Abstract: In order to know the actual tobacco loss at start and finish stages of drying in a cylindrical dryer, and find a way to minimize tobacco waste, the relationships of moisture content in and flow rate of output tobacco with time were analyzed via studying the movement of tobacco in the dryer at start and finish stages.A method for calculating the amounts of over-dried cut tobacco at start and finish stages of drying was developed, and the paired t-test between calculated and actual values was conducted.The results showed that:the calculated values well agreed with the actual values, the differences between the two were not statistically significant(P>0.05), it suggested that the calculated value could represent the actual value.This calculation method could be used to analyze and monitor the amounts of over-dried cut tobacco at start and finish stages of a thin plate cylindrical dryer.