CALIFORNIA TOBACCO LANDS. 339 



wheat and gold seem likely to be realized. The soil and 

 climate of California are admirably adapted for tobacco. In 

 the valleys the land is a deep alluvial loam, easily worked, 

 producing bountiful crops of the finest leaf tobacco. The 

 planters have experimented with several varieties, including 

 Havana, Florida, Latakia, Hungarian, Mexican, Virginia, 

 Connecticut, Standard and White leaf. Large crops are 

 grown, especially of Florida tobacco, which, with careful 

 culture, produces two thousand five hundred pounds of 

 merchantable leaf to the acre. The planters get their 

 Havana seed from Cuba, preferring to do so rather than to 

 risk the seed from their own plants. At first they used 

 home-grown seed and could not see any serious deterioration 

 or change in the quality of the tobacco, but a singular change 

 in the form of the leaf took place. That from home-grown 

 seed grew longer, and the veins or ribs, which in Havana 

 tobacco stand out at right angles from the leaf stalks took an 

 acute angle, and thus became longer and made up a greater 

 part of the leaf. Of Florida tobacco the home-grown seed 

 comes true. 



Tobacco is now being tested in the, several counties in the 

 State and with every promise of success. Many of the 

 ranches seem well adapted for the plant and the planters are 

 confident by their new process of curing, of being able to 

 produce an article equal to the best Havana brand. The 

 plants attain a remarkable size, and grow up like many kinds 

 of tropical vegetation, without much care being bestowed 

 upon them, although the plants are regularly cultivated and 

 hoed. The planters are not troubled with that foe of most 

 tobacco fields, " the worm." They attribute this in part to 

 the excellence of their soil and partly to the abundance of 

 birds and yellow jackets. The planters do not always " top " 

 the Havana and do very little " suckering." If the ground 

 is rich, and free from weeds they let one of the suckers from 

 that root grow, and thus become almost as large and heavy 

 as the original plant. They believe that the soil is strong 

 enough to bear the plants and suckers, and that they get a 

 better leaf and finer quality without suckering. 



