CHAPTER XLV 

 TOBACCO PRODUCTION 



(By L. R. Neel, Editor Southern Agriculturist, Nashville, Tennessee) 



Importance in America. Tobacco, like Indian corn and the 

 white or Irish potato, is a native of America. It was cultivated by 

 the Indians at the time of the discovery and exploration of the 

 country by the different European nations. It belongs to the night- 

 shade family and has the generic name of " Nicotiana." 



Tobacco is one of the great money crops of America. It is of 

 much less importance than cotton, but the gross income to the 

 farmer for the country per annum exceeds a hundred millions of 

 dollars. In 1913, when conditions were normal, the crop was valued 

 at $121,481,000 on the farms. 



Where Tobacco is Grown. Tobacco culture in a commercial 

 way is confined to the humid part of the United States and largely 

 to the eastern portion of this region. It is grown commercially all 

 the way from Vermont and New Hampshire into Florida. Ken- 

 tucky leads in the production of tobacco, North Carolina comes 

 second, Virginia third, Ohio fourth, Tennessee fifth, Wisconsin 

 sixth, Pennsylvania seventh, South Carolina eighth, and Connecti- 

 cut ninth. Other States produce tobacco commercially, but in 

 considerably smaller quantities. 



The cigar types are grown in New England, New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, the Miami Valley of Ohio, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Florida. 

 Chewing, smoking, snuff, and export types are grown in Kentucky, 

 portions of southern Indiana and Illinois and eastern Ohio, part 

 of Missouri, Tennessee, Maryland, the Virginias, and the Carolinas. 

 Small acreages of tobacco mainly belonging to the latter type are 

 grown in Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. 



Description of the Tobacco Plant. Most of the tobacco in 

 cultivation is derived from Nicotiana tabacum, the Virginia tobacco. 

 It is a coarse, rank-growing annual. It has a simple, cylindrical stem 

 that attains a height of from three to six feet or more in cultivation. 

 The stem terminates in a panicle of pink or rose-colored flowers 

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