ORONOKO TOBACCO. 475 



most in favor being the yellow Oronoko, and the Gooch or 

 Pride of Granville. The first is the kind that gave character 

 to the Caswell (North Carolina) yellow tobacco more than 

 twenty years ago, and is still preferred by a very large 

 number of planters who grow the finest yellow smokers and 

 wrappers. The latter is preferred in Granville county, 

 North Carolina, that produces the finest yellow tobacco 

 grown on this continent, or, perhaps, in the world. This 

 latter is clearly an Oronoko tobacco, very much resembling 

 the former, except that the leaf grows rather broader, and by 

 some is considered sweeter. These two kinds have been 

 grown with special reference to their adaptation to producing 

 the finest quality of wrappers, smokers, and fillers. I am 

 satisfied that the art of curing and management have not only 

 been very far advanced toward scientific perfection, but that 

 in perfecting the kinds of seed grown much improvement has 

 been made. For instance, in the saving of seed, by adopting 

 the plan of turning out the forwardest plants growing in the 

 best soil, and afterwards observing to cut off all the heads of 

 plants that ripen up coarse, narrow or ill-shaped, or of a 

 green color on the hill, and saving only those heads that ripen 

 yellow in color and of a smooth and fine texture, much has 

 been done to improve the kind. Besides, the most important 

 point in the saving of tobacco seed is to cut off all the lateral 

 shoots, leaving only three crown shoots to perfect seed, 

 thereby securing larger pods and more perfect seed that 

 always ripen in good time, and are more reliable for seed 

 beds and the production of early, vigorous plants. 



"By following this mode of saving seed with special 

 reference to the growth of a particular class of tobacco, in a 

 few years the seed is not only greatly improved, but as like 

 begets like in the vegetable as in the animal kingdom, 

 becomes sui generis the first of its species. The writer can 

 bear testimony to the above facts and desires that others may 

 profit thereby. Where any plant attains its highest perfec- 

 tion, there is the place to secure the best seed. The home of 

 the tobacco plant is in Virginia and North Carolina, and the 

 growth and perfection of* the kinds here cultivated have 

 reached a point unattained any where else. The West and 

 South would do well to procure their seed from us, and then 

 save and propagate after the instructions above given." 



SECOND GKOWTH. 

 The first account we find of raising a second crop of tobacco 



