86 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



BIZONE. The disease known in North Carolina as "waterloon", and in Kentucky and Tennessee as "walloon" r 

 and "frenching", akin to the last, occur on close, compact, wet soils. 



Draining the land thoroughly is the best remedy for the prevention of all these diseases. 



INSECTS. 



Insects have rarely been troublesome to the tobacco plant in Louisiana. In the spring of 1880 the flea-beetle 

 was very destructive to young plants, but never before withiu the memory of the tobacco-growers. Iii a climate 

 so mild, and where vegetable life is so profuse, it might be expected that cut- worms would be very destructive, but 

 such is not the fact, the very abundance of vegetation acting as a protection to the tobacco plant. Nor are horn- 

 worms troublesome upon the varieties of tobacco grown for Perique. It is an easy task for one man to keep ten 

 thousand plants clear of these pests. Bud-worms, which are small, greenish, and white striped, and when grown 

 are less than an inch in length, are much more troublesome, and require constant and unremitting search until the 

 tobacco is topped. When they attack the bud of the plant they pierce the embryotic leaves through and through 

 and completely check their development. But while the green-worm (Sphinx Carolina) does not attack with vigor 

 the tobacco grown for working up into Perique, it is very destructive to the sweet-scented varieties, such as Havana, 

 Brazil, and Yara, and if either of them is planted in a row beside the Perique the worm will devour the first and 

 scarcely touch the second. 



INJURY FROM STORMS. 



About once in six years the tobacco in the field is injured by hailstorms. In this latitude, however, hailstorms 

 occur about the time of the vernal equinox, and the tobacco plant has abundant time to mature after the period 

 for storms has passed. 



VALUE OF TOBACCO PRODUCT. 



The average value per pound in Saint Jaines parish for Perique is about 41 cents, including a duty of 16 cents 

 per pound. The value per pound of the different grades is, including duty : Chewing, 46 cents ; smoking, 36- 

 cents; robe, 56 cents. The latter tobacco sometimes brings a fancy price, but is rarely ever sold alone, and is- 

 generally consumed in wrappers for the other two grades. 



PECULIARITIES AND SPECIAL USES OF THIS VARIETY. 



Nearly the entire product of the Perique region is taken by manufacturers, and is by them treated as raw 

 material. They make it into fine-cut, in which form it has a- glossy appearance, totally different from any other 

 tine-cut tobacco. This gloss or varnish is due to the superabundance of juices, which steep and saturate the carotte, 

 and so securely are they sealed up that no vicissitudes of climate or season are able to diminish them. The fine-cut,. 

 in its turn, is manufactured into cigarettes, and the tobacco to a very limited extent into cigars. It is also packed 

 in paper packages, tin cans, and glass jars for use in the pipe, and is also used to mix with weaker kinds of tobacco, 

 by which the flavor, but not the strength, of the Perique is preserved. A very small quantity is made into snuff, 

 which by a French gentleman of the old regime is preferred to any other kind. 



POINTS OF EXCELLENCE. 



The great points of excellence claimed for Perique tobacco are 



1. Its great strength. It has a large content of nicotine, amounting to 4.32 per cent., and more sweet juices 

 than any other kind. It is therefore valuable for mixing with lighter and weaker types. 



2. It is free from the acrid, biting, creosotic taste so common in other kinds of southern-grown tobacco, and 

 has a rich, fragrant odor, combined with a smooth, delicate taste. 



3. By men of literary habits it is said that Perique tobacco stimulates the action of the brain, and that its 

 narcotic effects are less than those of any other sort of tobacco. Men of vigorous constitution affirm that it produces 

 an exhilaration of spirits akin to that which comes from drinking good old wine, without the disagreeable results 

 too apt to follow the use of the latter stimulant. 



In this report upon the tobacco of Louisiana attention has been directed mainly to the product of Saint James 

 parish, for the reason that this parish puts up the best Perique made in the state. A small quantity is made in 

 Winn, Avoyelles, and De Soto parishes, and it was formerly grown to a limited extent in Lafourche, Terrebonue, 

 and Natchitoches, but in quality is said to be far inferior to the Perique of Saint James. 



By far the larger portion of Perique tobacco finds a market at the various little stores that line the banks of 

 tne Mississippi in the region known as " the coast". The people who raise and cure it use it as a species of currency, 

 the country merchants accepting the carotte as so much money, agreeing to stamp each one before it is delivered, 

 deducting the value of the stamp from the actual selling price. When a considerable number of carottes has 

 accumulated at the storehouses they are shipped to New Orleans and sold to some wholesale dealer, who in turn 

 supplies the demand from New York and other points. The compact bundles into which the tobacco is put make 

 it very convenient for handling. 

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