176 



TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



tobacco, which would acquire its growth too rapidly and begin to waste early. Such a soil will grow large, leafy 

 tobacco, and sometimes it will be very showy in its brilliant colors after being cured, but it will be wanting in 

 quality. 



When tobacco is planted upou freshly-cleared land, it grows off rapidly and matures early; but when cured, it 

 is apt to be light, thin, and is usually of a mahogany or piebald color. For chewing tobacco it is preferred, because 

 it is milder and sweeter. Grown upon land gently undulating or level, tobacco is heavier-bodied than when grown 

 upon hilly lands. All the wooded lands of the district, except where too rough for cultivation, as near the margins 

 of streams and where a few marshy areas occur, are well adapted to its production, and it is estimated that about 

 one-tenth of the area planted now is freshly cleared, though this proportion has been gradually reduced since the 

 first settlement of the country. At one time it was the general practice to plant at least half the crop on newly 

 cleared lands and the other half on lands cleared the year before, but the growing scarcity of timber has made 

 farmers resort more and more to well-manured lots. The usual rotation is tobacco, wheat, and clover one or two 

 years, and then tobacco again, and this is kept up, on what are called tobacco lots, for many years. Some few 

 alternate corn with tobacco every third or fourth year, but this is by no means general. Usually, when lands are 

 once planted in corn, the rotation becomes corn, oats or wheat, and clover one or two years. Those farmers who 

 practice the biennial rotation with clover keep their lands in a high state of productiveness. With clover one year 

 in the rotation, the land requires to be supplemented by liberal applications of manures to retain its productive 

 capacity. About 60 per cent, of the area cultivated in tobacco is fertilized with barnyard manures and commercial 

 fertilizers, the latter being usually applied to the hill, about 200 pounds being required for one acre. The barnyard 

 manures are used according to domestic supply, some; farmers making every effort to increase the quantity, while 

 others are totally indifferent. Leached ashes are an excellent manure for tobacco, and are carefully saved after 

 soap-making and applied broadcast, or iu the hills. Ground raw bone has also been experimented with, but without 

 satisfactory results, and Patapsco guano, though used only to a limited extent, has proved an efficient manure for the 

 tobacco-plant. The science of manuring to increase, as well as to preserve, fertility is but little understood, however, 

 by the great majority of the farmers of the district, the idea being to apply only enough to meet barely the require- 

 ments of the crop to be grown. In the past thirty years the average yield of all crops per acre has been largely- 

 decreased, and it is a rare thing at the present day to harvest over 1,000 pounds of tobacco to the acre planted, while 

 within the memory of planters yet in the vigor of manhood a product of 1,500 pounds per acre was by no means 

 uncommon. It may be safely stated, however, that were the application of fertilizers increased the yield would be 

 augmented from 10 to 60 per cent., according to management and season. When laud is freshly cleared, the crop 

 improves on good soil for the first three years, but the fourth year, without manuring, would probably show a 

 depreciation of about 30 per cent. This rapid decline in fertility is owing, probably, as much to the surface 

 configuration of the district as to the partial exhaustion of the soil. In all the Lithostrotion bed of the Lower 

 Carboniferous formation there are underground caverns or streams, and in very many places the surface above these 

 caverns or streams drops down, forming within a short time hopper-shaped sink-holes. Sometimes these drops 

 determine the contour of the surface around for one or two hundred yards. When these slopes are continuously 

 cultivated for a number of years a great quantity of surface soil is swept from the surrounding rims to the bottom 

 of the sinks, reducing very rapidly the producing capacity of the slopes without adding to the fruitfulness of the 

 bottoms. Indeed, the bottoms of these wide sinks are very uncertain for the production of crops, as after heavy- 

 rains the water is liable to stand sufficiently long to kill out any crop that may be planted. Great skill and care 

 are required in the management of these lands to preserve their fertility. In large areas of the Clarksville 

 tobacco district, however, the surface is comparatively level, and iu these the lands are easily preserved. 



The grades of tobacco grown in this district vary somewhat with seasons, but in an average good crop the 

 following proportions are about correct: Dark shipping, 40 per cent.; fillers for European cigars, 30 per cent.; 

 bright wrappers, 5 per cent.; nondescript, 25 per cent.; cutting (American), none. 



There has been no special change iu the proportion of grades for many years; but, in the main, the crop has 

 depreciated in good qualities and dark colors, brought about by careless cultivation and inattention to the details 

 of curing and handling, the deterioration, as compared with the crop twenty years ago, being probably 30 per cent. 

 in dark, fat German tobacco, the production of this grade being in much smaller proportion than formerly. 



The following is the statement of production, acreage, yield per acre, value of crop in farmers' hands or iu 

 primary markets, value per pound, and value per acre of the tobacco crop of the Clarksville district for the years 

 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1879, only the figures for 1879 being from census returns: 



770 



