bear handling and removal with conveniency, it must be
removed to the tobacco house, which is generally done by
manual labor, unless the distance and quantity requires the
assistance of a cart. If this part of the process were
managed with horses carrying frames upon their backs for
the conveniency of stowage, in a way similar to that in
which grain is conveyed in Spain, it would be found a
considerable saving of labor. It becomes necessary, in the
next place, to see that suitable ladders and stages are
provided, and that there be a sufficient quantity of tobacco
sticks, such as have been described to answer the full
demand of the tobacco house, whatsoever may be its size;
time will be otherwise lost in make-shifts, or sending for a
second supply.

"When everything is thus brought to a point at the tobacco
house, the next stage of the process is that termed hanging
the tobacco. This is done by hanging the plants in rows upon
the tobacco sticks with the points down, letting them rest
upon the stick by the stem of the lowest leaf, or by the
split which is made in the stem when that happens to be
divided. In this operation care must be taken to allow a
sufficient space between each of the successive plants for
the due circulation of air between: perhaps four or five
inches apart, in proportion to the bulk of the plant. When
they are thus threaded upon the sticks (either in the
tobacco houses, or, sometimes, suspended upon a temporary
scaffold near the door), they must be carefully handed up by
means of ladders and planks to answer as stages or
platforms, first to the upper tier or collar beams of the
house, where the sticks are to be placed with their points
renting upon the beams transversely, and the plants hanging
down between them. This process must be repeated tier after
tier of the beams, downwards, until the house is filled;
taking care to hang the sticks as close to each other as the
consideration of admitting air will allow, and without
crowding. In this position the plants remain until they are
in condition to be taken down for the next process."

In Cuba about the beginning of January the tobacco is ready for
cutting. If the harvest is good, all the leaves are taken from the
plants at once. Tobacco consisting of those leaves