CULTURE AND CURING IN TENNESSEE. 



191 



When the average yield per acre is only 707 pounds (the average for the state, as shown by the enumerators' 

 returns) the cost of production is just about balanced by the amount received from the crop. Disregarding the 

 amount raised for home consumption, the cost of that produced for market may be put at $4 50 per hundred 

 pounds. 



It will be observed that where the price of land is very low rents are disproportionately high, amounting often 

 to over 25 per cent, of its value. Labor in 1879 was abundant and cheap. The relation between the price of rents 

 and the value of lands depends mainly upon the supply of labor, and, as a rule, throughout the southern states the 

 cheaper and more abundant the labor the higher the rents and the lower the lauds, and vice versa. In some 

 districts the rental value of the land for one year is half what the laud would bring if sold in open market. 



Throughout the state tobacco is, to a considerable extent, cultivated on the "share system". The chief 

 objection urged against this system is that the land is apt to be run down, and the fencing is not kept up so well 

 as when the labor is employed at a definite price. The saving and application of manure are neglected, and the 

 steady habits of industry, so much needed to make farming profitable, are seriously interfered with. The "new 

 and old field system" that is, the clearing up of new lands and the abandonment of worn-out fields has run its 

 natural course in Tennessee. The next step will be. one of renovation and restitution. 



PEICBS OF TOBACCO. 



The following table, compiled from the schedules returned to this office, shows the price received by growers 

 in the different counties of each district for the crop of 1879. The proportion of lugs in each crop will average from 

 25 to 30 per cent. Farmers usually classify into four grades, viz : Lugs, medium, good, and bright, the latter in 

 localities where bright tobacco is produced : 



WEST TENNESSEE DISTRICT. 



CLAEKSVILLE DISTRICT. 



UPPER CUMBERLAND RIVER DISTRICT. 



A small amount of tobacco is grown in Scott county, on the Cumberland plateau, a region of great attractiveness 

 on account of its elevation, its fine freestone water, its magnificent scenery, and its salubrious climate, but one 

 whose soil is deemed by many as sterile. This tobacco, however, commands a very high price, reaching an average 

 of 14 cents per pound, the finest grade of the crop of 1879, as reported on the schedules, bringing 18 cents. In no 

 other portion of the state, except TJnicoi county, does the average price exceed G cents. It may be that these 

 sandstone soils will yet prove very profitable in the production of cigar tobacco, the samples exhibited from the 

 Cumberland plateau showing great delicacy of structure and a wide wrapping leaf, mild and pleasant to the taste, 

 and free from acrid bitterness. 



In McMinn, Knox, and other counties of eastern Tennessee tobacco has been grown in years past, and is raised 

 to a very small extent at the present time, but never with groat profit, and on some of the slopes of the TJnaka range 

 a fine yellow wrapper is produced in limited quantities. 



The soils of White, Coffee, Rutherford, De Kalb, Warren, Franklin, Lawrence, Wayne, Lewis, Perry, Hardiu, 

 and Hickman counties are identical in character with those of the best tobacco-growing counties of middle Tennessee, 

 and the small patches raised for domestic consumption show the adaptability of the soils to its growth. 



50 AG 785 



