224 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



only in the morning or evening, and when properly wilted, 

 which will be in a few hours, it may be carefully carried to 

 the drying house, where it should be hung up by twine tied 

 to the butt end of the stalk, and suspended over poles at dry- 

 ing distances with the head downwards. The circulation of 

 air is necessary in the dry houses, but there must be entire 

 safety against storms or winds, as the leaves are liable to 

 break by agitation, and rain seriously injures them. When 

 the stem in the leaf has become hard, it is sufficiently dried. 

 This takes place in good weather, in two' or three months. 

 The leaves may be stripped in damp weather when they will 

 not crumble, and carefully bound in small bundles, termed 

 hands, and then boxed for shipment. 



The varieties of tobacco are numerous, not less than 

 twelve being cultivated in America. They soon adapt them- 

 selves to the different soils and climates where they are 

 grown. The most fragrant are produced in Cuba, and these 

 are exclusively used for cigars. They command several 

 times the price of ordinary kinds. The tobacco of Maryland 

 and the adjoining States is peculiarly rich and high flavored, 

 and is most esteemed for chewing. 



Much of the peculiarity of taste and aroma, and the con- 

 sequent value of tobacco, depends on the soil, and the prepa- 

 ration or sweating of the plant after drying. The former 

 should not be too rich, and never highly manured, as the 

 flavor is thereby materially injured, though the product will 

 be increased. Yet it is an exhausting crop, as is seen by 

 \he large quantity and the analysis of the ash ; and the soil 

 requires a constant renewal of well-fermented manures, and 

 particularly the saline ingredients, to prevent exhaustion. 

 Tobacco contains nitrogen and the alkalies in large quanti- 

 ties, and but very little of the phosphates. The ash is shown 

 in the analysis of Fresenius and Will, to consist, of potash, 

 30.67 ; lime (mostly with a little magnesia), 33.36 ; gyp- 

 sum, 5.60 ; common salt, 5.95 ; phosphates, 6.03 ; silica, 

 18.39; in 100 parts of the ash. The inferior kinds contain 

 a large proportion of lime, and the superior qualities, the 

 largest of potash. 



The customary method of burning fuel on the bedsjde- 

 signed for tobacco, and the use of freshly cleared and burnt 

 lands, by which the largest crops of the best quality are ob- 

 tained, shows conclusively the proper treatment required. 

 By each of these operations, the ground is not only loosened 

 in the best possible manner, and all insects and weeds de- 



