228 Practical Farming 



in between it and the tobacco crop in order that the vege- 

 table matter shall be more completely decomposed and in 

 the condition of the natural humus of the new ground 

 that they find so useful. 



The tobacco now known as the White 

 The White Burley originated from a selection from the 

 TobaTco ^^^ Burley, made in Ohio about 1864. It 



is now produced in larger quantity than any 

 other variety of tobacco grown in this country. Its cul- 

 ture is largely confined to the State of Kentucky, though 

 still grown to a great extent in Ohio, the area of culti- 

 vation lying on both sides of the Ohio River, and including 

 twenty-four counties in Kentucky, three in Ohio, and 

 parts of other counties in Kentucky. In brief, it is a 

 Blue Grass country tobacco, and is strictly a limestone 

 land tobacco. Even there the quality varies greatly, 

 the north slopes of the hills producing a heavier crop 

 but inferior in quality to the lighter soils and south 

 exposure, while the alluvial bottoms make a coarse 

 and *'bony" leaf. It is now used very largely as a 

 material for plug tobacco, having almost entirely taken 

 the place of the Virginia tobacco formerly used for this 

 purpose. 



In the culture of White Burley the growers have largely 

 abandoned the practice of making hills for the plants, but 

 set the plants on' the side of the furrow made in marking 

 out the land, and then throw earth enough to them as they 

 start to grow to make the soil level. Thereafter level cul- 

 ture is practiced. In fact there is now Httle hilHng up of 

 tobacco except among the growers of the gold leaf in the 

 South, who still stick to the practice. 



