Forty nine years ago I began growing tobacco. A few years
later I decided that there were certain days better than others on which to cut
tobacco for it to cure up nicely and have a rich, waxy and heavy body. To find
out the way to tell these dates, and to tell them ahead has been a hard job but
I was finally successful.
To explain, let me say that tobacco has an oily substance
which is its natural possession. It has a sap (water) like other vegetation.
When the sap raises, it runs the oil out through the pores of the leaves on the
principle that oil and water won’t mix, and oil being the lighter is pushed out
by the sap.
Tobacco cut and cured in this state will be light and “chaffy,” for
you see, there is nothing but sap in the tobacco and when cured this sap is
gone. It evaporates and leaves the tobacco light and worthless. But to cut
tobacco when the sap is down and the oil has full sway, you can cure it up
nicely and with a heavy body; it will be rich and “waxy.” This happens because
the tobacco is full of oil instead of sap, and the oil can’t evaporate and
remains in the leaf to make it rich and heavy.
It has been my experience that we must cut tobacco when
there is oil in it, if we expect to have oil in it when cured. For instance,
you have experienced cutting one week and have excellent luck and then cut a
few days later, probably off the same piece of ground and with riper tobacco,
and have no luck at all.
I shall be pleased to answer any correspondence from tobacco
growers who may want to write me, provided postage is sent for reply.
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