CHAPTEK IV. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE TOBACCO GROWN IN THE 

 UNITED STATES, AND THE MARKETS FOR IT. 



The cured product only of the tobacco plant is of 

 marketable value. Each distinct soil formation, aided 

 by climatic conditions, gives peculiar qualities to the 

 cured leaf, as to texture, flavor, color and special fitness 

 for varied uses and for different markets. The ability 

 to cultivate the plant, or to cure the product, so as to 

 give it such qualities as to make it desirable, is of the 

 utmost importance to the grower, and upon his skill in 

 this depend his profits. 



In its green state there are many varieties of tobacco 

 in which peculiarities of growth, size, or time of matur- 

 ing, are the distinguishing features. Commercial cir- 

 cles recognize in the cured product classes, types and 

 grades. The basis of a class is its adaptation for a cer- 

 tain use ; the basis of a type is the combination of cer- 

 tain qualities, or properties, in the leaf, as color, 

 strength, elasticity, body, flavor, etc., or in the meth- 

 ods employed in curing, as sun-cured, air-cured, flue- 

 cured, or cured by open fires. Grades represent the 

 different degrees of excellence in a type, as lugs, low- 

 leaf, medium, good, fillers, binders and wrappers. 



To illustrate more fully : The heavy shipping to- 

 bacco is a class adapted to the requirements of the con- 

 sumers in foreign markets. The yellow tobacco is a type 

 that may be used for exportation, for smoking and for 

 chewing, thus belonging to several classes. There may 

 be eight or ten grades of yellow tobacco, each differing 

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