CULTURE AND CURING IN OHIO. 145 



PEICES OF TOBACCO. 



The bright crops, containing a fair proportion of yellow and yellow-spangled brights, brought in the winter of 

 1879-'80 from $(5 to $8 50 per hundred pounds, loose, through ; red and red-spangled crops, from $5 to $6 per hundred 

 pounds ; common and unripe crops, $3 50 to $4 50. The average value of the crop in farmers' hands for Belmont, 

 Harrison, Guernsey, Noble, Monroe, Washington, Morgan, and Gallia counties is estimated to be : For 1879-'80, 

 $5 50 per hundred pounds; in Athens county, from $3 to $6; in Vintou county, $4. The quotations in Baltimore 

 in June, 1880, for the various grades were as follows : 



Cents. 



Fine spangled to yellow 10 to 18 



Common to medium spangled 6Jto 9 



Medium to fine red 7 to 10 



Greenish and brown 5$ to 7 



Interior ground leaves to common 3$ to 5$ 



USES OF TOBACCO. 



The bulk of the tobacco grown in this district is used for smoking, while a small quantity raised from White 

 Barley seed and air-cured is manufactured into chewing-tobacco in the United States, and a few hogsheads are 

 occasionally used for cigar wrappers. The Connecticut Seed-Leaf, amounting to about 300 cases, is used also for 

 cigar wrappers and tillers. The demand for the main distinctive type, however, is from France, for 5,000 hogsheads ; 

 from Germany, for 7,000 hogsheads; from Austria, for 500 hogsheads; from Italy and Spain, for 1,000 hogsheads, 

 irregularly; and in the United States, 2,000 hogsheads. The fine yellow and yellow-spangled are taken in Bremen, 

 where most of it is rehandled and put into lighter casks for the Russian markets. Part of the yellow and yellow- 

 spangled is taken in Austria and in England, which take also the red-spangled, and England also takes some of the 

 fine red. Germany takes all grades, except the fine yellow and the leafy dark-brown colors, and France and Italy take 

 the leafy brown and red grades. The unsound and nondescript are often bought for Spain. Scraps or trash are used 

 in this country for making smoking-tobacco. 



COST OF PRODUCTION. 



The cost of raising tobacco in the Eastern Ohio district is variously estimated, and depends so much on the 

 original fertility of the soil and the difference in the amount of preparation required for the different soils that it 

 is a very difficult task to give ail estimate that may not in some portions of the district be fairly criticised. After 

 a comparison of several estimates, however, the following may be considered approximately correct for well manured 

 old laud. The. price of old hind adapted to the growth of tobacco has in the district a range of from $30 to $75 

 per acre. The rental value is more uniform, being about $5 per acre, and the average yield for such lands is not 

 far from 1,200 pounds per acre. On this basis the following estimate of the cost of raising one acre of tobacco is 



given: 



DB. 



Making seed-bed $1 00 



Plowing one acre 2 50 



Manure, and spreading same 20 00 



Harrowing and lining out 125 



Planting 2 00 



Plowing and hoeing three times - '. 5 00 



Topping, su'ckeriug, and worming 5 00 



Harvesting . 8 00 



Wood for curing . 1 50 



Attention while curing 2 00 



Taking down and rolling . . 1 50 



Carrying to market 150 



Rent of land.. 5 00 



56 25 

 OB. 

 By 1,200 pounds of tobacco, at 5} cents .. 66 00 



Profit 9 75 



Cost to produce, $4 G!l per hundred pounds. 



The profits increase very rapidly as the yield per acre is increased. Putting the yield at 2,000 pounds, the profit 

 would be $53 75, and the cost of production per hundred would be reduced to $2 81. This virtually agrees with the 

 statement of Mr. John Bradford, a large planter and dealer, who thinks the cost on old land will vary from 4 to 5 



'(nts pe." pound. 



739 



