s 



t. Louis— once America's 



leading tobacco market 



By 1890 Missouri was the major tobacco manufactur- 

 ing state, the industry there having had its start in St. 

 Louis in 1817. For many years the greatest quantity of 

 manufactured plug came from Missouri. Its chief ingredi- 

 ent was Burley from the Ohio Valley, a leaf which readily 

 absorbed the flavoring sauces consumers demanded. In 

 1914 the state's factories turned out more than 70 million 

 pounds of the commodity — almost 40 percent of total 

 national production — then worth around $35,000,000. 



Missouri held third place in tobacco production by 

 1873, being exceeded in the agriculture only by Ken- 

 tucky and Virginia. It maintained that rank for some 

 time. A dozen years before World War I it had been 

 observed that 



Tobacco may be grown successfully in 

 every county in the State. St. Louis is the 

 leading tobacco market in the United 

 States, and there is no reason why this 

 industry should not be developed until 

 Missouri is the leading tobacco producing 

 state in the Union . . . In some counties 

 farmers sell their tobacco crops for more 

 than $100 an acre. 



Good tobacco was then selling for about 10 cents a 

 pound. (In the latest reported year, 1958, Missouri 

 farmers were selling their tobacco for a fraction under 

 64 cents a pound. ) The expectation that Missouri's to- 

 bacco agriculture might be expanded, as expressed by 



