CULTURE AND CURING IN MISSOURI. 



99 



tobacco for manufacturing purposes exclusively, while Montgomery, Lincoln, and Warren grow both manufacturing 

 and shipping tobacco. In the first group of counties the proportion of types, as compared with 18C9, is as follows : 



It will be seen that the advance has been very rapid from low types of shipping leaf and nondescript to fillers 

 and bright wrappers and smokers. 



In the second group of counties a comparison of the proportion of types for the same period shows: 



These are merely approximations, but they indicate that there is a general tendency to abandon the cultivation 

 of the heavier export types and grow such varieties as may be used most profitably in domestic manufacture. The 

 same may be said of the region known as the heavy shipping district, where the change is going on with much 

 greater rapidity, as the following will indicate : 



It was estimated that fully half the crop of 1880 would be suitable for the domestic manufacturer. The quality 

 of shipping and stemming sorts is gradually deteriorating under the discouragement of the low prices. On the 

 other hand, there is a decided improvement in the quality of the sorts suitable for manufacturing, some of the 

 worst and some of the best types of tobacco being grown side by side on soils identical in character, productive 

 capacity, and exposure. 



PLANTING, CULTIVATION, CUEING, AND HANDLING OF THE TOBACCO CROP. 



In the cultivation of the crop in Missouri, especially in the heavy tobacco district, fertilizers are rarely used. 

 Most of the land is freshly cleared, which, after growing three or four crops of tobacco successively, is devoted to 

 the production of corn, wheat, or hay. When grown upon old land, the crop is rotated with wheat and clover. Of 

 the land planted in tobacco one-sixth is virgin soil, one-fourth has borne one crop, one-fourth two crops, one-fourth 

 three crops, and one-twelfth is old manured land. The tobacco of the second year on fresh laud is the heaviest, 

 and there is a deterioration of 10 per cent, in quality and quantity after that time. 



The time for sowing seed-beds is the first week in March, and the transplanting is generally done from the 1st 

 to the 20th of June. Beds are protected from the fly by a covering of muslin, and also by sprinkling them with a 

 diluted preparation of aqua ammonia;. 



The land intended for tobacco is turned to the depth of 6 or 8 inches, sometimes in the fall, but generally in 

 March, and again in May. After the last breaking it is well harrowed two or more times, is then laid off 3 feet 

 each way, and hills made at the points of intersection. Sometimes two furrows are thrown upon the first, making 

 a ridge. The top of this is cut oft' and patted at intervals of 2 to 3 feet, and the plants are set out at these places. 

 In the preparation of virgin soil the leaves and trash which remain after the wood and brush are taken away or 

 burned up are raked in piles and burned. A jumping colter is then used for breaking, going over the laud twice, 

 the last plowing crossing the first. It is then harrowed, rebrokeu with a turning-plow, and again harrowed. The 

 roots are removed, the land is laid off in rows 3 feet apart one way, and the plants are set on the edge of the 

 furrow, 2 feet apart. 



693 



