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TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The improvement during the past decade has beea very marked in Henry county, the proportion of bright 

 wrapper having been greatly increased, owing to the local demand of manufacturers ; and while there has been a 

 disposition on the part of farmers living in the southern and eastern parts of the county to curtail production, the 

 disposition among those living in the northern and western portions has been equally as pronounced in extending 

 the cultivation. Tobacco for domestic consumption pays a handsome proiit, but raising tobacco for export scarcely 

 pays expenses. In the northern and western sections tobacco suited for domestic manufacture can be grown, but 

 in the southern and eastern portions only a heavy export tobacco for the most part is raised. In Dyer, Obion, 

 Weakley, and Benton counties, where heavy tobacco only is made, the tendency toward diminished production is 

 apparent. In these counties there has been no improvement in the quality for ten years or more. 



Tobacco in western Tennessee, on freshly-cleared lands, is not so rich or oily, or of such good body, as on old lauds, 

 but is larger and brighter in color and finer in texture, the finer qualities being produced upon rolling lauds. It is 

 estimated that fully one-third of the crop planted each year is upon newly-cleared lands. For the production of 

 the finer grades the soils should be well drained and not too rich. 



FEBTILIZATION AND ROTATION OF TOBACCO. 



The returns show that in a few localities, as in Benton county, 50 per cent, of the old lauds planted in tobacco 

 are well treated with stable manure, one correspondent being of the opinion that three-fourths of the area planted 

 has an application of from one to one and a half tons of stable manure per acre, at a cost of $10. This is an 

 exception, however, to the general practice, for in Dyer county one-fourth only of the area cultivated is fertilized and 

 in Obion county not 10 per cent. ; in Henry county, from 1 per cent, on the Tennessee river to 50 per cent, in the 

 northern and western portions. In Weakley county not 5 per cent, of the tobacco area is fertilized, and but a very 

 small quantity of manure is hauled out, only such fertilizers as accumulate about the barnyards being generally 

 carried out in the spring and scattered upon the old lands intended for tobacco, and sometimes manure is put into 

 the hills. Newly cleared lands are never manured. All concur in the statement that the yield, even on good lands, 

 will be increased 20 per cent, and the quality improved in weight and body by manuring. 



In the more westerly counties three successive crops of tobacco can be taken from freshly-cleared soils without 

 any apparent diminution in their fertility ; but in Henry, Beuton, and Carroll, and the eastern parts of Weakley, soil 

 deterioration progresses at the rate of 20 per cent, per annum in the absence of fertilizers, except on rich bottom 

 lands, which may be cultivated for many years without any perceptible decrease in yield. 



In Henry county clover and stock pease are largely used to renovate such lands as have been impoverished by the 

 cultivation of tobacco. In Benton county also stock pease, turned under when green, have proved to be very 

 effective in reclaiming the soil. In the more westerly counties the general rotation is tobacco, wheat, and clover, 

 and this is kept up indefinitely on tobacco lauds. 



The following statement shows the production, acreage, yield per acre, value of crops in farmers' hands or in 

 primary markets, value per pound, and the value per acre of the tobacco crops of western Tennessee for the years 

 1876 to 1879, inclusive, only the figures for 1879 being from census returns : 



These estimates will all show larger crops than are reported in the commercial transactions of the country, 

 because a considerable part of the product is retained at home for domestic consumption. In that portion of this 

 district producing tobacco as a staple, embracing the six counties of Benton, Carroll, Dyer, Henry, Obion, and 

 Weakley, the product of 1879 was 7,294,411 pounds, grown upon 9,781 acres, an average of 746 pounds per acre, and 

 the remaining fourteen counties during the same year produced 360,935 pounds on 885 acres, an average of 408 

 pounds. A very small portion of this product, which is grown upon small patches, ever finds its way even to 

 primary markets. 



CLARKSVILLE DISTRICT. 



This district comprises Montgomery, Eobertson, Cheatham, Humphreys, Dickson, Houston, and Stewart counties, 

 in Tennessee, and several adjoining counties in Kentucky, which are described in the chapter on Kentucky. It was 

 the well-deserved fame of the Clarksville leaf which first induced European buyers to leave the seaboard for the 

 interior. 



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