100 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The amount of cultivation which the crop receives depends more upon the time at the planter's command than 

 upon anything else. Each one, however, endeavors to plow the crop sufficiently often to keep down the weeds and 

 grass, which, upon all land except virgin soils, is about three times, following the plows each time with hoes and 

 cutting away any grass or weeds which may be left. On virgin soils the cultivation is much less, being restricted 

 to about two plowiugs, only one being given when it is desired to make a very fine article of tobacco. 



Some good growers do not prime the tobacco plant ; others pull off five or six of the lower leaves at the time of 

 topping, which takes place when a sufficient number of leaves has developed on the stalk, generally when the button 

 makes its appearance. If the planting be early, and a heavy article of tobacco is desired, the plant is topped to 

 ten loaves, and to a less number as the season advances. On virgin soils the plant is topped to twelve or fourteen 

 leaves; the White Burley variety usually to fourteen or sixteen leaves. This latter variety is only suckered 

 twice, while the heavier varieties are suckered three or four times before ripening. The usual time between 

 topping and cutting is from four to six weeks, the shorter time being sufficient to mature the White Burley. The 

 cutting season begins September 1, and continues throughout the month, sometimes running into October. The only 

 diiference to be observed in the method of cutting tobacco in this district and in the Lower Green Kiver district of 

 Kentucky is that in the latter district the plants are split with a knife before they are severed and afterward straddled 

 over a stick, while in Missouri the practice is to sever the stalk with a knife, chisel, or hatchet, and spear the plants 

 upon a stick, as is done in Maryland and iti the seed-leaf districts. Of plants of ordinary size, eight are put on a 

 stick 4 feet long, but of the White Burley variety only six. 



In the heavy tobacco district ninety-nine hundredths of the crop is air-cured. A very few planters use log fires, 

 and still fewer have adopted flues. When cut, the tobacco is scaffolded in the field until partially cured, when it is 

 removed to open barns, generally built of logs, 20 feet square. Sometimes these barns are studded with hip-rafters 

 (vide cut in chapter on Tennessee), but are always so constructed that the air can have free circulation. The damage 

 done the crop by pole-sweating varies greatly with the season, being always greatest in a hot, damp season. From 

 four to six weeks are required for the tobacco to cure fully by the natural process of evaporation. A very small 

 part of the crop is sun-cured on scaffolds, which process gives it great sweetness. 



In the manufacturing district about 5 per cent, of the area cultivated receives a slight application of stable 

 manure. The deterioration of the productive capacity of the soil in this district is mnch more rapid than in the 

 heavy shipping district, and fertilizing or rotation of crops becomes a necessity. The rotation most generally 

 practiced is: First year, tobacco; second, wheat and clover; third and fourth, clover; and fifth, tobacco. This 

 rotation results in remunerative crops, not only of tobacco, but of grain and of clover. 



It must be borne in mind that there is not such a difference in the constitution of the soils of the two districts 

 as the statement above would seem to imply. In the heavy shipping district the very best soils are planted in 

 tobacco, and they can be kept in tobacco for several years in succession. In the manufacturing district the thin 

 white-oak soils, naturally poor and with but little strength of constitution, are utilized in the growing of the crop, 

 and are adapted to the production of the finest types of tobacco. The time required to ripen is longer than in 

 the heavy tobacco district, running from five to eight weeks; in fact, the plants are allowed to stand upon the hill 

 until they turn yellow and begin to waste. The cutting begins about September 10, and continues until frost. 

 When air-cured, it is allowed to remain on scaffolds in the fields for several days, and is then taken to the barns, 

 and the same is done when cured with wood; but when cured by charcoal or by fines it is the usual practice to take 

 it at once to the curing-houses and arrange it properly on the tiers. The processes of curing by charcoal and by flues 

 are elaborately given in the chapter on North Carolina. That portion of the crop cured with wood fires is generally 

 placed in the shipping grades. It is estimated that three-tenths of the product of the district is sun- or air-cured, 

 three tenths cured with wood fires, one-third with charcoal, and one-fifteenth by flues. Flues are often constructed 

 of brick, at a cost of $30, and old steamboat-boiler flues are sometimes utilized for curing the crop, being elevated above 

 the floors of the barn or 8 inches. The flues most generally used are made by digging trenches in the floors of the 

 barns and covering them with sheet-iron, and have apertures on the outside of the barns for firing and for the 

 discharge of the smoke. 



In the shipping district farmers usually make two grades, lugs and leaf, and sell to redriers, who assort into 

 long bright and short bright, long dark and short dark, bright and dark lugs, and nondescript. Occasionally a 

 farmer will pack his crop in casks. He then makes three grades: lugs, long leaf, and short leaf. 



In the manufacturing district the assorting is much more tedious, for the yellow tobacco is usually put into 

 three or four grades, in addition to the grades already named in which tobacco is assorted in the heavy shipping 

 district. The crop is usually prized from May until July. 



The market prices for the various types and varieties of the crop are about as follows: Flue-cured yellow leaf, 

 per one hundred pounds, $10 to $00 for selections; White Burley, well handled, $G to $10 for the whole crop; 

 manufacturing fillers, air-cured, $5 to $7 for the whole crop; shipping leaf, air-cured, $3 50 to $6 for the whole 

 crop. About one-ninetieth of the crop is yellow wrapper. Where a division is made in the crop of lugs and leaf 

 air-cured shipping will bring, for lugs, from $1 to $2 ; leaf, from $4 to $7 per hundred pounds. 



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