SUPERIOR QUALITY OF TOBACCO. 337 



to resume its former status among the great agricultural 

 products of the country." 



" Whether this success is attributable to any peculiarity 

 in the elements of the soil, I am not able to determine, but 

 this fact is worthy of note, that, except immediately on the 

 banks of the Apalachicola River, which forms the Western 

 boundary of the County, there is an entire absence of the 

 rotten limestone which so largely pervades the other sections 

 of the State. For the planter of limited means, there is no 

 crop so well suited to his condition as the Cuba tobacco. 

 To produce a given result there is a less area of land required 

 than is demanded for the production of any other field crop. 

 The cultivation, harvesting, and preparation for market is 

 simple, and the labor so light that it may be participated in 

 by every member of the family, male and female, over six 

 years of age. The growth of the plant is so rapid, and its 

 arrival at maturity so quick, that it never interferes with any 

 of the provision crops, and rarely with a moderate cotton 

 crop." 



In Louisiana the tobacco plant flourishes well and grows as 

 well and as luxuriantly as sugar cane. Even along the banks 

 of the Mississippi the plants attain good size, and succeed as 

 finely as in some of the other parishes in the interior of the 

 State. The Perique and Louisiana tobacco are the principal 

 varieties cultivated, and attain nearly the size of Connecticut 

 seed leaf. In St. James parish the soil seems well adapted 

 for Perique tobacco, and here it readily takes on that black 

 hue that is one of the peculiar features of this singular 

 variety. In Coddo parish tobacco is cultivated to some 

 extent, but does not produce a leaf equal to that grown in 

 St. James Parish. The tobacco grown in the Parishes of 

 Bossier and Natchitoches is used chiefly by the growers of 

 the parishes and is fitted for both smoking and snuff. 



The Louisiana planters have adopted the method of the 

 French in doing up their tobacco twisting it in rolls, or as 

 the French call them, " Carrots." The planters of St. James 

 Parish annually put up from ten to fourteen thousand car- 

 rots of Perique, each carrot weighing about four pounds. 



Mr. Perique, from whom the tobacco takes its name, made 

 many improvements in the manner of preparing the tobacco 



