Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/467

 six. The average length and breadth of the barns appear to have been thirty by twenty, but structures of this kind forty, fifty, and even sixty feet long were not unusual. The use of fire in hastening the process of curing was unknown to the planters of the seventeenth century; this process was left to the operation of the air, which was permitted to circulate freely in the interior of the building. At the end of five or six weeks the tobacco had undergone the desired change, as appeared from the quickness with which the stem snapped when bent. While passing through the various stages of curing, there was danger that the texture of the leaf would suffer from house-burning; and there was also a possibility that it would become husky from repeated sweatings.

When the tobacco had been cured, it was taken down as soon as the moisture in the atmosphere was sufficient to penetrate the leaves and to produce in them such limpness that they could be handled without bruising, in which condition they were stripped from the stalk and assorted according to grade and variety, Oronoco and sweet-scented