CUBING TOBACCO.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 23 (Supplement)

CUBING TOBACCO.

The crop ohould be ready to harvest by the end of January, but no arbitrary rule can be laid down. Judgment and experience have a great deal to do with this, but once the knowledge is gained it becomes simple. When the crop is quite ready to pick or harvest you have to decide whether to cut the whole plant or pick leaf by leaf. Much depends on various conditions and circumstances and what facilities one has at hand as to which method is adopted. For a small lot the single leaf is best. Choose what promises to be a fine day, pick each leaf separately, until you have an armful, then place it in a spot where it will have the full benefit of the sun. Do not spread it out, make small heaps, and leave it until, say, three or four o’clock. It might be as well to turn the heaps over once during the day. This should wilt the leaves thoroughly, and they can be handled without much damage. Have some suitable. receptacle ready, any good-sized box will do, line it with newspapers to conserve the heat, place the leaves therein evenly and flat and cover well. In the course of three or four days, if the weather has been warm, the colour should have turned from the original green to a pale yellow or spotted and blotched, and great care should be taken fct this stage. It is very easy to spoil the leaf, by either over or under heating. I would advise anyone doing this for the first time to try a small lot, say. 15 or 201 b of green leaf. There are again iwo methods at this stage>, i.e., when sufficiently sweated, one is to tie the leaves in hands, or, in plain English, in bundles, of a suitable number and hang them up to cure. The other is to string jach leaf separately on wires. The latter appears to be the better, as the midrib Iries better at the butt, whereas, in bands, the string acts as a compress, and, failing to dry in sympathy with the rest, is apt to become mildewed. However, when cured in bundles it is done with and can be stored away as soon as dry enough. The alternative course is to cure in the stack; this consists of wilting as described above and then hanging up to cure in like manner. It is a much longer job and still leaves the sweating to be done, also a more tedious task and really requiring artificial heat to secure any degree of satisfaction. The processes used by large manufacturers to dry and cure by artificial means is far too involved and intricate to attempt here. If the leaf has cured successfully the next step is to make it into a commodity which, under fire, will be agreeable both to the smoker’s palate and to the nostrils of those coming into contact with him. In the first place it may be as well to say the home grower cannot hope to turn out anything to compete With or to equal what is placed on the market under brands well known and established for years. All he can hope to do is to provide himself with a tobacco that he can smoke in comfort and enjoyment without specially draining his pocket or alienating his friends. Hardly any two growers agree upon the actual procedure. Each has his own particular way of doing his sample, equally he attains his own measure of success. Some use rum, others again decry its use, and for a light cigarette tobacco it is quite unnecessary. A gentleman who has grown his own tobacco for a long period uses five cups of water, three cups of sugar boiled for 15 to 20 minutes. When cool he adds a teaapoonful of glycerine, a dessertspoonful of saltpetre, about an inch of a stick of liquorice, previously dissolved, and a quarter teaspoonful or less of lavender water. With this he makes a fairly good class of plug, quite smokeable and pleasant to the taste and smell. The leaves are stripped, laid in heaps and sprinkled with this sauce, then packed tight into a box. Too much of the J sauce must not be used and the leaf when | packed in the box must be pressed very I tight, in fact, it needs to be put under extreme pressure so as to as far as pos- • Bible exclude all air.