192 



TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



TOTAL TOBACCO PRODUCTION, ACEEAGE, YIELD, AND VALUE. 



Taking the production, acreage, yield, and value of the crops of the three tobacco districts of the state for 

 the four years ending with 1879, and combining them, adding the production of the territory not attached to either 

 of the districts, we have the following result, only the figures for 1879 being from census returns: 



EXPERIMENTS WITH CUBAN TOBACCO. 



A few experiments have been made with Havana tobacco grown from seed imported from Cuba. One of these 

 was made by Mr. W. B. Bryan, sr., near Clarksville, who says: 



As requested, I give you an account of the manner of growing, handling, and curing tobacco grown by me in 1868 from fresh Cuba 

 seed. The seed and special instructions were furnished by a friend who was a resident of New Orleans, but the owner of a large tobacco 

 plantation in the province of Vuelta Abajo, in Cuba. I first soaked the seed in fresh milk forty-eight hours, keeping them in a warm 

 room. Without allowing them to dry, they were mixed with ashes and sown on a bed prepared in the usual way by burning. I selected 

 rather gravelly hillside land of good quality, prepared it well, and cast it up into ridges three feet apart. The ridge was cut through with 

 a hoe, taking off about one-half of it at spaces as near twenty inches apart as could be done. The plants were set out and kept well 

 worked, allowing them to run up until the blossom bnd shot out, which I pinched off, but did not prime the plant. I let the suckers 

 grow to about two inches in length; turned out one of the most vigorous next the ground for a second crop ; broke down from one side 

 all the rest, taking care not to break them entirely off, but leaving them hanging by the skin on one side. I had no more suckers to 

 trouble me or draw the sap from the growing plant. I found many of the suckers struggling for life when my tobacco was ripe. The 

 same plan succeeds well with our heavy tobacco. The plants were allowed to stand until thoroughly ripe, which is of great importance. 

 The leaves are then stripped from the stalk as is fodder from corn. The stalk was cut above the sucker, and the latter was worked and 

 treated in every respect like the first crop. This second crop was somewhat smaller, but was much finer, richer tobacco, and ripened 

 about the 10th of October. When the crop was ripe and stripped from the stalk, I dug a pit long enough and two feet deep, just as 

 though I was preparing to barbecue meat, filled it up with sound hard wood, which I set on fire. When the wood burned down, I carefully 

 raked off all coals. I had freshly-cut crab grass ready, clear of weeds, with which I lined the bottom, sides, and ends of my pit, and packed 

 the freshly-stripped tobacco smoothly and closely down and covered it over with about four inches of crab grass, and then put on eight 

 or ten inches of earth, being particular to leave no part uncovered to allow the steam to escape. It remained in this condition about 

 forty hours. I then stripped off the covering and took out the tobacco. The water was streaming from a black, unsightly, and, as I 

 thought, ruined mass. Still I obeyed instructions, tied the leaves into small hands, put them on sticks, and hung them up in the open 

 shed of my barn. I was so sure that my trouble and labor had been thrown away I felt no anxiety to look at it. The fourth day I was 

 riding by the barn and happened to pass on the windward side. I caught a whiff that brought me to the ground immediately. I threw 

 open the door of the shed and was saluted by a perfect billow of rich, real Havana aroma filling the entire barn. My tobacco was as dry 

 as snuff and perfectly cured. The first damp day brought the leaf in order, when I packed it in a large dry-goods box, nailed it up, and 

 stored it in a dry room. I did not open it for one year. None but a connoisseur can imagine what a luxury I enjoyed in return for my 

 perseverance. The tobacco was very dark, almost black, and was equal to the best cured Havana tobacco. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

 CULTURE AND CURING OF TOBACCO IN VIRGINIA. 



A SHORT HISTORY OF THE TYPES OF TOBACCO PRODUCED IN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 



The original standard type with the planters of Virginia and Maryland was what is now termed the dark 

 export type. For a long series of years the laws regulating production, especially those passed by the colonial 

 assembly of Virginia, requiring all of the product that failed to come up to the legal exactions of quality and 

 soundness to be burned, were rigidly executed. Tobacco was all raised for export, then the only market, and the 

 price being uniform, whether for sale or as a circulating medium, it was necessary to institute an inspection to 

 compel uniformity of grade. 



With a virgin soil of great fertility, the planter who did his work well had reasonable assurance that his crop 

 would "pass", (a) Its cultivation was commenced by the colonists in the historic town of Jamestown, in James City 

 county, and John Rolfe produced the first tobacco exported from the colony. 



786 



a A word used by inspectors to brand all hogsheads of tobacco fit for export. 



