190 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



VIRGINIA SOILS. 



The soils of Virginia are as varied as the rocks they overlie. A geological survey of the state was made by 

 Professor William B. Rogers in the years from 1835 to 1840. It is necessary to notice carefully only the soils of 

 the tobacco area. 



THE TIDEWATER REGION. This is Tertiary, and its soils are principally alluvials sand and clay. Tobacco 

 was once cultivated over the greater part of this district, but it has long ago given place to crops more suited to 

 its soils or to the choice of their owners. 



THE MIDDLE COUNTRY. This is the great tobacco-producing area of the state, bounded on the north by the 

 Eappahaimock, on the east by Tidewater, on the south by North Carolina, and ou the west by Piedmont. It is 

 an extended rolling plain, greatly diversified by bills and vales, forests and streams. Its geology is primary; its 

 rocks Azoic, many containing mineral elements that by decomposing greatly enrich the soil, such as granite, 

 gneiss, syenite, hornblende, mica schist, micaceous, talcose, and argillaceous slates and shales, and the sedimentary 

 rocks of the Jurassic and Triassic formations. The soil varies in depth on the hills and plains from 2 to 8 inches, 

 while along the rivers and creeks they are much deeper, in some places practically inexhaustible. The usual depth 

 of forest soils is from 4 to 5 inches, with a subsoil rich in mineral elements. The tobacco soils proper are the rich 

 bottoms and clay-loam lots for shipping, and thin, gray, light soils, fertilized, for manufacturing. This district 

 produces about seven-eighths of the tobacco of the state, and of every grade heretofore described, except the 

 flue-cured manufacturing grown in Henry and adjoining counties. 



PIEDMONT. Like the Middle division, this is in the primary region; but here the rnetarnorphic rocks dift'er 

 considerably from those of middle Virginia. The gneiss is coarser and darker in color. The hornblende and iron 

 pyrites form large belts of red soil, called the "red-land district". Here is found more greenstone (epidote), and 

 where this abounds the soil is richer, but is. not better adapted to the manufacturing grades of tobacco. Tlie belts 

 of limestone which traverse portions of this district are overlaid by soils rich and admirably suited to grasses and 

 the cereals, but they produce a coarse staple of tobacco, not much in demand, even at low prices. The tobacco 

 soils of this division are the low grounds and red-clay lots for shipping, and the gray uplands, sandy and slaty, 

 for manufacturing. The chief tobacco-producing counties of this district form a line along the eastern slope of the 

 Blue Itidge southward from Madison, and include Henry county. 



BLUE EIDGE. This district forms the border between the Transition and Fossiliferous, and partakes somewhat 

 of the character of both. Gneissoid sandstones, epidote, granite, syenite, slates, and shales abound in the east, 

 while the western flank of the Blue lUdge is composed of the rocks of the Cambrian, Potsdam, Sandstone, and 

 Primal. The abundance of epidote accounts for the great fertility of the soils of this division. 



The gray sandy slopes and ridges are the best tobacco lands. The tobacco counties of this district are Floyd, 

 Carroll, and Grayson. 



THE VALLEY AND AppALACHiA. In this district are included all the remaining counties of the state west of 

 the Blue Eidge, southwest from Eockbridge, in the northeast, some of these counties producing but little, but all 

 capable of growing, to more or less extent, a good type of tobacco. The lighter soils are the better, but the 

 arenaceous soils of the mountain slopes and foothills are preferred. The limestone belt is an extensive one, rich 

 and well adapted to general farming. The poorer siliceous soils, notably in Poor Valley, in Washington and Lee 

 counties, are growing a fine article of brights, but the south and southeastern slopes of the mountains also produce 

 desirable manufacturing grades. 



While the above are classed in the red and yellow shipping district, there are extensive areas in most of these 

 counties well adapted to produce the bright yellow type, as is being demonstrated by individual planters every 

 year. 



8UEFACE EOCKS OF THE TOBACCO EEGION. 



In a narrow section of Albemarle county limestone suitable for burning is found in abundance; in otuer parts 

 iron pyrites are found in large quantity, and large tracts are covered with quartz. Such lands are quite poor. 

 Slates and shales are found in many neighborhoods. Where feldspathic, gneissoid, and hornbleudic rocks come 

 out the best tobacco soils are found. 



Greene, Madison, Nelson, Amherst, Bedford, and a portion of Franklin exhibit the same surface rocks as 

 Albemarle, except that there are less iron pyrites in some of the counties, less limestone, and more of the Azoic rocks 

 cropping out and on the surface. 



Buckingham, Cumberland, Amelia, Prince Edward, Charlotte, Nottoway, Lunenburg, Dinwiddie, Brunswick, 

 Mecklenburg, Campbell, and a portion of Halifax counties, of the Middle division, south of James river, may be 

 classed together as generally of like formation. This group, like that portion of Piedmont above described, belongs 

 to the Eozoic or Primary formation. Here the rocks which most commonly come to the surface are granite, syenite, 

 gneiss, and quartz, micaceous, talcose, and horublendic slates, and occasionally argillaceous slates, sandstone, steatite, 

 serpentine, etc. 



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