28 



TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



COST OF RAISING THE TOBACCO CROP. 



Good tobacco lauds are worth from $10 to $25 per acre; inferior from $1 to $5. When money rent is paid, $5 

 per acre is the customary price. This probably includes the use of barns for housing the crop. Labor is cheap, and 

 good men, well skilled in the growing and handling of the crop, can be hired the year round at $150, inferior 

 hands at $100, and by the day, in summer, 75 cents is paid for the best hands. Wages, however, are not advanced 

 in proportion to skill in the laborer. The following detailed estimate of cost on best soils was made for Benton 



county by Mr. William Smith : 



DR. 



To cost of making seed-bed $1 50 



Kent of land (interest on price) 2 50 



Cost of preparing one acre for plants 3 50 



Drawing and setting plants 1 50 



Cultivating, harvesting, and preparing for market 33 00 



Delivering crop to market 150 



Total cost... .. 43 50 



CK. 



By 1,600 pounds tobacco, at 4J cents (best lands) 



Profit per acre, $25 83 ; cost of production per pound, 2.7 cents. 



69 33 



Good crops of White Burley averaged at the same time 8 cents per pound, making a profit per acre of $84 50. 

 A yield of 500 or 600 pounds per acre is often more profitable than a yield of 1,600 pounds; for 600 pounds at 12 

 cents, or 500 pounds at 15 cents, the average price of the fine yellow wrappers grown on thin soil, will aggregate a 

 larger amount than 1,600 pounds at 4J cents. The tendency among all planters of the district is to abandon the 

 growth of the heavy, low-priced styles of tobacco and to substitute the finer and more salable types. 



Tobacco is also raised by "croppers", the landlord furnishing only land, barns, and sticks, receiving therefor 

 one-third of the crop, divided while green on the sticks at the time of cutting. One hand is allowed from two to 

 three acres. 



Charcoal, for curing, is worth 5 cents per bushel, delivered at the barn. One hundred bushels are required to 

 cure 450 to 500 sticks of fine tobacco, an average of ten plants to the stick, or the product of one acre. Fewer plants 

 are put to the acre and fewer on a stick for heavy, coarse tobacco, which is for the most part air-cured or cured by 

 open wood fires. White Burley is also air-cured. 



Wooden prizes cost from $5 to $12; screw and lever, $11; screw and ratchet, $14. 



There are no warehouses for the inspection and sale of tobacco in the district. 



OTHEE DISTRICTS. 



Some experiments have been made in central Arkansas, near Little Rock, within the past year, with Havana 

 tobacco, which were very satisfactory, the product having the rich, mellow, aromatic flavor of the Cuba-grown leaf,, 

 and the cigars made from it being highly esteemed. 



Every county in the state raises more or less tobacco, but principally in small patches for domestic consumption. 

 A section of country embraced in Clay, Greene, Crawford, and Poinsett counties is occupied by Crowley's ridge, a 

 considerable elevation, distinguished for its remarkable fertility. The subsoil of this ridge is a clayey bed, which 

 underlies the quaternary marls and sands of the Saint Francis bottoms. Analyses develop the fact that the subsoil 1 

 of this ridge contains more phosphoric acid, potash, soda, oxide of iron, and magnesia than the top virgin soil, and 

 that fields long cultivated, though containing less potash, phosphoric acid, and soda than the subsoil, have a larger 

 proportion than the virgin soils of other districts. The timber growth is black oak, hickory, black and white 

 walnut, and tulip tree. Tobacco is planted on the slopes of this ridge, and the quality has been highly commended 

 for domestic fillers and wrappers. From this point the product goes to Paducah or to Louisville, Kentucky. 



Another region is beginning to produce tobacco in a small way for market, principally on the southwestern 

 side of White river, and embracing a part of Van Buren, Stone, Searcy, and Newton counties. It may be considered 

 an extension of the Benton County district. 



The following statement shows the production, acreage, yield per acre, and value of the tobacco crops of 

 Arkansas for 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1879. Only the figures for 1879 are from census returns : 



