CULTURE AND CURING IN TENNESSEE. 



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pound. The lack of experience by those who have recently entered upon the cultivation of tobacco is another reason 

 assigned for the difference in price of the product of the two conuties. Improvement in these respects, however, is 

 made every year, and there arg already twelve packing-houses established in the county. Tobacco is marketed 

 somewhat later than the crop of Lancaster county, and is generally bought by the same packers. The average 

 price of the crop of 1879 was 10 cents, but the range of prices was from .5 to 15 cents, depending on the skill 

 exercised in curing and handling. This crop has increased from 10 to 25 per cent, annually for four years. The 

 varieties planted are the Connecticut Narrow Leaf, the Connecticut Broad Leaf, Hoover Leaf, Brooklyn Leaf, 

 Valley Green, Kill Island, Glessner, and Pennsylvania Seed-Leaf. The sandy soils require more fertilization, but 

 produce a finer type of tobacco. The tobacco grown on limestone lands is inclined to be rank. 



The following table shows the production, acreage, yield per acre, and value in primary markets or farmers' 

 hands of the tobacco crop of Pennsylvania from 1876 to 1879, both inclusive, only the figures for 1879 being from 

 the census returns : 



CHAPTER XV. 

 CULTURE AND CURING OF TOBACCO IN TENNESSEE. 



The cultivation of tobacco in Tennessee began with the settlement of the state. The early pioneers, those who 

 settled in the fertile valleys of the Watauga, Nolachucky, the Holston, and the French Broad rivers, raised it for 

 their own consumption, and those who planted colonies on the Cumberland river during the last two decades of the 

 eighteenth century brought the seed from the tobacco-growing districts of Virginia and North Carolina. Though 

 grown for many yearg in a small way, it was not until about the year 1810 that tobacco began to form one of the 

 great staples of the state, the comparatively easy access to the seaboard by the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the 

 Mississippi rivers, and the dependence of the population on New Orleans as a market for their surplus productions, 

 soon awakening a general interest all along the Cumberland river in the production of a crop which occupied less 

 room in their small flatboats and keelboats, in proportion to its value, than any other which could be produced. 

 Montgomery and Smith counties, with portions of Sumner, entered vigorously into its cultivation, and by 1820 

 several thousand hogsheads were annually carried out in flatboats to New Orleans and exchanged for coffee, sugar, 

 salt, and other commodities. The extinguishment of the Indian titles in western Tennessee, and the throwing of a 

 wide domain into market in 1819, added immensely to the available area for the cultivation of the crop. Experience 

 had demonstrated also that the tobacco grown in the state possessed those qualities most sought after in the 

 European markets. Prices were generally low, but the cost of production was scarcely appreciable, as the acreage, 

 in other crops was not decreased in consequence of the tobacco crop, requiring, as it did, the largest amount of 

 attention at a time when the other crops required the least, and the rich, fertile soils, freshly cleared, could in no other 

 way be so well prepared for the growth of corn, oats, and wheat as by planting them for a year or two in tobacco. 

 Probably during the decade between 1820 and 1830 the actual cost of growing tobacco did not exceed $1 per 100 

 pounds. Most farmers owned their labor, and, even when hired, $50 and board was considered a fair o,verage 

 price for good men during the cropping season, which lasted from March 1 to November 1. From 1830 to 1840 

 the culture of the crop was widely extended. Henry county, in western Tennessee, headed the list, and in 1840 

 reported a yield of 9,479,065 pounds, 1,212,604 pounds more than any county grows at the present time. Smith 

 county came next, reporting 3,017,012 pounds; and then in regular order came Sumner, 2,615,100 pounds; 

 Montgomery, 2,549,984 pounds; Wilson, 2,313,000 pounds; Robertson, 1,168,833 pounds; Williamson, 1,126,982. 

 pounds; and Rutherford, 1,089,000 pounds. Stewart, Jackson, and Davidson produced, respectively, 993,495, 

 859,336, and 334,394 pounds. 



The prices which prevailed in 1837 were very low, and many planters who shipped their crops to New Orleans 

 during that year were brought in debt for freight and charges. An account of sales of four hogsheads of tobacco 

 in New Orleans in 1837 makes return of the net proceeds as $22 01, or about $5 50 for a hogshead weighing, net, 

 1,550 pounds, and another account shows that two hogsheads of tobacco netted $7 04, or $3 52 each, scarcely 

 enough to pay for the casks in which the tobacco was pressed. The two years succeediug, however, show a marked 

 increase in price, and from 4 to 10 cents were frequently paid for ordinary crops. The year 1839 is noted for the 

 high prices paid, but in the succeeding year prices again fell very low, good crops bringing from 2 to 5 cents per 



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