CULTURE AND CURING IN ILLINOIS. 



35 



as often as the land may need stirring. In thirty or forty days the plants are topped to fourteen, eighteen, or 

 twenty leaves, according to the vigorof each. No pruning is done. The crop is snckered twice, and cut immediately 

 after the last suckering. It is then air-cured, and its management in all its details is almost identical with that 

 given in the description of the adjacent Wisconsin district. 



One method of killing the tobacco fly is practiced which is not mentioned in the schedules from any other 

 district. A bed of petunias, a genus related to the tobacco plant, is sown near the tobacco- field, the sowing being 

 so timed that, the flowers, of which the moth is very fond, may be in bloom about the time the fly makes its 

 appearance. At twilight these beds are visited, and as the moths hover over the flowers they are knocked down 

 and killed with paddles. This is said to be the most effective method of destroying them. 



The acreage and the amount produced in the district, yield and value, for four years are as follows, only the 

 figures for 1879 being from census returns: 



Farmers for the most part sell to local dealers, who reassert and pack in boxes 3 feet long and 2$ feet deep 

 and wide, containing 400 pounds to the box. These boxes are made of white pine, and cost $1 each. The following 

 table gives the range of prices received by farmers for different varieties, crop through, for four years to 1879: 



The farmer does not sell by grades, but in stripping three grades are made, viz, wrappers, binders, and fillers. 

 Wrappers are worth about twice as much as binders, and the, latter twice as much as fillers. The proportion of 

 grades varies in differ, nt crops, according to soil and management. The best crops in a good season will run as 

 high as GO per cent, wrappers, the remainder being equally divided between fillers and binders. The average, 

 however, is: wrappers, 50 per cent.; binders and tillers, each 25 per cent. The tobacco of this district is mainly 

 consumed in the United States, though a small proportion of the lower grades is taken for export. It is understood 

 that about one-third of the tobacco of the, district is Sweet-Scented Spanish or Cuba Seed, as it is variously called, 

 and the remainder seed leaf. A part of the product is taken in the district by manufacturers, but by far the 

 larger proportion is sent to New York, Chicago, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, and Baltimore. 



TOBACCO-HOUSES. 



Up to within a recent period the houses for curing the crop were very inferior. Eude structures, made often times 

 of rails, and covered with straw, were thought to be good enough, and even now there are many sheds with good 

 frames having only a rooting of str.iw. The great losses suffered in consequence of this inadequate provision have 

 induced the better class of farmers to erect good houses, in which the tobacco is not only protected from bad weather, 

 but the farmer is enabled to have the tobacco under control during the curing process. A cut illustrating one of 

 the best of these barns, belonging to A. Simmons, is here given. 



Fuel view Entrance. 



Side view. 



629 



