SPECIAL HERB AND LEAF CROPS 



205 



The leaves are used for making cigars, cigarettes, and ground 

 tobacco for smoking, and for making plug tobacco, which is used 

 for chewing. In pioneer days, tobacco often took the place of 

 money, and we are told that many of the young colonists bought 

 their wives by paying for their passage across the Atlantic with 

 one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty pounds of 

 tobacco. 



Our chief tobacco-producing States are Kentucky, North Caro- 

 lina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia. But tobacco will grow in 

 North America almost everywhere from the equator to Canada. 



Tobacco field, Kentucky. 



The plants are first grown in a seed bed, and then transplanted, 

 if possible, when the weather is moist and cloudy. The plants 

 should be set out about three feet apart, in four-foot rows. They 

 should have frequent and shallow cultivation. During the growing 

 season, the plants must be topped, and all suckers cut off, in order 

 to insure evenness of size and quality in the leaves. 



The finest-flavored tobacco is grown in Cuba, Porto Rico, 

 Sumatra, Java, and the Philippine Islands. The Havana cigar 

 and the Manila cigar are known the world over. Our tobacco 



