244 THE ESSENTIALS OF AGRICULTURE 



barn (fire-curing), or by heat radiated from hot pipes running 

 through the barn (flue-curing). The yield of cured leaf in the 

 several districts ranges from seven hundred to two thousand 

 pounds per acre. A large number of more or less distinctive 

 varieties are grown in these districts. 



317. Cigar leaf. This class of leaf is used in the domestic 

 manufacture of cigars. The bulk of the crop is produced in the 

 states of Kentucky, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, 



MW ?W^f t 



t 





FIG. 1 1 6. Tobacco suspended on slats to be taken to the curing shed 



Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida. In the wrapper- 

 leaf districts of New England and Florida, and, to a lesser ex- 

 tent, in the binder-leaf and filler-leaf districts of the other states 

 mentioned, intensive methods of fertilizing, growing, and hand- 

 ling the crop and relatively large yields and high prices prevail. 

 The wrapper-leaf soils are fine sands and sandy loams, while the 

 binder-leaf and filler-leaf soils are stronger sandy and light-clay 

 loams, with more clay in the subsoil. With the exception of a 

 portion of the wrapper crop, the tobacco is harvested by cutting 

 the stalk, and little or no artificial heat is used in curing. All 

 cigar tobacco, after curing, must undergo an active process of 



