9

 PREPARING THE CROP FOR MARKET.
 The leaves are ready to strip from the stalk when the stems are
sufficiently dry so as to show no sap when pinched. Before stripping,
however, the leaves should be moist enough so that they will notcrum-
ble or break in handling. If the weather is dry the tobacco becomes
very dry, but by giving it ventilation at night by opening doors and
windows, or during a rain, the condition can be obtained for handling.
A north or a northwest wind dries tobacco very rapidly. When they
blow shut up the barn.
 In assorting, the top and bottom leaves and those which are ragged
should be put to themselves and tied into bundles ranging in number
from twenty-five to fifty according to size. These are for fillers. The
better leaves should be assorted according to size, and tied in bundles
or hands from twenty to thirty each. These are for wrappers. In
stripping tobacco the leaves should not be smoothed out by the hand,
but put into bundles just as they are on the stalk. It is the habit of
some to make three grades, wrappers, binders and fillers. Binders are
those where the leaves are in part free from holes.
 The different grades should never be mixed in packing, but kept to
themselves. In packing into boxes or bales the tips should lap each
other and care should be taken to pack firmly and evenly. The ends
of the packages should not touch the box sides, for ventilation is needed
here to some extent to prevent moulding. When boxed keep on a board
floor and under no circumstances allow the box or package to remain
on the ground, or in close proximity to kerosene, commercial fertilizers,
or obnoxious scent. The boxes should be as light as possible and uni-
form in size, but the dry goods boxes of merchants serve an excellent
purpose.
 BULKING THE CROP.
 I mean by bulking that the f rmers of a county would, I think, find
it to their interest to store their crop in their county town for assort-
ment and sale, securing or building a house for this purpose. An expert
should be employed who will carefully resweat, assort and bale the
tobacco in the same way as the Cubans do. It would be better to take
the tobacco to an expert to be sweated just after it is stripped and as-
sorted, than to wait until it has passed through the barn sweat.
Wrappers, binders and fillers should be packed and sweated to them-
selves. In this way the crop would realize more money, amply repay-
ing the cost of expert. On this line much could be said.
 EXPERIMENTS OF 1892.
 A large number of experiments were begun this yedr both in the
seed bed and field. The objects in view were:
 1st. To find the best method of raising plants.
 2d. The use of various kinds of fertilizers, as to their effect upon tex-
 ture, quality and quantity per acre, embracing soft and hard phos-
 phate, potashr nitrogen, single and in various combinations, com-
mercial fertilizers of different brands, and composts made on the
station. These composts were in part based on the analyses of Cuba
soil and Cuba tobacco, as given below.
 3d. To test the quantity and texture of tobacco cut and cured at
 different stages of growth, the distance between rows and the space
 plants should have in drills.
 The season was most unfavorable to success since from the first of
January to the 29th of May there was no rainfall at any time sufficient
to lay the dust. It was with much trouble that plants were grown,
and when transplanted to get them to live, water them as much and