CHAPTER IX 

 TOBACCO CULTURE 



FOUR of the leading agricultural plants have been given 

 to the world by the Americas. They are the white 

 potato, the sweet potato, corn and tobacco. The Indians 

 were probably the first users of tobacco. They used it for 

 chewing and smoking as early as the sixteenth century. 



1. The Tobacco Region 



Soil and climate. Tobacco may be successfully 

 grown in all latitudes in the United States from Canada 

 to the Gulf of Mexico. Yet the quality and flavor of the 

 plants are so greatly affected by climate and soil that the 

 crop is nearly all raised in a relatively small area. On fertile 

 clay soil the tobacco plant grows large and heavy with leaves 

 rich in oil or gum and cures dark red or black. In light 

 sandy soil the same strain will produce thin leaves, fine tex- 

 ture, and will cure yellow or mahogany color, hence the ne- 

 cessity of selecting the soil carefully. Kentucky and the 

 states bordering upon it produce more than half of our 

 native crop. 



The tobacco states. Named in the order of their 

 importance, the twelve leading states in tobacco production 

 are : Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, 

 Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, South Caro- 

 lina, Connecticut, Maryland and Missouri. This territory 

 grows more than ninety-five per cent, of the native commer- 

 cial crop. 



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