434 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



instances of extraordinary yield that might be cited; for example, it is stated upon good 

 authority, that a tree in Leverett, Massachusetts, produced in one season the almost incredible 

 amount of 1,400 pounds of sap, which probably contained fully forty pounds of sugar. A 

 sugar orchard in Eaton county, Michigan, is said to have yielded 950 pounds of sugar, or on 

 the average of nine and a half pounds per tree. Another orchard in Vermont is said to 

 have yielded at the rate of six pounds per tree in one season. But these are the rare excep 

 tions; as a general rule, the average yield will be found to be about two and a half or three 

 pounds per tree, during the season. 



TOBACCO. 



TOBACCO has become one of the leading products in many parts of the coun 

 try, while it is cultivated to a greater or less extent in nearly all sections. And 

 not only this, but there is a continued increase in its production, as shown by the 

 Census Report of 1880, which was eighty per cent, in excess of that of 1870. The above- 

 mentioned report contains the following summary respecting this product in the different 

 States: 



&quot;Fifteen States produce, now as in 1870, more than ninety-nine per cent, of the tobacco 

 of the United States, though it is reported in twenty-two other States and six Territories. 

 Of these fifteen, only Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Massachusetts produce less than in 1870. 

 Kentucky occupies the first position, producing thirty-six per cent, of the total product of the 

 country. Virginia holds the second place; Pennsylvania has advanced from the twelfth to 

 the third; Wisconsin from the fifteenth to the tenth; and North Carolina, Connecticut, and 

 New York have each gained one point in the rank of tobacco States. Those that have 

 retrograded in relative production are Massachusetts, Maryland, West Virginia, Indiana, 

 Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee.&quot; 



We do not propose, in this connection, to treat much of the evil effects of the use of 

 tobacco upon the mind or physical system, or the principle involved in its culture, but rather 

 to give the best methods in its cultivation, as practiced by the most successful agriculturists 

 at the present time. 



Tobacco is a native of America, and was introduced to the civilized world soon after the 

 discovery of this continent. Columbus found it cultivated by the Indians in 1492, they 

 using it as a means of producing intoxication by smoking it in clay pipes. Its culture 

 was undertaken by the settlers of Virginia from the very settlement of the colony, where it 

 soon became not only an important staple, but the principal currency of the colony. It is 

 recorded that in the year 1615 the gardens, fields, and even streets of Jamestown were 

 planted with tobacco. During the first century of communication between the New World 

 and the Old, there seems to have been but little demand for this product by the latter, but 

 after this period we find it entering quite extensively into the trade of the colonies with the 

 mother country, which proves that its consumption was becoming more general. 



History states that James I of England wrote a &quot; Counterblast to Tobacco,&quot; which was 

 intended to do away with this evil altogether, and that Pope Urban VIII issued an edict, 

 excommunicating those who should use tobacco in churches, while Amurath IV of Turkey, 

 the Grand Duke of Muscovy, and the Emperor of Persia, all prohibited the use of tobacco 

 in their several dominions during the seventeenth century. Although thus violently opposed 

 and denounced as useless and injurious, its use continued to make rapid progress, until at the 

 present time it is known to almost the whole world. 



