Abstract
This study was carried out to develop a new stalk curing of the horizontal hanging method that would reduce the harvesting and curing labor, and improve its quality of cured leaf than the conventional stalk curing method in burley tobacco. The horizontal hanging stalk-curing method designed from 1988 was compared with the conventional method. The horizontal method shortened the curing Period for 7 days and reduced to 0.3%, while it occurred 9.4% in the vertical method. In the horizontal method, the quality of cured leaf improved 9%, but the contents of chemical components and physical properties were similar to those of vertical method. The labor of stalk-cut and loading in curing facility reduced 28% by the horizontal method. In harvesting and curing process, the horizontal method resulted 12% of labor saving as compared with the vertical method. Key words : horizontal hanging stalk-curing method, vertical method, stalk-curing.