so as to allow a
good circulation underneath the building. Poles are used for hanging,
either round or sawed, when the plants are hung with twine; when hung
on tobacco hooks, laths are used, the hooks attached to the lath; more
frequently the plants are strung upon the laths without the aid of
hooks, the lath passing through the center of the stalk an inch or two
from the end. The doors lengthwise of the building are simply the
outside boards hung on hinges, every second or third being chosen
according to the ideas of curing entertained by the grower. Some
planters are of the opinion that the plants need all the air that can
be obtained, and keep the sheds open during both day and night, while
others open the doors only now and then--closing during warm days, and
during a storm. Sometimes the doors are hung on hinges at the
top--opening but partially and not allowing as free circulation as
when hung on the sides.

[Illustration: Modern Connecticut tobacco shed.]

Another building of late has been built by the growers in the
Connecticut valley, called a stripping house. This building is
frequently attached to the shed or near by so that stripping may be
performed during all kinds of weather, without danger of injuring the
tobacco, or the health of the stripper. Such buildings however are
needed only in tobacco sections where the cold is extreme during the
winter, when most of the tobacco is to be stripped. The stripping room
or house is provided with a stove, a long table, or elevated platform,
in front of the windows, of which there should be several to admit
plenty of light, and a number of chairs to accommodate the strippers.
On the stove a kettle of water is kept constantly boiling or heated,
the ascending steam of which keeps the leaves of tobacco from drying
and consequently from cracking or breaking. When in condition for
"striking" or taking down, the plants are carried to the
stripping-room, and covered with boards and blankets, when the
operation called stripping commences. Many of the stripping-rooms are
built large enough to contain the cases after the tobacco is packed,
thus answering a double purpose.

[Illustration: Stripping room.]

In Virginia and the other tobacco-growing states of the South, the
tobacco barn is built altogether different, as the method of curing is
by fires or flues instead of air curing. The height of the building is
usually twice its width and length. In the center of the smoot