62 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



These estimates being for but a small portion of the district caunot be taken as a reliable basis upon which to 

 estimate the character of the entire product. 



VARIETIES OF TOBACCO GROWN. 



These are Blue and Yellow Pryor, Orinoco, Twist-bud, One-sucker, Shoestring, Poor Man's Friend, Long Green, 

 Morrow, Silk Leaf, and White Burley. The Pryors and Orinoco are preferred. The- Shoestring makes a very long, 

 narrow leaf, with heavy stem and fiber, and is of very full but coarse texture, but is of no special value except for 

 making African shippers. The One-sucker, Poor Man's Friend, and Long Green are very similar in habits of growth 

 and in quality of cured product, and are valuable only because of the ease with which they are cultivated and 

 prepared for market. The crop of White Burley for 1879 was so small as not to attract attention. 



GEOLOGY AND SOIL FORMATIONS. 



The whole of this district, except a small belt along its eastern margin, is situated upon the sub-Carboniferous 

 formation. On its eastern border the coal-measure shale and sandstone of the eastern coal-field crop out and form 

 a small body of characteristic soils, covering about half the area of Wayne county and a small section in Clinton. 

 The remainder of the territory of these two counties lies upon the Saint Louis limestone, and has the surface features 

 usually marking the presence of this group rolling surface lines, numerous broad basins, sink-holes, and a scrubby 

 growth of oak and hickory. As is the case with similar geological levels in the Clarksville and Upper Green River 

 districts, it is supposed to have been at no very remote period a continuous prairie, covered with a rank growth 

 of barren grass. 



Throughout the remainder of this district various strata appear in the surface formations, exposing in one place 

 or another almost every member of the sub-Carboniferous groups. In Casey county the Upper Silurian exposes 

 formations of maguesian limestone, the Devonian, with its black shales, and the Lower Silurian in small belts of 

 blue limestone. In Adair county the lower members of the Saint Louis group predominate, exhibiting earthy and 

 shaly limestones and frequent outcroppings of red or gray shales, with occasional exposures of sub-Carboniferous 

 sandstone. The rugged surface of Cumberland county exposes a succession of cherty limestones of the Saint Louis 

 group and of black, gray, and green shales, as members of separate .sub-Carboniferous strata. 



The lithological features of Monroe and Metcalfe counties consist mainly of heavy masses of red and green 

 shales, lying upon a thin bedding of black shale, and covered by formations of impure and shaly limestones, 

 underlying beds of chert, mixed with red clay. Upon the slopes of a high ridge passing through these counties 

 these heavy beddings of shale are exposed, capped with the limestones and overlying chert above noted. The 

 geological features of Metcalfe, Monroe, and Cumberland counties have this characteristic in common : the deepest 

 cuts of the streams expose the upper members of the Lower Silurian, while upon the hills are found the shales and 

 limestones of the sub-Carboniferous formation. 



With such diversity of origin the soils of this district differ very much in character and productive, capacity. 

 In Monroe, Metcalfe, Wayne, Clinton, and Adair counties are found bodies of land upon which the forest growth is 

 mainly of poplar, beech, and buckeye, producing a heavy type of tobacco of delicate stem and fiber, of smooth 

 texture, good weight, and a fair supply of oils and gum. These lands lie upon a red-clay foundation of from. C to 10 

 feet in depth. 



Beds of Quaternary along the water-lines, composed of a very deep loam, mixed with vegetable mold, upon a. 

 subsoil of red clay, are covered with a tree growth of beech, sugar-tree, walnut, and elm. These soils produce a 

 heavy, coarse tobacco, rather porous in texture, and generally rough. 



Upon the sub-Carboniferous sandstones the soils are stiff, clayey loams of a mulatto color, upon a subsoil of 

 yellow clay 3 to 6 feet in depth, with a timber growth of white oak, hickory, and chestnut. Upon these lands the 

 product of tobacco is light, of fine fiber, of delicate and silky texture, mild and sweet in flavor, and with a tendency 

 to cure into bright and yellow colors. 



Lying upon and derived from the shales are soils consisting of dark, coarse, and loose loam, upon a subsoil of 

 dark or bluish material 1 to 4 feet in depth, and covered with a forest growth of post oak, hickory, and elm. These 

 soils produce a plant of full size, with long and broad leaves, of medium weight, almost destitute of oils or gum, 

 rather porous in structure, and having a tendency to cure into red colors. 



The proportion of new lands occupied in tob acco culture varies in different localities from 10 t 75 per cent., 

 the term " new" lands being taken to represent such as are not yet so much exhausted as not to produce successively 

 fair crops of tobacco. 



Of the wooded lands, from 75 to 100 per cent, are adapted to the production of tobacco. This estimate does 

 no* include such areas as cannot be made available for tillage of any kind, such as very steep or rocky hillsides. 



. All reports from this district agree that under tobacco culture the lauds are declining in productiveness. This 

 is a result not attributable to exhaustion of plant food by the growth of crops, but to surface washing. The broken 

 and uneven surfaces of most fields are rapidly scoured away by heavy rainfalls, and large areas are consequently 

 regarded as "worn out". To maintain the production of tobacco fresh lands have been cleared, and the process has 

 been repeated until rot much more timber land remains than is required for economic purposes. Most of the forest 

 656 



