“XI. We should have no space to describe the different methods of ‘curing’ tobacco, as, for instance, ‘sun-curing,’ ‘air-curing,’ ‘flue-curing,’ ‘open-fire-curing,’ &c., even though the whole subject had not been gone over again and again in previous reports of this Department. We can only say of this operation, as of all others connected with the production of tobacco, that much depends on its proper doing, and that, as much as possible, it should have the personal superintendence of the owner.
“But the crop may have been brought along successfully even to the completion of this operation and ‘lack one thing yet,’ if it be not now properly manipulated.
“Therefore, go yourself, brother planter, into your barns, see with your own eyes, and not through the medium of others; handle with your own hands, and know of a surety that the tobacco hanging on the tier-poles is in proper order for ‘striking’ and ‘bulking,’ and act accordingly.
“When, later on, it is being ‘stripped,’ ‘sorted,’ and tied into bundles, or ‘hands,’ as they are often called, be there again, propria persona, to see that it is properly classed, both as to colour and to length, the ‘lugs’ going with lugs, the ‘short’ with short, the ‘long’ with long, &c. Instruct those sorting that when in doubt as to where a particular leaf should be put, to put it at least one grade lower than they had thought of doing. Thus any error will be on the safe side.
“Prize in hogsheads to weigh what is usually called for in the market in which you sell, and, above all, ‘let the tobacco in each hogshead be as near alike as possible, uniform throughout, so that the ‘sample,’ from whatever point it may be taken, can be relied on as representing the whole hogshead,’ and that there be left no shadow of suspicion that ‘nesting’ has been attempted, or any dishonest practice even so much as winked at.
“We sum up the whole matter by repeating:
“1. That overproduction, the production at all, of low grade tobacco is the chief cause of the present extremely low price of the entire commodity.
“2. That the planters of the United States have the remedy in their own hands; that remedy being the reduction of area, this reduction to result, from the employment of the means here suggested, in increased crops; and, paradoxical as it may seem, these increased crops to bring greatly enhanced values.
“The whole world wants good tobacco, and will pay well for it. Scarcely a people on earth seeks poor tobacco or will buy it at any price.
“In a word, then, one acre must be made to yield what it has hitherto taken two or three acres to produce; and this double or treble quantity must be made (as, indeed, under good management it could not fail to be) immeasurably superior in quality to that now grown on the greater number of acres. Either this or the abandonment of the crop altogether—one or the other.”