N-C State Experimenting With Tobacco

Source from:  AP 08/24/2004

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. North Carolina State University is experimenting to see what happens with tobacco that's chopped before it's cured. The method allows farmers to pack 30 percent to 50 percent more tobacco into a bulk barn and save 20 percent on fuel costs as they heat and dry the leaf. The aim is to find out whether American tobacco farmers can also produce lower-cost chopped leaf to compete with cheap foreign filler that's streaming into world markets. Enditem