CULTURE AND CURING IN OHIO. 129 



per cent, of the crop, and the demand for them is increasing so rapidly that much tobacco graded as cutting leaf 

 is sold for fillers. The nondescript is wanting entirely, all suitable for that grade m other varieties being placed 

 with the smokers, to which the significant name of " trash" is given. 



The improvement in quality of the product of the same grade has not been very marked in the past teu years, 

 though there is a better demand for the tobacco grown iu the district, because it is used for more purposes than it 

 was in 18G9. The best crops of White Burley were grown in 1877 and 1878. Probably the change in the relative 

 quantity of cutting leaf and fillers will amount within the past three years to 10 per cent., the fillers increasing 

 and the cutting leaf diminishing. Nor is this the result entirely of natural changes. A few years ago, when there 

 was a very limited demand for fillers, the object of the planter was to increase the proportion of cutting leaf and to 

 diminish the quantity of fillers. Tobacco was planted thickly and topped high, so that the thin and gumless leaves, 

 suitable for cutting, might be in excess. Now a wider space is given the plants, and they are topped much lower; 

 and the consequence is that the growth has more gum, body, and sweetness, and is far preferable for fillers. 

 Nine-tenths of all the Burley tobacco grown is taken at high prices in the United States. A little trash is exported, 

 because it is needed in making bright smokers, and brings as much in the market as the good leaf of heavy 

 export tobacco. There is no lack of inquiry abroad for the White Burley or the Red Burley, but the American 

 manufacturers will pay higher prices for tobacco than the buyers of any other country will pay here. 



The alluvial soils, both sandy and clayey, are cultivated extensively in tobacco. On the Ohio river the alluvial 

 soils, in their primitive condition, are covered with sycamore, red maple, hickory, Spanish oak (Q. palustris), white 

 oak (Q. alba), and burr oak (Q. macrocarpa). On the bottoms of the smaller streams are found sugar-tree, buckeye, 

 beech, hickory, and various species of oaks. The northwestern slopes, characterized by a rich, black soil and a growth 

 of walnut, linden, and sugar tree, with an undergrowth of papaw and grape-vines, are often planted. The northeastern 

 slopes have soils not so dark in color, but they are clothed with the same forest trees as the northwestern slopes, with 

 the addition of ash and black locust. Both of these situations are selected for the growth of tobacco, but the latter 

 is preferred. Of the crop planted in 1879, at least 15 per cent, was grown on freshly-cleared lands, which produce 

 a brighter, smoother, lighter-colored leaf than the old lauds, of a much finer fiber, and which will bring a higher 

 price by 10 per cent, for like grades. The tobacco grown on level lands is generally coarser and of a darker color 

 than that grown on rolling lands, and in seasons of extreme humidity it frequently suffers from " sunstroke" and 

 " sore shin". These flat lauds were origiuallv maple swamps, and great care is necessary to secure good drainage. 



While the soils of the Ohio bottoms produce excellent tobacco, the rolling lands are preferred, on account of 

 their freedom from overflows of the river in summer and fall. For the Red Burley the bottoms are most suitable, 

 but the white variety does best on uplands. 



It is a source of solicitude that, though this district was at one time considered equal in fertility to any portion 

 of the upland districts of the state, the diminution in the yield of staple crops within the past twenty-five years has 

 been from 25 to 50 per cent. This is the more alarming because very few farmers even now pay any attention to the 

 fertilization or the preservation of their lands. In many places the sides of the hills are scarred and ribbed with 

 deepening gullies, which form channels, down which the rich plant food is carried by every rain. From the testimony 

 at hand, even in the cultivation of tobacco a crop which is well known to be a voracious feeder not one farmer 

 in twenty in Brown county considers it necessary to apply fertilizers to restore or to preserve the fertility of the 

 soil. In Clermont county one farmer in five makes use of fertilizers in the growing of the crop, and in Adams 

 county the number is so small as to be inappreciable. 



The general practice with new lands is to plant two or three crops of tobacco in succession, the third crop showing 

 a decrease in the yield of from 200 to 300 pounds per acre. If the land is able to endure this first heavy draft upon 

 it, wheat follows tobacco in the fall of the second or the third year, and in the spring clover is sown on the wheat. 

 The more thoughtful farmers will permit it to remain in clover for the two years following, when corn succeeds; 

 many, however, only leave the clover for one year, when it is put in corn or iu tobacco, at the convenience of the 

 farmer. Tobacco grown on clover lands is coarse and heavy, and is greatly inferior to that grown upon fresh lands, 

 or even after corn. 



When fertilizers are applied in liberal quantities on the thin soils a very marked effect is produced in the yield, 

 especially if the season is favorable, making it from one-fourth to one-half larger. The quality of the leaf, however, 

 is coarser, but heavier even than upon river bottoms without fertilizers. 



Rye is considered a good crop to rotate with tobacco and to prevent rapid exhaustion of the soil. In the 

 succeeding spring clover is sown on the rye. and is allowed to stand one or two years, and it is said that on lands so 

 treated a good crop of tobacco may be produced every third or fourth year. A few sow rye in the fall and turn it 

 under just before planting the tobacco crop in the succeeding spring, and this practice is said to be very beneficial. 



With the very small attention given to fertilizing it is not surprising that farmers complain that the average 

 production per acre is rapidly declining. Ten years ago from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds per acre was thought to be a 

 fair average crop. Enumerators' returns make the average yield per acre for 1879 only 901 pounds. This statement 

 will probably correctly represent the deterioration in the productive capacity of the soils, and even this low 

 estimate would be still further reduced but for the almost universal practice of planting from 10 to 20 per cent, of 

 the crop on virgin soils each year. 



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