HEAVY SHIPPING TOBACCO. 295 



to grow thick, leathery and large. Gray, porous soils, 

 made up in part of fine, sandy material, will develop 

 a thinner but finer leaf, particularly if planted with thin 

 varieties that have grown upon such soils for a number 

 of years. Varieties that produce a high quality of to- 

 bacco on soils to which they are suited, fail when planted 

 on soils of a different character. The popular varieties 

 known by the names of Yellow Prior and Orinoco, 

 planted upon rich, old lands, highly manured, will yield 

 a strong, dark tobacco full of gummy matter, rich in 

 nicotine, known as " black fat," and eminently fitted 

 for the German market. Planted upon light, new lands, 

 the product of the same varieties is yellow, mottled or 

 piebald, fine-flavored, sweet and fragrant. If the same 

 variety of tobacco be planted in two fields in situations 

 precisely similar, and soils of like character, one field 

 being freshly cleared from the forest, and the other long 

 cleared, but with its fertility preserved, the product of 

 the first will be brighter in color when cured by artificial 

 heat or by the desiccating influence of the sun and air, 

 finer in texture and sweeter in flavor, and have less nico- 

 tine in its composition than that grown on the old land. 

 The first will be in demand for domestic manufacture 

 and consumption, and the latter for shipping purposes. 

 The product of new lands, if properly cured and man- 

 aged, is for the most part profitable if suited for manu- 

 facturing purposes, but if the soils of the new lands are 

 red, and otherwise unsuited to the growth of manufac- 

 turing tobacco, the product of the old, highly manured 

 lots makes the most valuable commodity. 



Preparation of the Soil. No crop requires a more 

 careful preparation of the soil for its successful growth, 

 than tobacco of any variety. Most of the cultivation, 

 indeed, should be performed before the plants are set in 

 the ground, and in order to do this the land intended 

 for tobacco, if a clayey loam, should be well and deeply 



