358 TOBACCO LEAF. 



material. The favorable indications and conditions 

 that promise success are good drainage, an open texture 

 of the soil, a freedom from the oxides of iron, a forest 

 growth of stunted oaks, "bald face Spanish oaks," 

 white oaks and post oaks with old field pines, chin- 

 quapin, huckleberry, dogwood, scrub, hickory, persim- 

 mon, sourwood and other natural growth, such as broom 

 sedge, poverty grass and small green briers, that betray a 

 lean or impoverished soil. All these are the vegetable 

 flags of sterility, and the forerunners of success for the 

 yellow tobacco grower in that district. 



Such places are called by the inhabitants "pea 

 ridges," "chinquapin ridges" and "huckleberry ridges." 

 Wheat, oats, or corn planted upon such soil will rarely 

 reproduce the seed. All the soils in the Midland dis- 

 tricts are sedentary, with the exception of the triassic 

 and alluvial, 'that is, they have been formed by the 

 crumbling down of the underlying rocks, and the con- 

 stituent elements of the rocks are for the most part 

 identical with those of the resulting soils. Where the 

 trap rocks come to the surface, the soils are reddish in 

 color, due to the presence of the oxides of iron. Such 

 soils are fatal to the growth of yellow tobacco. 



So controlling is the character of the soil, that one 

 part of a farm may produce the very finest grades of 

 tobacco found in the market, and another part will grow 

 the commonest article. The writer examined a large 

 tobacco farm in Granville county upon which the very 

 highest priced tobacco was produced. On one part of 

 the farm only, and that the most sterile, was any 

 attempt made to produce the yellow tobacco. Where 

 the soil was derived from the gneisses, quartzites, 

 light colored feldspathic rocks and dove-colored slates, 

 tobacco in its highest perfection and greatest beauty was 

 grown, but no grain, no vegetables, no fruits. Where 

 the soil was the result of the decomposition of the trap- 



