State Agricultural Society. 491 



twenty-five dollars. Or, taking the Kentucky grades, when common to 

 good lugs are nine dollars and fifty cents to eleven dollars and fifty 

 cents, good to fine leaf will be sixteen dollars to eighteen dollars; and 

 selections, twentj* dollars to twenty -five dollars, or even higher. The 

 prices obtainable for really fancy tobaccos are themselves very fane}* — 

 ranging up to fifty cents per pound, and higher. The Virginia gradings 

 are similar to the aforenamed; with common to good lugs at six dollars 

 to eight dollars, good leaf will be twelve dollars, and shipping selections, 

 say sixteen dollars; yellow, twenty-five dollars. The method of grading 

 different tobaccos will be explained hereafter, but the practical mind 

 will perceive in the light of these market quotations how largely the 

 profits of tobacco culture may depend on the quality produced, and how 

 rapidly they mount as quality improves. The price realized from tho 

 choice article is more than three times that of the inferior. It will bo 

 seen before we conclude, that in the California climate, the matter of 

 quality is very much one of management of the plant before, at, and 

 after cutting. The character of the season is liable to affect the result — ■ 

 occasionally in a material way. The question of quality is, to an im- 

 portant extent, one of management anywhere; but the greater variable- 

 ness of the climate throughout the range of the tobacco plant east of 

 the Rocky Mountains renders it there a far more potential factor in the 

 problem of securing the choice qualities, than it is in California. Thus 

 the California planter will find the greater encouragement in devoting 

 his energies to the production of this crop, in the greater security that 

 his efforts will not be defeated by the action of climatic and meteorologic 

 agencies that are beyond his control. 



As a first proposition, then, it is to be noted that in all the tobaccos 

 except those used in cigar making, lightness of color, approximating a 

 bright lemon yellow, controls the grade and price of all the better quali- 

 ties. Second, that practice shows that these light colors cannot be pro- 

 duced from sappy leaves; and further, that thick leaves, produced by 

 forcing too large a proportion of the growth of the plant into them, are 

 sappy. In order that it may cure to a yellow color, the leaf must have 

 begun to yellow — must show bronzed patches — while yet on the stalk 

 before cutting. Before it can do this it must stop growing. Hence 

 those varieties of tobacco in which these colors are desired, should not 

 be preferred for low, alluvial soils, in which, during the hot California 

 September, moisture to feed the growth of the plants will continue freely 

 rising. For the cigar tobacco, on the other hand, deep, rich browns are 

 the desired colors. Greater fineness of texture, too, is now required. 

 In order to obtain this, the plant is to be cut often at an early stage of 

 the process of maturing. At this time the leaves are necessarily sappy, 

 and the brown colors that are sought for will come out unavoidably in 

 the curing. 



This general glance at the ends which are aimed at in the work yet to 

 be done will contribute to render the description of it intelligible, and 

 will, at the same time, suggest the proper adaptation of its methods to 

 varying circumstances of soil and season. They will show when and 

 why "topping" or "priming" some time before cutting is, in some 

 cases, in order, and why in others it is not. Some of the cases in which 

 the planter may expect to "top" his plants, may be indicated.' If his 

 field be of considerable extent, its surface is likely to be more or less 

 uneven; if it also adjoin a creek, the action of which will, commonly, 

 have contributed to form the soil, it may be underlain in parts by grav- 

 elly subsoil; in this case the subsoil will also, commonly, be nearest the 



