328 FIRST WESTERN PLANTERS. 



With no crop has the Emancipation Act interfered so much 

 as with this, and the old tobacco planters will tell you with 

 a sigh that tobacco no longer yields them the profits it once 

 did : the manufacturers are the only people who make for- 

 tunes on it now-a-days ; $12 per hundred is the lowest price 

 which pays for the raising, and few crops average that now. 

 Still every farmer essays its culture, every freedman has his 

 small tobacco patch by his cabin door, and the Indian weed 

 is still the great staple of Eastern Virginia." 



The first planters of tobacco at the West were the Ohioans, 

 who began its culture about fifty years ago. From the first 

 they have taken much interest in the plant, and as the result 

 of many experiments not only produce seed leaf, but the 

 finest cutting leaf grown in this country. The Ohio tobacco 

 growers have shown a spirit of enterprise in this direction 

 that is as commendable as it is rare. While they have not 

 tested the great tropical varieties like their brother tobacco 

 growers of Connecticut, they have succeeded in producing a 

 leaf for cutting that is the admiration of the world. At first 

 their experiments were unsuccessful, and the early growers 

 were ridiculed for entertaining the belief that tobacco could 

 be grown at the West. Yet despite all objections and seem- 

 ing failures, the growers continued its cultivation until it has 

 become one of the great products of the State. Of late the 

 Ohio growers have demonstrated that their soil is better 

 adapted for the finer grades of cutting leaf, than for seed leaf 

 or even the more common "cinnamon blotch." 



The soil is rich, and an experience of half a century has at 

 length given them a thorough knowledge of the plant and 

 the most successful modes of cultivation. In appearance an 

 Ohio tobacco field resembles those of the Connecticut valley 

 the leaf is large, and though coarser, cures down a dark 

 rich brown, like " cinnamon blotch," or a light yellow, the 

 color of the famous "white tobacco." The Ohio growers 

 have taken much pains with the Ohio broad leaf, and have 

 produced a seed leaf tobacco that in many respects is a supe- 

 rior wrapper for cigars. While it does not possess the fine 

 texture of Connecticut seed leaf it still has many good quali- 

 ties, and with the careful culture given it will doubtless 



