Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/228

 like this for three or four weeks, and when it is dry enough, break a stalk, and if it breaks short it is ready. A damp day is best for removing it as the leaves are not so apt to be stiff and hard.

Now the leaves must be sorted. Beginning at the bottom of the stalk, the first three are the best quality, call them No. 1; the next three, No. 2; and all the rest, No. 3. Ten leaves make a bunch, and each one is wrapped separately in a leaf, if to be sent to the factory. That is not necessary when you make up the tobacco yourself. This is only the preliminary stage, or what the grower is supposed to do before sending to the manufactory. So, having read so far, the enterprising young grower can pause and consider whether he will proceed on his own account to make tobacco or not. It is quite possible, as I said before, but it is about the most troublesome thing there is to make; and, worst of all, when you have taken all the pains it may not be a success.

.—The first thing to be done is to expose the leaves to the action of steam, and to do this you may have to resort to the most primitive means. I saw it done with merely a common potato steamer, the leaves being laid upon an ordinary sieve fitted over the steamer, then the leaves are taken one by one, and the mid rib or main leaf vein is stripped. To do this, double back the leaf in the left hand, and with the right strip out the mid rib. All leaves, directly they are taken from the steamer, had better be covered up with a heavy rug or blanket (if the steamer is not big enough to hold all at once) until wanted for stripping, as if exposed to the dry air they will not strip well or easily. As they are stripped, tie in small bundles and string on to long sticks to be hung in a drying room until perfectly dry.

I believe the next process varies according to the maker, and, rather, the recipe he follows in making. The man I saw worked on a plan of his own, I think, and as he only made enough for his own household (his sons and himself) it was right enough. But my readers, if anxious to make their own tobacco, can easily get another recipe if they wish. The leaves, when perfectly dry, are taken down and dipped in a decoction of molasses and liquorice: the quantities must depend upon the amount of leaf you have. Two or three sticks of liquorice melted and boiled with three or four quarts of sugar-mill molasses will be sufficient for a good quantity. Boil the mixture, and while boiling-hot pour it into a tub or milk-dish, and into this dip the tobacco as quickly as possible, and then at once spread them on trays or boards in the hot sun.

The next stage is the drying room again, but this time the heat is artificial. My friend did his in a oven kept at 90° (ninety degrees) or a little higher at night. Do not by any chance let it