24 



THE LANCASTER FARMER- 



[February, 



season. When the latter is favorable from 

 1,500 to 2,500 pounds of tobacco are grown on 

 an acre ; 2,000 pounds is by no means an 

 unusual crop. The price varies from season 

 to season, as do all other farm products. 

 being governed however mainly by the quality. 



Immense Profits Reailzed. 

 Tobacco is generally assorted into three 

 grades, known as "wrappers," "seconds," 

 and "fillers;" in average years thf, first- 

 named sells at from 15 to 30 cents, the sec- 

 onds at from 6 to 12 cents, and the fillers at 

 from 3 to 5 cents. In 1879, a tobacco growur 

 set out 15,800 plants on three acres of ground; 

 he got 7,681 pounds of cured tobacco, slightly 

 more than half a pound per plant, and at the 

 rate of 2,560 pounds to the acre. The crop 

 was sold at 25 cents "through," realizing 

 Sl,920.25, or S640.08peracre. The same man 

 sold in March, 1881, his crop of the previous 

 year, 8,663 pounds, grown from 17,000 plants, 

 which was at the rate of 2,800 pounds to tlie 

 acre, perhaps the largest authenticated yield 

 ever recorded in the United States. Senator 

 Cameron is an extensive tobacco grower. In 

 1880 he grew on twenty acres eighty-five 

 cases or 34,000 pounds, an average of 1,700 

 pounds to the acre, which was sold at Mk 

 cents, realizing him about $5,000. It was a 

 good average yield for such an acreage, but 

 the price at which it was sold was only mod- 

 erately good. A farmer residing two miles 

 beyond the city limits sold to a California 

 cigar manufacturing firm the product of nine 

 acres at the uniform price of 25 cents, receiv- 

 ing therefor the very handsome sum of .1i;5,553, 

 or at the rate of .1617 per acre. Two years 

 ago a wide-awake -.tobacco grower bought 

 seven acres of land lying on a bluff of the 

 Conestoga creek for .Sl25 per acre. It was 

 steep, stony and rough, and seemed to defy 

 cultivation ; but the plucky purchaser removed 

 the largest stones, cleared off the underbrush, 

 and in some way managed to turn the soil and 

 put in a cro]) of tobacco. He found a place 

 sufl^oiently level, on which he built a tobacco 

 barn. The season was propitious ; he raised 

 a heavy crop, sold it at 21 cents per pound, 

 realizing enough to pay for the land and 

 tobacco barn, and had $700 in his pocket 

 besides as the reward of his thrift and pluck. 



Cost of Growing Tobacco. 

 Lying before nie are several estimates by 

 prominent tobacco growers of the cost of 

 growing an acre of this crop. They run from 

 8100 to $160, the principal difference being in 

 the amount of manure used. One, which is 

 about an average, is as follows : 



Kent of lami (ini.ercst on value) $ 15 



Making seed bed .5 



PloueliinfT one acre twice 4 



.Manure .50 



Planting 3 



Harrowing and hoeing lliree times 10 



Topping, worming and suckering 10 



Harvesting 4 



Use of barn, wagon, laths, etc 12 



Taking down and stripping 1.5 



Taking to market 3 



Total gl30 



It is not an easy matter to get at the aver- 

 age money value per acre of the Lancaster 

 county tobacco crop. Perhaps $250 would 

 be near the mark, although there are hundreds 

 of instances every year where $300, $400, and 

 $500 are realized. The net profit per acre 



seldom falls below $100 in an average year 

 with a careful planter, while very frequently 

 it is two or three times that sum. True, it is 

 in one sense a very precarious crop, liable to 

 destruction by late frosts in spring and early 

 ones in autumn, and to insect destroyers and 

 hail, rain and wind storms between, but on 

 the whole, during the past twenty years the 

 tobacco crop has not been often er a failure 

 than the usual ones grown on the farm. The 

 labor in season is also constant, but much of 

 it can be done by the juvenile members of tlie 

 farmer's family, and therefore inexpensively. 

 There is seldom a money outlay ; manure is 

 sometimes purchased, but most of the labor is 

 supplied on the farm, wliile the returns are 

 generally prompt and large. During the last 

 four years the •value of the Lancaster county 

 tobacco crop has run from $1,500,000 to 

 $3,500,000. All this money has come into 

 the county from abroad and has remained 

 here. Hundreds of laboring men who have 

 farmed tobacco on shares, as is very generally 

 done, have earned comfortable homes as well 

 as a living. 



Does It Exhaust the Soil? 

 The question ia frequently asked, if tobacco 

 does not impoverish the soil, and none can be 

 more easily answered. In Virginia thotisands 

 of acres have become barren, but careless 

 farming did it. The farms of Lancaster 

 county produce better crops to-day than they 

 did twenty years ago. The land is richer and 

 more productive. Not an acre lies waste. 

 From three to five per cent, of his land is 

 thought as much as a farmer should put in to- 

 bacco. It is very heavily manured, and the 

 crop of wheat, which nearly always follows 

 tobacco, is better on tobacco ground than 

 elsewhere on the farm. The manure makes 

 the two crops. Should they observe deteri- 

 oration in their lands, this crop would at 

 once be given up. But under the present 

 system deterioration seems impossible. Thirty 

 years of tobacco farming has steadily im- 

 proved their farms. 



Tobacco Barns and Their Cost. 



In the eaily days of tobacco growing, before 

 the business was understood or the farmers 

 prepared to handle their crops properly, the 

 house-garret, the wagon-shed, and even the 

 hennery, were laid under i ontribution for 

 room in which to hang up and cure the to- 

 bacco crop. But experience soon taught the 

 farmers that the hanilhng of the crop was all- 

 important, and that this could only be pro- 

 l)e)ly done in buildings specially constructed. 

 Then came the era of tobacco barns. To-day 

 they a re found on every farm : large, capacious 

 structures, with cellar underneath, and stri|)- 

 ping room, where the work of preparing can 

 be done in all weathers. These structures 

 are of all sizes, from those twenty-five feet 

 square to the more imposing ones 40 feet wide 

 and 150 feet long, costing from $400 to $4000. 

 It is estimated that in a single year the co.st 

 of tobacco barns built has been as much as 

 $200,000. 



Lancaster County's Produci. 



As nearly as can be ascertained, the tobacco 



product of this county from 1860 to 1872 was 



about 225,000 cases, or 90,000,000 pounds. 



For the last ten years it has been as follows ; 



Cases. Pounds. 



187."! 2.5,000 10,000,000 



1874 30,000 13,000,000 



1875 40,(100 ir,,noi),(i(io 



1870 35,000 14 00(1,0110 



1K77 37,000 U,K0(l,{J0() 



1878 38,000 15,200,(100 



1879 45,000 18,000,000 



1880 40,000 Ifi,n0il,'.l(i0 



1881 .35,000 14,00(1.00(1 



1882 30,000 13,000,000 



Total for tbe 10 years. ...3.55,000 142,000,000 

 Estimating the average value of tbe crop 

 in the growers' hands at only lOi cents dur- 

 the past twenty-two years, they received 

 more than $25,000,000 for this single agricul- 

 tural product. The crop of 1879 was not only 

 one of the largest but also one of the best 

 ever grown. The average per acre was about 

 1,500 pounds. Lancaster county grew more 

 than one-half the entire product of the State. 

 If the entire county was planted in tobacco, 

 the product in an average year would be 

 double that grown in the whole United States. 

 The 1S,000,000 pounds yield of 1879 has never 

 been equaled by any county in the Union. 

 Christian comity, Kentucky, approaches most 

 nearly, with 12,577,574 pounds grown on 

 18,475 acres, while our 18,000,000 pounds 

 were grown on 13,500 acres. 



Tobacco Warehouses. 

 At least 100 firms are engaged in buying 

 and packing tobacco in this county. Not 

 only do they buy and pack the crop of Lan- 

 caster county, but three-fourths of all grown 

 in tlie State is brought here, as well as some 

 from Connecticut, New York, and Wisconsin. 

 To handle such an amount of goods requires 

 great facilities, and these are found here. 

 There are in Lancaster ciiy alone about 75 

 packing warehouses, some of them immense 

 structures, from two to four stories high and 

 from 50 to 200 feet long, witli a capacity of 

 storing from 200 to 5,000 cases of tobacco 

 each. There are many more packing ware- 

 houses throughout the county. 



Business on "Receiving" Days. 

 Most packers have certain days ot the week 

 for receiving tobacco, known as " receiving 

 days." On such days Lancaster presents a 

 sight to be seen nowhere else in the world. 

 Wagons of every kind, from the slight one- 

 horse affair to the ponderous Conestoga 

 wagon with its six heavy draught horses, 

 begin to come into town as early as ten 

 o'clock on the previous evening, all anxious 

 to get f;ivorable places that they may unload 

 early on the following day. The streets in the 

 neighborhood of the warehouses, especially 

 where three or four of the latter are near 

 together, as they are on "Tobacco Avenue," 

 are completely blockaded ; as many as eighty- 

 nine teams of every size have been counted in 

 a single block. GOO wagon loads were deliv- 

 ered on January 10, ls8l.l, and as many miu'e 

 on the 17th of the same month ; these deliv- 

 ered 1,500,000 poimds ; some were compelled 

 to remain until the following day before they 

 could discharge their cargo. A single firm 

 has received as many as 14w,000 pounds in one 

 day ; a number of others 100,000 pounds. 

 Tobacco is paid for on delivery. Frequent 

 investigations show that the banks pay out 

 on large receiving days from $150,000 to 

 $200,000 to farmers on the checks of the 

 tobacco buyers. On one of the dates given 

 above the amount reached $250,000.— i^. U. 

 D., in N. 1'. Tribune. 



