, posts 17 feet long, and built upon a wall 18 inches high; the buildings are framed with girths from bent to bent, for boarding up and down, the bents being 12 feet apart. The external appearance is illustrated in Fig. 10. “The boards for closing up the building should be 1 foot wide, and at intervals of about 5 feet a board should be hung with light strap hinges, to serve as a ventilator to admit light and dry air, and to exclude damp. These ventilators or doors must be closed on frosty nights, but in fair dry weather should remain open. The tobacco poles, the ends of which rest upon the bents, should be about 13 feet long, 2 inches thick by 6 inches wide, of some light timber, such as elm or basswood, and when hung with tobacco should be 8–10 inches apart. A large door should be placed at either end for ingress and egress. The poles, of which there should be 4 tiers, are laid from bent to bent, resting the ends of the cross beams in the bent, tiers 4 feet 4 inches apart.” A sectional view of the barn is shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 11.