338 TOBACCO IN LOUISIANA. 



for market, one of which consisted in taking up the twisted 

 lumps (after remaining in press for six months), spreading 

 them to fifteen or sixteen inches in length and having com- 

 pleted four pounds in weight, rolling it into a lump which 

 retained its shape by means of a rope one-fourth inch in 

 diameter, tightly twisted around it. The labor in pressing 

 and twisting is entirely done by hand, and attended to with 

 the most scrupulous care. 



The Creole planters sometimes raise two, and even three 

 crops on the same field, two of them being the growths of 



s; 

 LOUISIANA TOBACCO PLANTATION. 



suckers or shoots from the parent stock or stump. The 

 growers of Perique tobacco have tested Havana seed, but can 

 see but little difference between the product and that from 

 Virginia or Kentucky tobacco seed, while the growth is much 

 smaller. In color Louisiana tobacco is very dark, entirely 

 different from any other variety grown in the Mississippi 

 valley. 



Some few years since tobacco culture was introduced into 

 California, and the belief then entertained by those who 

 planted the consoling weed, that the state would soon become 

 as famous for raising tobacco as she now is for producing 



