132 



TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



This estimate indicates a profit of $90 per acre ; but the average yield of the district is only 961 pounds per 

 acre. At the same- outlay for cost of production as that above given the cost per hundred pounds would be $8 12. This 

 estimate, however, is for a first-class crop, upon good laud, and with best cultivation. The reduced yield is probably 

 produced at less expense for labor, rent of land, etc., with a corresponding reduction in cost of harvesting and 

 preparing for market say 5 per cent.; making the average cost of production about $7 70 per hundred pounds. 



Dealers estimate the expense of prizing and marketing tobacco, including freight, insurance, inspection fees, 

 and warehouse charges, at from li to 2 cents per pound. The cost of selling is 1 per cent.; warehouse charges, 

 $2 upon every hogshead; inspection fee, 35 cents per hogshead ; insurance, one-third of 1 per cent. 



There is at Cincinnati, the principal market forBurley tobacco, a tobacco association chartered by the state of 

 Ohio. A board is elected, one, of whose duties is the election of an inspector. This inspector appoints a weigher 

 for each warehouse, but such appointments must be confirmed by the board. A commission of reclamation is also 

 appointed by the directors. This commission assesses all damages where the samples drawn by the inspector 

 fail to represent the quality of the tobacco in the hogshead. These damages are paid by the inspector, who has 

 recourse upon the dealer or planter who sells the tobacco. The last has the privilege of rejecting all bids within 

 a limited time, so that, should the sample be inferior to the tobacco in the hogshead, he can have another taken. 

 These checks and balances are happily adjusted to protect every interest, and but few complaints of unfair dealing 

 are made by either buyers or sellers. 



The following statement shows the production, acreage, yield per acre, value of crop in farmer's hands, value 

 per pound, and value per acre of the tobacco crops of the White Burley district of Ohio for the years 1876 to 1879, 

 inclusive. The figures for 1879 are from census returns; for the other years they are from state assessors' returns: 



SEED-LEAF DISTRICT. 



The Seed-Leaf district occupies the largest portion of the two Miami valleys, and embraces the northern 

 parts of Butler and Warren, a small area in the northwestern corner of Clinton, the western halves of Greene and 

 Clarke (in the southern part of Greene, extending eastward so as to include New Jasper and Painterville), the 

 southwestern corner of Champaign, the southern part of Shelby, and all of Darke, Preble, Montgomery, and Miami 

 counties. Several adjoining counties in Indiana belong commercially to this district. Seed-Leaf is also grown to a 

 limited extent in Wayne and Medina counties, in Chippewa valley, and in Defiance and in small parts of other 

 counties in the Mauinee valley. 



HISTORY OF TOBACCO CULTURE IN THE MIAMI VALLEY. 



About the year 1838 Mr. Thomas Pomeroy, from Suifield, Connecticut, moved to the valley, carrying with him 

 some tobacco-seed from his native place. He planted a small crop in Miami township, Montgomery county, and its 

 cultivation gradually spread to the neighboring farms. The only tobacco, however, reported for the census of 1840 

 from the present Miami valley district was 75 pounds from Clarke county. 



The cultivation of the Seed-Leaf was confined to Montgomery county until 1850, when some farmers in the 

 neighborhood of Alpha, in Greene county, began to grow it, the first persons engaging in its cultivation being George 

 and Solomon Glatfelter. In 1851 a small quantity was raised in Butler county, in Dick's Creek valley. Within the 

 next three or four years the cultivation of the Seed-Leaf extended successively into Warren, Preble, and Miami 

 counties, and a few patches were grown in several of the counties from Virginia seed for domestic use previous to 

 1850. The census of that year reports 2,500 pounds for Butler, 1.460 pounds for Clinton, 135 for Champaign, 7,132 

 for Darke, 2,500 for Miami, 50 for Preble, and 2,601 for Warren. Montgomery county for the same year reported 

 196,971 pounds, or about 500 cases, which shows that its culture as a standard crop was becoming fixed. 



The crops grown in Miami valley in 1850 and 1851 were estimated each year to amount to 2,000 cases, or 

 800,000 pounds. The crop in the succeeding year was largely increased, reaching 4,000 cases, or 1,600,000 pounds: 

 an increase of 100 per cent, in a single year. All of these crops were marketed in New York. That grown iu 

 1850 brought from 9 to 10 cents per pound, but that grown in 1851 only brought an average of 4 cents. 



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