226 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



RED AND SPANGLED. There are many grades of this tobacco produced iu Boone, Calhouu, Clay, Doddridge, 

 Gilmer, Greenbrier, Harrison, Lewis, Eoaue, Bitchie, Tyler, Upsliur, Wetzel, and Wirt counties. 



BRIGHT YELLOW is the prevailing quality in Fayette, Ealeigh, Monroe, Mercer, and Summers. 



WHITE BURLEY. This new variety has no fixed locality, but is principally grown iu the Ohio river counties. 



The tobacco produced iu Kanawha, Putnam, and Masou counties is darker, heavier, aud richer than the same 

 type grown aloug the Ohio river, aud might properly be classed separately. It more nearly resembles the dark 

 Shipping of eastern Virginia thau the product of the Ohio valley, which latter more nearly resembles the dark 

 tobacco of eastern Ohio. This difference is partly the result of soil influences and partly the result of 

 management. Iu the Kauawha district the leaves are cured on the stalks ; in the Ohio river counties the bulk of 

 the product is pulled from the stalks, and only the leaves are housed. The Kauawha tobacco is riper when cut, 

 and is tougher and more waxy ; the product of the river counties is thinner, more tender, and brighter iu color. 

 There are usually four grades of the dark tobacco : long leaf, short leaf, ground leaves, and tips ; but in the best- 

 assorted crops there are five grades, two of lugs, oue of tips, and two of leaf. 



Of the red and spangled tobacco there are numerous grades, there being several shades of red, running to 

 black; several varieties of spangled, from a bright mottled yellow to a dark mahogany; colored sorts, from orange 

 to cherry red ; and some of a smooth yellow. All these are classed together, for convenience of illustration, and 

 because they are all produced more or less in the same area, and sometimes on the same farm. Peculiarities of 

 soil, different varieties, and varying modes of handling, curing, and management, produce the different colors. 



Of the five counties classed in the Bright Yellow district, only one (Fayette) makes the production of this 

 quality a specialty. 



In several counties in the Eed and Spangled district very good brights are produced by planters who have 

 discarded the old plan of curing with open wood fires and have substituted therefor charcoal or flues. In Fayette 

 county the production of line yellow tobacco, begun twenty-five years ago by an immigrant from Amherst county, 

 Virginia, has rapidly extended, the country from Canon Hill to Oak Hill presenting a scene of thrift, enterprise, 

 and prosperity a suggestive picture of what skill and energy can accomplish in a rugged, and in many respects 

 uninviting, region. 



GEOLOGY AND SOILS. 



West Virginia is iu the Carboniferous Limestone and Great Coal groups, the counties of Mercer, Monroe, 

 Summers, and Greenbrier being principally in the Carboniferous Limestone, while all the other tobacco counties are 

 in the Great Coal group. 



The soils of the Carboniferous Limestone group are varied : Limestones, sandstones, and slates are the prevailing 

 rocks. The limestones are magnesian, siliceous, and carbonate. The sandstones and slates indicate the poorer 

 soils. 



The soils of the Great Coal group, except the alluvials on the rivers and creeks, are apparently very much 

 alike, but are really unlike in constitution and character. Those of a dark color, approaching to red, where reddish 

 sandstones occur, are generally the most fertile ; the slaty and shaly mountain slopes the poorest ; but with proper 

 skill and management these latter soils produce the finest tobacco. The alluvials of the Great Kanawha and other 

 rivers are generally dark, sandy loams, and are the most fertile of all. These produce the best shipping and Burley 

 tobacco, those with most clay being best adapted for the first, and the more sandy soils for the latter. 



The limestone soils are easy of tillage, retentive, not easily washed, and are susceptible of great improvement, 

 and offer suitable lands for the production of the Burley type. 



The soils of the Coal group, and those of the lower shale and sandstone formation, are not considered easy of 

 tillage; for, aside from their closeness or adhesiveness, they are generally so hilly and steep as to make cultivation 

 difficult and laborious to man and beast. They are not easily washed, except on some of the sandy ridges. The 

 subsoil is generally porous, seldom soggy, and crops are rarely injured by excess of water in the soil, the natural 

 drainage being perfect in much of the cultivated area. There are extensive areas of fresh lands awaiting 

 development, and, from present indications, tobacco will be the first crop to utilize them. 



CLIMATE. 



Owing to the rugged and elevated character of three-fourths of the territory of West Virginia, the temperature, 

 like that of all mountain regions, is variable, the isothermal lines making sharp and crooked curves, to correspond 

 with elevation. 



The Statistical Atlas of the United States, temperature chart, Plate VII, indicates that while a narrow belt of 

 the most elevated portion of the state is in the zone of 48 to 52, yet the main area is in the zone of r>2 to 56, 

 and while there occur occasional extremes of low temperature, there are seldom seasons of extreme heat. The days 

 are often hot in summer, but the nights are cool, affording just the most needful conditions to the tobacco-plant. 



Early and late frosts, which may damage the young plants in the seed-bed or nip them before harvest in the 

 fall, are most to be guarded against. The tobacco-plant, when quite young, will bear a low temperature -even 

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