other, so as to make room for those which yet remain to be
housed.

In drying the tobacco, all damp air should be excluded, nor ought
the drying of it to be precipitated by the admission of high drying
winds. The process is to be promoted in the most moderate manner,
except in the rainy season, when the sooner the drying is effected
the better; for it is a plant easily affected by the changes of the
weather, after the drying commences. It is then liable to mildew in
damp weather, which is when the leaf changes from its original color
to a pale yellow cast, and from this, by parts, to an even brown.
When the middle stem is perfectly dry, it can be taken down, and the
leaves stripped from the stalk and put in bulk to sweat, that is, to
make tobacco of them; for before this process, when a concentration
of its better qualities takes place, the leaves are always liable to
be affected by the weather, and cannot well be considered as being
anything else than common dry leaves, partaking of the nature of
tobacco, but not actually tobacco. The leaves are to be stripped
from the stalks in damp or cloudy weather, when they are more easily
handled, and the separation of the different qualities rendered also
more easy. The good leaves are at this time kept by themselves as
wrappers, or caps, and the most defective ones for fillings, or
_tripa_. When the tobacco is put in _bulk_, the stem of the leaves
should all be kept in one direction, to facilitate the tying of them
in hanks: afterwards make the bulk two of three feet high, and of a
proportionate circumference. To guard against the leaves becoming
over-heated, and to equalise the fermentation or sweating, after the
first twenty-four hours, place the outside leaves in the centre, and
those of the centre to the outside of the _bulk_. By doing this once
or twice, and taking care to cover the _bulk_ either with sheets or
blankets, so as to exclude all air from it, and leaving it in this
state for about forty days, it acquires an odor strong enough to
produce sneezing, and the other qualities of cured tobacco. The
process of curing may then be considered as completed. Then take
some of the most injured leaves, but of the best quality, and in
proportion to the quantity of tobacco made, and place them in clean
water, there let them remain until the