YELLOW TOBACCO. 357 



yellow hue, which indicates maturity, anticipates the 

 beginning of August, and sometimes the harvesting 

 begins the first week in July, and the crop is gathered 

 and cured before the first cuttings are made in the more 

 westerly districts. This is regarded as an advantage, as 

 it lessens the liability of damage from worms and 

 droughts, or from excessive rains. Professor Kerr was 

 of the opinion that at least one-half of the cotton area 

 of the Champaign districts in the States of Virginia and 

 North Carolina is adapted to the growth of yellow 

 tobacco. 



The Midland district of North Carolina and Vir- 

 ginia, lying to the west of the Champaign districts, is 

 where the industry orig- 

 inated, and where the 

 product reached its 

 highest perfection and I 

 won its most brilliant 

 triumphs. In North 

 Carolina, the counties 

 in the Midland district 

 best known for produc- FIG - 1W - BASKET FOR CARRYING PLANTS. 

 ing this tobacco are Caswell, Person, Granville, Vance, 

 Orange, Durham, Alamance, Guilford, Eockinghum, 

 Stokes, Forsyth and Surry. Two counties in Virginia, 

 Halifax and Pittsylvania, have also won a well-merited 

 distinction for growing yellow tobacco. 



All this region is hilly, often rough, having numer- 

 ous rivers, fed by hundreds of tributaries, cutting down 

 through the soft, crumbling strata to a depth varying 

 from 50 to 200 feet below the summits of the ridges 

 that separate the streams. A very small portion of the 

 soil of this entire district is adapted to the growth of 

 yellow tobacco. The best tobacco lands are found on 

 the tops of the ridges, where there is a gray, sandy or 

 gravelly soil, with a cream-colored subsoil of a sandy 



