Tobacco barn

Design elements which were common include: gabled roofs, frame construction, and some system of ventilation.

Each leaf loses approximately eighty percent of its own weight by the time the curing process has successfully finished.

[4] The vents are used to slow the drying process down which allows for a critical chemical break down to occur, turning the leaf from green to yellow to brown.

While charcoal fires have been replaced in many barns with propane heaters, both methods help reduce moisture.

[2] In some areas, bents were called "rooms," even though this just defined a narrow and tall division of the inside of the barn by the tier poles.

In 2001 Maryland's state-sponsored program offered cash payments as buyouts to tobacco farmers.

[1] A majority of the farmers took the buyout, and hundreds of historic tobacco barns were rendered instantly obsolete.

[1] As tobacco barns disappear, farmers have been forced to change their methods for curing the crop.