CULTURE AND CURING IN OHIO. 



125 



Lynchburg imd elsewhere with the best from tlie Midland district. A description of the soils and rocks of this 

 region would be a mere repetition of that of the two districts preceding. 



In Mitchell county this industry, as in the counties of the first district, at the other end of the state, is only 

 three years old, but the success has been complete and the expansion enormously rapid, and a large proportion of 

 the area of the county, as well as of the district, and of all the counties of it, is adapted to this culture. A 

 very large part of Henderson county, and nearly as much of Transylvania, are to be added to the productive area. 

 A few tentative experiments have already been made in these counties, more than sufficient to corroborate the 

 conclusion suggested by the geology and the character of the soils. 



It seems best to make a distinction between the bright-yellow tobacco region proper and that section of the 

 Piedmont district, which, while entitled to be placed within the area of "bright-yellow" production, is especially 

 characterized by its "mahoghany tobacco". 



SOIL ANALYSES. 



The first three of these represent the bright-tobacco soils of the first district, the first from Sampson county, 

 the second from Wilson, and the third from Columbus. They are all just such soils as are described in the remarks 

 on the Champaign district as producing the bright-yellow tobacco, and represent a large proportion of the lands 

 of the district. No. 4 is from one of the most famous of all the bright-yellow tobacco localities in the southeast 

 corner of Person county. The sample was taken from a farm part of whose product was sold at $2 per pound. It 

 was taken one foot deep (as all the others) in the forest adjoining the field where the fine "fancy bright" had been 

 raised. The growth is post oak and white oak of moderate size, hickory, dogwood, sourwood, and a few pines. 

 The soil is sandy and gravelly, of a light-gray color, and the subsoil is of the same texture, but yellowish in color. 

 The rock is quartzose, feldspathic, slaty gneiss. 



No. 5 is from the bright- tobacco section of Catawba county, in the Piedmont district, in the town of Hickory. The 

 growth is medium to small-sized oak, black -jack-, sourwood, and pine; the soil yellowish gray, a little sandy; the 

 subsoil yellowish brown, sandy. 



No. 6 is from Mitchell county. It does not represent the precise variety of soils on which the fine tobacco of that 

 county is produced. It is very much like the last in color and texture, but is much poorer. The growth is chestnut, 

 Spanish oak, post oak, sourwood, and laurel (kalmia). These last two soils resemble more the mahogany-tobacco 

 soils of Henry and Franklin counties, in Virginia. 



These are all virgin soils, and therefore contain a much higher percentage of humus than ordinary cultivated 

 bright-tobacco soils, this element being subject to very rapid diminution on account of the sandy and porous texture 

 of the soil, and of course but a small percentage of it is in an available condition. 



All of these soils would be classed as poor from the analysis. The low percentage of clay and of iron is also 

 notable, except in the last two, which are not bright-tobacco soils. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

 CULTURE AND CURING OF TOBACCO IN OHIO. 



A gentle, ridge-like elevation, whose slopes are scarcely perceptible, stretches diagonally across this state from 

 Trumbull county, in the northeast, to Mercer and Darke counties, in the west, formingthe "divide "in the hydrography 

 of the state. The general elevation of the state is from 800 to 1,100 feet above the sea. Thehighest point, a spot in 

 Logan county, is 1,540 feet above sea-level, and the lowest 433 feet, the latter being low- water mark of the Ohio river 

 near Cincinnati. The streams which flow southward from the " divide" have cut out many wide and fertile valleys, 

 which are not excelled in natural fertility by any on the continent. The southern slopes of the water-shed are well 



adapted to the production of the cereals, while the northern slopes furnish grazing lands of a very high order. 



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