When the plants begin to bud, all except the individual plants saved for seed purposes should be topped. It is the custom to break the tops off just below the first seed sucker. As a rule, the height of topping must be governed by local conditions, such as the soil fertility and the season. In most cases two or three of the top leaves are removed in topping. It is necessary to remove the suckers before they become injurious to the plant. It will usually be necessary to remove them two or three times during the season. It has been found in the tobacco-breeding investigations that by selecting seed from plants having few suckers, sucker resistant types of tobacco can be secured, and it is recommended that in the case of all of the wrapper varieties of tobacco, particularly the Havana Seed tobacco, such a method of seed selection be followed.
The time for harvesting this variety of tobacco varies with the season, but the ripeness of the leaves can be distinguished as for the Sumatra variety. By crumpling the leaf, if the surface breaks in straight lines, or " cracks," the leaf is said to be ready for cutting.
The plants are usually cut with a regular tobacco hatchet (Fig. 874) or knife, and are strung on laths. Five or six plants are usually strung on each lath, after which they are hauled to the sheds in wagons specially prepared for this purpose. A wagon with special rack arranged for transporting the plants from the field to the curing shed is shown in Fig. 875. These laths are usually four feet in length, and are so hung in the curing shed that a space is left between each two plants in order to get a circulation of air. Common types of curing sheds are shown in Figs. 878-880.
The curing process requires, as a rule, four to six weeks. The manipulation of the barn or curing shed during this period is governed entirely by the conditions of weather and the nature of the tobacco, so that no fixed rules can be given. How ever, in a general way it can be said that if the barn is filled with green tobacco and the weather is hot and dry, the ventilators should be open most of the time for about three days, by which time the tobacco should begin to yellow. The ventilators should be closed only to prevent too rapid curing during this period. The barn should then be opened at night and kept closed during the day. This is to prevent too rapid curing, which destroys the life of the leaf and produces uneven colors in the tobacco. If there are frequent showers and but little sunshine, the barn should be kept closed, and if there are indications of pole-burn or pole-sweat, small fires, at least two in every bent in the shed, should be started. In order to dry out the tobacco
in as short a time as possible, these fires should be distributed throughout the shed and the tobacco above the fires protected by hoods. The best material for making these fires is probably char coal or coke, but if these two materials can not be used, soft pine wood may be found to be satis factory. In no case should hard wood be used, as certain odors are given off which it is impossible to get out of the tobacco, and these injure the quality and the sale of the crop. To get the best results, the tobacco during the curing process should be kept fairly moist and fairly dried out once in every twenty-four hours.
After the curing process has been finished, the tobacco is usually sorted according to grade and color as laid down by the tobacco trade. The tobacco is then arranged in hands and packed in cases, where it is allowed to go through natural fermentation, or it is placed in a room which can be heated and is there put through a forced sweat. If the natural fermentation takes place it usually does not begin until the warm weather of the succeeding summer. Great care must be used in the fermenting processes that the tobacco is not damaged by the spread of fungous diseases, mold or other causes of injury to tobacco in cases. The cases are usually arranged to hold about 350 pounds of tobacco.
Connecticut Broadleaf.
The seed-bed.—The method of sowing the seed, preparation of the seed-beds and treatment of the beds are practically the same for the Connecticut Broadleaf as for the Connecticut Havana variety. Many of the growers in the Connecticut valley prefer the tent cover for the seed-beds for this variety. The advantage in the cheese-cloth or light muslin cover for the seed-beds is that plants grown under such conditions are as a rule more hardy than plants raised under glass. As the Broadleaf plants make a very rapid growth in the seed-bed and field, hotbeds for the production of early seed lings are not so essential as with other slower growing varieties. To get an even sowing, mix one tablespoonful of seed with two quarts of ashes or meal for every 100 square yards of seed-bed, and lightly rake the surface of the bed so as barely to cover the the seed. If the seed is covered too deep, it will not germinate.