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

by Unknown

White suggests that stables, sheds, and barn floors can be arranged “so as to hang up an acre or two by setting stanchions with holes mortised in them to hold rests for your poles about 4½ feet apart. Set such ones on either side with a very stout rail, one end in either post. Set these as often as you may need them, depending on the length of your poles. No poles should be so long as to sag very much when filled with plants. But for another reason I would build a house expressly for hanging and storing tobacco. Make it of good, liberal dimensions, 30 feet wide, by 40 or more in length; posts, 14 feet, with two tiers of girths for poles to rest on; one tier can hang on the beams, and another above on the purlin plates, thus hanging 4 tiers under the same roof. Ventilate by a ventilator in the roof, also by hanging every other board of the siding on hinges. For such a building, I would have a tight floor to the whole, and underneath a good walled cellar lighted with suitable windows, and chimney in one corner, with a stove, to keep fire in in very cold weather, to work by when stripping the tobacco. For poles to hang on, I would get, if possible, straight, slim, white pine staddles about 4–5 inches in diameter; shave the bark off smooth, and we have poles that will last and remain straight a lifetime, if kept housed.

“Having provided all required, even to the strong cotton or hemp twine for tying up the tobacco, have a good man to hand it to you. Commence by tying the end of your twine around the butt of a plant, about 2 inches from the end, in a slip or loose knot; place this plant at one side of the pole near the end, your hand carrying the twine over the pole; on the opposite side of the pole, about 6 inches along, place another plant, and with a single turn of the twine around it from before, round back, and by drawing it close, the plant is secure. Proceed thus till you have filled your pole; then with a knife, cut a notch in the pole and draw your twine through, and it is fast. You can now cut it off and commence another pole. Place the poles far enough apart to prevent the tobacco crowding; about 1 foot will do. In this manner you will have a row of plants hanging on each side of the pole about 1 foot apart. The man, in handing up, should take the plant by the butt, carefully from the pile or load, raise it up and gently shake it sideways, to shake off dirt and loosen the leaves when stuck together, and also adhering to the stalk; with the other hand, take hold about midways of the stalk and pass to the one tying up, enabling him to receive the plant in such a way as to not need to shift it in his hand, but to place it immediately into its position beside the pole. All leaves which are accidentally or otherwise broken from the plants, should be gathered up each day, and hung three or four in a bunch, the same way as the plants, or string them on a string; the latter is the best way—with a large needle-thread, a suitable cord, and on to this string the leaves one at a time, by running the needle through near the end of the stem. These can be hung by attaching the two ends to some suitable nail, and having it remain stretched. In this way they will cure very well.

“Having housed the whole of your crop, give it all the air you can, by opening doors, shutters, &c. Let them remain open during pleasant weather, remembering to close them in wet, damp weather, as well as nights; and also shading the crop so far as may be from the direct rays of the sun, to prevent blanching. When it has nearly cured, shut it up and let it remain till perfectly cured. This may be known by the stem of the leaves being dried up, so that no green sap will show itself. If you have hung in your stables and other places that you wish to use, it will be necessary to take it down and strip it at the first favourable opportunity, which is described farther along. The separate building elsewhere described is to be preferred, as it does not necessitate any immediate hurry in getting it down. In such it can be allowed to hang and freeze and thaw two or three times, which improves the colour and weight, and will give more leisure in stripping, &c. Watch a favourable time, when it rains and is damp, to open your buildings, and let in the damp air till the tobacco is damped, so that it can be handled without any danger of breaking the leaves. It need not get too damp, as in that case it is liable to injure in the pile before you can get it stripped. It will gain dampness from the stalk.”

The Cuban tobacco planter, according to Davis, “would force the drying in wet weather and retard it in dry weather, as either extreme is injurious; the wet is injurious, as the leaves, when they change from the natural colour to a pale yellow and light brown, easily mildew; when dry, as before-named, it is taken down. Damp weather is best, so as not to break the leaves, which are immediately stripped from the stalks and sorted into as many grades as the market may require, from one to four and even more grades, as ‘bright yellow, dull, seconds, and ground-leaves.’ But I see no necessity for but three grades, as the over-ripe, the unripe, and the just ripe at cutting, and when properly dried they show their grade plain enough to sort. After being stripped and sorted, they are to be separately piled (‘bulked’ some say) in courses of leaves—2, 4, or 6 tiers of leaves, stems end out, and 3–4 feet high. The leaves should be kept straight in all these handlings. The heap should be made up each day separate, as it begins to make tobacco in 12 hours or so, by fermenting, which is variously called ‘curing,’ ‘sweating,’ ‘conditioning,’ &c. Soon as the heap begins to get warm it should be re-piled, putting the inner tier out so as to equalize the fermentation; some re-pile several times and some none; but the fermentation should be kept equal, and if covered with old sail-cloth it can be regulated. This fermenting is allowed to proceed for 4–6 weeks by careful manufacturers; as it is the process that makes the tobacco to suit the taste of tobacco-epicures it should be carefully done, yet many do it in a careless manner, and thus have an article so poor as to not find many lovers. At the end of the 4–6 weeks the Cuba grower would have one side of each leaf slightly moistened with the decoction of tobacco, which is made by letting some leaves rot in clean water, and then he would tie it up in hanks of 25 or 30 leaves, and hang one day for drying, then take it down and pack it in tight casks as being best. From these leaves he would make the best Cuba cigars. The Virginian grower would not wet his tobacco after it had fermented, but simply tie it in hanks so that 5 or 6 would weigh a pound, and then pack it in his hogsheads for market; and this, after it had lain from one to six months in the ‘conditioning bulks.’”

Burton, translating from Mitjen, goes more fully into the Cuban practice. He advises firstly that the “shoots and the sprouts should be put apart from the principal tobacco, with which it should never be mixed, neither in the heaps nor in the packages. The day after the tobacco has been cut and placed in the curing-houses, the poles should be pushed together, making thus a compact mass, with the object, that by means of the warmth, which this contact produces, the fermentation should commence, called maduradero. In this state it should remain 2 or 3 days, according to the consistency of the tobacco and the state of the atmosphere. By means of this first fermentation it acquires an equal and a yellowish colour: by the second or third day, at the latest, this colour should be uniform, and then without loss of time the poles should be spread apart, and given all the ventilation possible, so that fermentation may not continue, and the drying of the leaves may be facilitated—care being taken that they are not exposed to the dew, the sun, nor to sprinkling of water, should it rain. As the tobacco dries, the poles should be hung on higher pegs, so as to leave the lower ones unoccupied for the fresh leaves brought from the fields. This operation should be performed early in the morning whilst the leaves are flexible and soft; because later in the day they become crisper, and are more apt to tear.

“It is not judicious to allow the tobacco to dry too precipitately, by exposing it to a very strong current of air, because strong wind greatly injures its quality; many leaves break, and that silkiness of appearance is destroyed which good leaves should have, and which it is desirable to preserve. During heavy winds the doors of the drying-house should be kept closed; they should also be kept closed if there is much dampness in the atmosphere occasioned by heavy and continuous rain. Dampness causes mildew, which shows itself first in the points of the leaves, and is the commencement of the rot. Under these circumstances, and to check this evil, it is convenient to spread, or part the poles a little; and if the rains, or the excess of humidity continue, fires should be kindled and smoke made in the curing-houses, opening at the same time the doors and the windows, so as to facilitate the circulation of air whilst the smoking is going on.

“After the tobacco is thoroughly dry, it should be placed on the highest beams, or pegs, of the framework which support the poles, squeezing them compactly together. This must be done in the morning whilst the leaves are soft, and all this should be done with a view of protecting it from the effects of change in the atmosphere. The house should, after this, be kept closed, until it is time to make the heaps.

“The object of heaping up the tobacco is to produce a second fermentation, so as to equalize the colour of the leaf and wear out of it that excess of gluten or resinous matter which is natural to the plant; this fermentation makes the leaves more silky and ductile, and gives them a more agreeable flavour. The place for making the heaps should be prepared beforehand, in one or more of the rooms of the tobacco-house, by making a kind of box lined with yaguas (sheets of palm-tree bark) at the bottom and the sides, the base is a boarding on which should be placed a sufficient quantity of dry plantain leaves, which serve as a bed for the heaps.

“In the months of April or May, when the rainy season commences, the poles which are on the highest pegs of the scaffolding should be taken down and placed somewhat apart, one from the other, on the lower pegs. The doors of the house should be left open at night, so that the humidity from the atmosphere may enter, and when, in the morning, the tobacco is found to be soft and silky, it is fit to be placed in heaps. The pairs of leaves should then be collected in armfuls, with all the bits of stalks placed in one direction; the leaves that may be found doubled or crooked should be smoothed out, and each armful should be placed in layers in the heaps, placing the first layer at the bottom with all the woody pieces of the stalk touching the yagua which forms the sides of the case; other layers should be placed with the stalk reversed, and in this manner, crossing the leaves, the pile should be raised up level. When a pile has a sufficient height, another, and another, is made until the tobacco is finished or the case is full, so that each heap may form a compact mass of leaves protected by the pieces of stalk all round, which should never touch the leaves, but only touch each other. When the heaps have been thus made, they should be covered with dry plantain leaves, or palm skins, and, in front, by palm leaves.