CHAPTER XXI 



TOBACCO 



314. Tobacco as a farm crop. Tobacco was first commercially 

 grown in Virginia in 1612. This crop now ranks seventh in 

 value in the United States and ninth among the crops of the 



world. The tobacco crop 

 of the world is about 

 2,500,000,000 pounds 

 a year, of which the 

 United States produces 

 nearly 1,000,000,000 

 pounds. 



The tobacco plant 

 (Fig. 115) may be grown 

 successfully on any agri- 

 cultural soil and in all 

 latitudes from southern 

 Canada to the tropics. 

 The quality of the prod- 

 uct, however, is perhaps 

 affected to a greater 

 degree by the conditions under which it is grown than is that 

 of any other farm or garden crop. Therefore tobacco produc- 

 tion has become a highly specialized industry, a given district 

 supplying only certain classes, or types, of tobacco, as the cigar 

 leaf in certain districts and the cigar wrapper in others. 



242 



FIG. 1 1 5. A topped tobacco plant. (Photograph 

 from United States Department of Agriculture) 



