FARM CROPS. 



159 



Importance of Tobacco. It is a crop like tea and 

 coffee, which supplies neither food nor clothing, but 

 is used all over the world as a luxury and for its semi- 

 medicinal effects. It was introduced to the world 

 from this continent. Its cultivation and export were 

 leading industries of the Virginia settlers, and for a 

 time it was used among them as money, even the sala- 



SELECTED TOBACCO PLANTS. 



ries of clergymen and fines for violation of law being 

 fixed at so many pounds of tobacco. In Maryland 

 it was made a legal tender by statute. 



To-day the tobacco crop of the United States is val- 

 ued at not far from sixty million dollars, and Kentucky 

 and Virginia produce the larger part of it. 



The tobacco plant will mature in almost any part of 

 the United States, but it can be grown profitably only 

 in certain sections where climate and soil are both suit- 

 able. 



