HEAVY SHIPPING TOBACCO. 293 



which are mingled rotten masses of flint, or chert, 

 broken into small angular fragments. The latter sup- 

 plies warmth and drainage, the clayey bed retains and 

 supplies moisture to the growing crop. Upon such soils, 

 the plants will stand long in the field after being appar- 

 ently ripe, thickening, ripening, and mellowing and 

 storing up oily matter, making the leaf, when cured, as 

 soft and elastic as a kid glove. The best shipping leaf 

 is produced upon manured lots having the characteristic 

 subsoil mentioned. Analysis shows this soil to be rich 

 in potash, while the climate is especially suited to the 

 crop, producing the best tobacco for export now grown 

 in the world. 



Western Kentucky and western Tennessee grow 

 shipping tobacco of a lower quality on an ashen-colored 

 soil that is light and friable, containing a large amount 

 of calcareous matter intermixed with a fine, sandy mate- 

 rial. Such soils are very easily washed and gullied, and 

 the crop is not grown on them as much as formerly. 

 The Ohio river district in Kentucky comprises the coun- 

 ties of Livingstone, Crittenden, Caldwell, Lyon, Han- 

 cock, Breckenridge and Meade. The lower Green Eiver 

 district the counties of Henderson, Union, Daviess, 

 Webster, Hopkins, McLean and Muhlenberg has 

 mostly a soil of sandstone and shaly derivation, produc- 

 ing tobacco suitable for English strips, long, wide^heavy 

 and coarse. The upper Green River district Barren, 

 Warren, Hardin, Grayson, Edmonson, Hart, Green, 

 Larue, Marion, Taylor and Allen counties has a soil 

 resembling the Clarksville district, yielding tobacco of 

 heavy body, oily face and smooth texture. White Bur- 

 ley is also grown in this district, and a little yellow 

 tobacco in Hart county, on gravelly or sandy soils with 

 calcareous subsoil, giving a fine and silky leaf with light 

 body, but firm and tough and well suited for plug wrap- 

 pers. Between the upper and lower districts is the 



