122 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



practicability of extending the culture over the whole of those sections, the result being the conviction that this 

 grade of tobacco may be produced in every county of the state, the controlling and determinant condition of its 

 successful and profitable production being found in the character and texture of the soil, and being quite independent 

 of climate within this wide range. In the discussion of these soils the natural and obvious geographical division 

 of the territory may be adopted. This will give us : First, the Champaign district of the east, embracing parts of 

 three counties, as may be seen on the map ; second, the Midland district, embracing seventeen counties, fifteen in 

 North Carolina and two in Virginia ; third, the Piedmont district, twelve counties, nine in North Carolina and three 

 in Virginia ; fourth, the Mountain district, three counties. The first has an altitude (above sea-level) of from 

 50 to 120 feet, and lies under the isotherm of 60 ; the second haa an altitude of from 400 to 800 feet, isotherm 58; 

 the third, an altitude of from 1,000 to 1,500 feet, isotherm 57; and the fourth an altitude of from 2,000 to 2,500 

 feet, isotherm 54. The rainfall does not differ greatly for the several districts, being a little less for the Midland 

 and Mountain districts, and a little more than the average for the Eastern, the average being a little above 50 

 inches per annum. If the geology of the several districts is considered, there is a notable uniformity through them 

 all, except the Eastern. This last lies in the region occupied by the latest formation, the post-Tertiary or Quaternary ; 

 the other three occupy the other geological extreme, the Archaean, with the exception of two narrow interrupting 

 zones of Triassic rocks in the Midland district. 



THE CHAMPAIGN OB EASTERN DISTRICT. The Quaternary formation in North Carolina consists of nearly 

 horizontal, uncompacted strata of sand, sandy clay, clay and gravel, the latter often irregularly stratified and 

 false bedded. The thickness of this formation varies from a few feet to 20 and 30 feet, and occasionally reaches 

 50 feet and more. It forms comparatively a very thin covering of the underlying Tertiary marls, clays, and sands, 

 which often come to the surface, especially along the blufl's and flats of the water- courses. The surface of the 

 region is nearly level, or only slightly undulating, except along the borders of the streams, where it is channeled 

 into hills and bluft's. 



The subsoil is generally a yellow, sometimes gray (occasionally brownish or red) sandy (occasionally clayey) 

 loam, and is covered by a few inches of sandy, gray soil, often dark-colored, from the presence of vegetable matter 

 when freshly cleared, but bleaching in the course of a few years' cultivation. The growth is a mixture of long-leaf 

 and short-leaf pine (Pinus australis and P. mitis), sometimes the one predominating and sometimes the other; in 

 either case a subordinate growth of oaks of various species, post oak, white oak, black oak, red oak, black-jack, 

 and hickory, and an undergrowth or scrub of gum, dogwood, huckleberry, honeysuckle (Azalia), etc. On the 

 slopes of the hills in the neighborhood of streams, and occasionally where there is a larger percentage of clay in 

 the soil and in the river bottoms, the pines become the subordinate and the oaks the chief forest growth. 



Tln-iv is no occasion to describe here all the varieties of soil and forest growth of the region, the extensive tracts 

 of river bottoms, or the swampy, peaty soils, with the growth peculiar to such lands, on the one hand, nor, on the other, 

 the sandy " pine barrens", as they are called, or " sand-hills ", with their open, glade-like forests of long-leaf pine 

 exclusively, or pine and black-jack, as these soils are not adapted to tobacco culture or not yet used for this purpose. 

 The features which are common to soils of this section on which the bright-yellow tobacco has been successfully 

 grown are of an open, sandy texture and light-gray color, with a gray or yellow sandy subsoil, i. e., permeable and 

 naturally drained, with a mixed growth of pine (long and short straw) and oaks, chiefly post oak and white oak, 

 with undergrowth as above described. These are, of course, not fertile soils. They belong to the medium and 

 poorer class of upland or ridge cotton soils, that produce not more than 300 pounds of seed-cotton to the acre. This 

 district includes as yet only three counties Wayne, Lenoir, and Sampson although it might extend itself over 

 the whole cotton belt of the two states. In fact, a number of sporadic experiments, even as far east as the county 

 of Gates, have demonstrated its feasibility. 



Let it be noted that, geologically, these are drift soils, and belong to Professor Johnson's class of " transported 

 soils'*} that the materials of the decomposed and comminuted rocks in the up country have been transported, generally 

 by full and rapid glacial currents, and have been effectually sifted and sorted; and that most of the finer particles, 

 the clay and the iron oxide, have been washed out and carried seaward, leaving generally only the heavier, coarser, 

 sandy, and gravelly materials, with but little adhering and intermingled clayey matter. The conditions which 

 determine their adaptability to the production of the bright-yellow variety of tobacco seem to be these: First, 

 thorough drainage and consequent warmth; and second, a very small proportion of clay, iron, and humus. 



A very notable peculiarity of the growth of the tobacco of this district is its early ripening. The golden yellow 

 hue which indicates maturity anticipates the beginning of August, and the crop is gathered and cured before the 

 first cuttings are made in the more westerly districts, and it is essential to the success of this crop in all the districts 

 that it shall acquire the proper golden hue, i. e., ripen on i.he hill, before being cut. This gives an advantage of a 

 full month and more in the matter of liability to damage from drought and from excess of rain. 



Another peculiarity of this district is worthy of mention, viz, that a much larger proportion of its territory is 

 adapted to the culture of this crop than in any of the other districts, amounting probably to fully one-half the area 

 of the cotton region of both states. Another advantage hitherto found in this district is the comparative freedom 



from the ravages of worms, two hands being able to "worm" 25 acres. 

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