of its appearance when cured, it was locally known as 

 "Bright" or "Yellow." 



This type was first used chiefly for plug wrappers. 

 Later it became the basic ingredient in the most popular 

 of smoking tobaccos. Meanwhile, the previously unde- 

 sirable farm land on which the new light leaf was grown, 

 increased rapidly in value. 



As its culture spread in the border counties of Virginia 

 and North Carolina, charcoal, or charcoal and wood as 

 fuels for drying leaf, began to be widely applied to this 

 leaf type. From this local tobacco — grown in an area 

 about 150 miles wide, the Old Belt — evolved the famed 

 Bright leaf (flue-cured) tobacco of today. 



R 



lue-curing is introduceci 



Of major importance in the evolution of modem 

 Bright tobacco was the process of curing leaf by flue- 

 conducted heat. Experimental use of flues began early 

 in the 1800's. The practical Virginia farmers who devised 

 the first crude flues were attempting to reduce the smoky 

 odor of leaf, to curb fire hazards to barns and leaves, 

 and to eliminate mildew which frequently affected leaf 

 after curing. Flues conducted heat from fires built out- 

 side a tightly constructed barn and the raising or lower- 

 ing of heat by the fire-tender dried the hanging leaves 

 within the barn and brought them to the desired bright- 

 yellow color. 



In the early 1870's, tobacco cured by flues was bring- 

 ing higher prices than that cured by barn floor fires. The 

 swift spread of flue-curing later in the century was 



26 



