AGRICULTURE. 235 



strength of the flowers, or to cover the plant with blight. The 

 failures of crops from these causes, so frequent in England 

 and the Atlantic States, would never occur here. Not only 

 is the crop certain, but it can be cured with more ease and 

 in better condition than in other countries. The moisture 

 of the air in England compels the hop-growers to dry the 

 flowers in the sun or in kilns ; and if a rain fall upon them 

 while drying, they are ruined : and they are injured by both 

 the sun and kiln-drying. In California, they may be dried in 

 the open air, under sheds.: and thus prepared they will be 

 superior to any of the European hops. 



158. Tobacco. The cultivation of tobacco has been at- 

 tempted, on a small scale, every year since 1853 ; but the 

 product was so small, previous to 1872, that it was scarcely 

 worthy of notice, and the business seemed to have no impor- 

 tance for the future of the State. Now, however, it promises 

 much, chiefly on account of certain discoveries made in the art 

 of curing the plant, by J. D. Gulp, who obtained patents for 

 cigars and chewing tobacco, and transferred them to the 

 American Tobacco Company, which in 1873 had 400 acres 

 in tobacco, an area not equaled by any other company or cul- 

 tivator in the Union. 



In curing cigar tobacco, the plant, instead of being hung up 

 vertically by the butt in a barn, according to the old method, 

 is by the Gulp method taken into a close building, and there 

 put in piles two feet high, and allowed to remain ten hours or 

 more, until a temperature of about 1 00 degrees is reached ; 

 then hung up horizontally until the surface moisture on the 

 leaves dries, perhaps two or three days ; then piled again till 

 they reach a heat of 100 degrees, usually twenty-four hours; 

 and hung ten days or more till dry, and finally stacked. When 

 the plants are put into piles the second time, some leaves are 

 green, and others yellow, and the green come out yellow, and 

 the yellow is converted into brown ; and in the third piling all 

 assumes the brown color. The stacking in bulk, for six months, 



