CULTURE AND CURING IN KENTUCKY 79 



Sometimes tobacco is graded into smokers, cutters, fillers, and nondescript, each ol' these having sub grades. 

 i'he prices for such grades are: Smokers, 5 to 12 cents; cutters, 10 to 30 cents; fillers, 8 to 20 cents; nondescript, 

 3 to 8 cents. 



The average price given in the last column of the table is the price usually paid through for the crop \vlu-n 

 bought by local dealers, and is a much fairer index of its value than the prices affixed to grades, because the 

 quantity in each grade is exceedingly variable in the different crops. Many of the schedules give no price for 

 grades at all. Taking the whole district through, the average price received for the crop of 1879, loose, by farmers, 

 is not far from 10 cents per pound. 



The only county in the district which makes an average yield of 1,100 pounds to the acre is Mason. The 

 following counties make a yield averaging between 1,000 and 1,100, viz: Boone, Gallatiu, and. Montgomery. The 

 counties whose average yield is between 900 and 1,000 pounds per acre are Bourbon, Carroll, Henry, Kenton, and 

 Shelby; those making an average yield of between 800 and 900 pounds are Bracken, Fleming, Grant, Nicholas, 

 Oldham, Owen, and Trimble; between 700 and 800 pounds, Campbell, Franklin, Harrison, Pendleton, Robertson, 

 and Scott. Those making a yield below 700 pounds are Lewis and Woodford. Woodford county, at the time the 

 census was taken, could not with any propriety be considered as a tobacco -growing county of the White Burley 

 district. It really entered upon the culture of the crop in 1880. 



COST OF TOBACCO PRODUCTION. 



Three different detailed reports make the cost of growing the crop on best soils, respectively, $3, $3 52, and 

 $3 60 per hundred pounds, and upon such inferior soils as are planted in tobacco $6 to $8 per hundred. One of 

 these statements, from Owen county, is appended. One man can successfully cultivate and house, by exchanging 

 labor, 5 acres of tobacco, which, on best soils, will yield 1,000 pounds per acre. So we have : 



CK. 



, By f>,000 pounds of tobacco, at 10 cents $500 00 



DR. 



To hire of band, six months $90 00 



To board of hand, six months, at $10 60 00 



To use of horse, plows, barns, etc 20 00 



To rent of land (interest M price) 6 00 



176 00 



Profit on each hand employed 324 00 



Cost of production per pound, 3.52 cents. 



This represents the profits under the most favorable circumstances. Taking the average of the district, 876.32 

 pounds per acre, and assuming the expense to be the same, the profit on each hand will amount to $262 16. But 

 this is probably not a fair estimate, as the number of acres allotted to each hand will not exceed three. One schedule 

 from Robertson county says 4 acres to each hand is the maximum. Owen county reports the number of acres for 

 each hand at 5, and sometimes 6, while schedules from other counties give from 2 to 3. Assuming, then, 3 acres 

 as the average amount of land allotted to each hand, and that the yield per acre is the average of the district, or 



876.36 pounds, we shall have : 



CR. 



By 2,028.90 pounds, at 10 cents $262 91 



DK. 



To hire of hand, six months $90 00 



To board of hand, at $10 per month 60 00 



To use of horse, plows, barns, etc i 20 00 



To rent of land (interest on price) 3 60 



173 60 



Profit on each hand : 89 31 



Cost of production, 0.6 cents. - 



This is probably more nearly correct for the whole district than either of the other estimates; but there is no 

 doubt that the profits on individual crops are often very great. Mr. J. M. Chambers reports a crop grown in 

 Mason county, without manure, on land which has been cleared for ninety years, but upon which blue grass had 

 grown and been depastured for many years. Upon 7 acres of this laud a crop of 14,000 pounds was raised, which 

 brought in the market an average of 12 cents per pound, or $1,680, being an average of $240 per acre. Taking the 

 usual acreage allotted to each hand, and putting the cost of cultivation the same as in other estimates, the profit 

 on each person employed in making this crop was $544. 



The price of the best blue-grass lands ranges from $100 to $150 per acre. The very best soils, however, for 

 43 AG 673 



