Tobacco: Growing, Curing, & Manufacturing: A Handbook for Planters in All Parts of the World
Science
Tobacco: Growing, Curing, & Manufacturing: A Handbook for Planters in All Parts of the World
Tobacco; Tobacco industry
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,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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