CULTURE AND CURING IN PENNSYLVANIA. 163 



WIDE OR CLOSE PLANTING. 



The merits of wide and close planting have been much debated, but very few have taken the trouble to determine 

 the question by experiments carefully conducted and continued for a series of years. So far as is known, Mr. John 

 F. Charles, living near Washington borough, on the banks of the Susquehanna, is the only tobacco planter who 

 has persevered in experiments in this direction. His first experiment was made in 187G. He set out 10,000 plants 

 in rows 3 \ feet apart and 33 inches apart in the row. The result was 7,505 pounds of cured tobacco, which he sold 

 at 22 cents per pound through. 



The second experiment was with the crop of 1877. The rows were 3 feet apart, but the plants were set somewhat 

 closer, 18,000 being put upon the same piece of laud. The result was 6,580 pounds of marketable tobacco, which 

 sold at 5 cents for fillers, 8 cents for seconds, and 20 cents for wrappers. 



The third experiment was made in 1878. As in 1876, the rows were marked out 3J feet apart, and the plants 

 set out in them at intervals of 33 inches, 16,000 being again planted. The season was far from favorable, and the 

 result gave 5,620 pounds. The price for which it was sold is unknown. 



In 1879 the fourth experiment was made, with rows 3 feet apart and the plants also 3 feet apart in the rows, 

 planting 16,000 plants. The product was 7,690 pounds. 



These results seem to show that wide planting, even when carried to the extreme, as was done in 1879, gives the 

 most favorable results. 



The methods practiced in tobacco culture in Lancaster county, with slight variations, are equally applicable to 

 all the counties in the state producing this staple. A brief notice of the soils and the varieties of tobacco planted 

 elsewhere in the state will therefore suffice. 



BERKS COUNTY. 



This county is greatly diversified in its topographical features, and it has many wide and fertile valleys bounded 

 by rough ridges and mountains. The new red sandstone passes through it, while the soils are very similar to those 

 of Lancaster county. About one-third of the area of the county is underlaid with limestone, but in the southern 

 portion red shales predominate. For the production of tobacco a clayey loam is selected, in preference to a sandy 

 one. The surface soil is brownish in color, with a subsoil of yellow clay, and is warm and dry. Every part of the 

 county, except steep hills, is adapted to the growth of tobacco, and the crop is managed as in Lancaster- county, 

 though less skillfully. Beading is the principal tobacco market, and has three or four packing-houses. Good tobacco 

 lands are worth $150 per acre, and such lands will yield 1,500 pounds to the acre. Hands for working in tobacco are 

 rarely employed by the year, but they are paid 80 cents a day, without board, and strippers get 1 cent per pound. 



BRADFORD COUNTY. 



This is one of the northern counties in the tobacco belt of the state. The surface of the county is uneven, 

 being broken by numerous ridges of high hills. The Susquehanna has numerous feeders within this county, and 

 near the mouths of these are many flats, which are rich and productive. On the highlands the soils are heavier, 

 having a larger content of argillaceous material. The mean summer temperature is much less than in Lancaster 

 and other counties south, being 63 F., and the mean winter temperature approaches 23 F. The average rainfall 

 is 40 inches. A large portion of the county is underlaid with the Chemung and Catskill groups of rocks, consisting 

 of red and blue shales and sandstones, with some limestones. In the river bottoms the soil is a dark chocolate- 

 colored, sandy loam, and on the first bench of the uplands it is of a light brown color generally, often gravelly, varying 

 in color from a light gray to a dark brown. It has a gravelly subsoil of porous yellow clay, which is light and warm. 

 The latter soils are preferred for tobacco. On the river bottoms the leaf grows thick and heavy, and is altogether 

 inferior. Nor does tobacco do well on the heavy soils of the highlands, there being a difference of a week or ten 

 djiys in the growth and ripening of tobacco on the warm, light soils and on the heavy soils of the highlands. In 

 harvesting the crop the plants are fastened to poles with twine, thirty-six plants being placed on a 12-foot pole. 

 A few growers drive a wire hook in the butt of each plant and. hang six plants on a stick four feet long. Tobacco 

 is not scaffolded before housing. The best tobacco soils are worth from $150 to $200 the acre, and with good 

 manuring will yield 2,000 pounds per acre. Wages are $8 to $14 per month, with board, for boys and men; by 

 the day, 50 cents to $1. Cases for packing cost $1 each, The estimated cost of production on best soils is $100 

 per acre, and the value of the product is $260, or a profit of $160. Profit on thinner tobacco soils, $66 per acre. 



BUCKS COUNTY. 



This county began to grow tobacco in 1856, since which time there has been an annual increase in acreage. 

 The general surface of the county is undulating, but the ridges of South mountain and the Lehigh hills, in the 

 northern part, encroach upon the Delaware. In the southwestern part of the county the rocks are gneiss, mica- 

 schists, and hornblende, producing a soil of moderate fertility generally, but near the Delaware river it is very 



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