CULTURE AND CURING IN WEST VIRGINIA. 229 



it impossible to lay clown fixed rules for the curiiig of any desired color or quality. Skill is the reward of practice 

 and close observation, and a certain amount of technical skill is absolutely necessary to success in curing fine tobacco 

 of any type. 



Some persons fix the color by burning sulphur, bran, and alum under the tobacco at what is considered tho 

 proper time; but this is of doubtful propriety or advantage. The heat, if properly regulated, will fix the color. 

 and there is no disagreeable flavor, such as is often imparted by the fumes of sulphur, etc. 



In the Yellow district it is the common practice to bulk down tobacco as soon as it is thoroughly cured, and some 

 crowd the sticks together in the barn to preserve the color. In the Dark district it is left to hang as it was cured 

 until a stripping season comes, when it is taken down, stripped, assorted, and tied in bundles or hands. 



Very little damage to tobacco while hanging in the barns is reported. Mold sometimes injures air-cured tobacco, 

 caused by long continued damp, warm weather, and sometimes late-cut tobacco is damaged by freezing in the barns 

 before the sap is thoroughly dried out. 



After being stripped, the tobacco is either bulked down, to be sold in winter order to country dealers, or is hung 

 up, to be properly ordered for bulking or prizing. If bulked, it is permitted to remain from thirty to forty-five 

 <lays to sweeten before being prized. 



Most plauters sell in prized packages ; some sell loose to dealers. The wooden lever is generally used for 

 prizing, but a few screws are found here and there. Ohio river planters ship to Cincinnati, all the Burley going 

 there. Farmers within reach of the Baltimore and Ohio railway ship to Baltimore, and those near the line of the 

 Chesapeake and Ohio find a market in Eichmond, Virginia, The usual time of selling is from May till August, the 

 larger part of the crop being marketed in June and July. The hogsheads of dark leaf vary in weight from 600 to 

 SOO pounds for leaf to 1,000 and 1,400 pounds for seconds and lugs. Brights are usually packed in tierces weighing 

 from 200 to 500 pounds. 



DISEASES OF TOBACCO. 



Except on the Kauawha and the Ohio rivers, where red-fire, speck, and hollow-stalk sometimes prevail to a 

 limited extent, the tobacco of West Virginia is remarkably free from disease, and many of the interior counties 

 report no disease. 



COST OF RAISING TOBACCO, ETC. 



lu the region producing the dark types the price of the best tobacco lauds varies from $15 to $30 per acre, and 

 these produce, without manures, from 800 to 1,000 pounds of tobacco per acre. Inferior soils, producing from 500 to 

 <500 pounds, are worth from $8 to $12 per acre. In the Yellow district, the best lands, producing from 600 to 900 

 pounds per acre, are worth about $10, inferior soils, producing from 500 to 700 pounds, being valued at from $4 to 

 $7 per acre. 



The approximate cost of raising tobacco in the Dark and Burley districts is estimated at $5 25 per hundred 

 pounds; in the Yellow district, $7 75. These are approximations only, not one farmer in a hundred being able to 

 make an accurate statement of the cost of production. 



The average wages paid for field -hands is: for men, 50 cents per day, $10 per month, and from $100 to $120 per 

 year, with board, and sometimes houses for their families, tobacco laborers being paid as common field-hands. 

 Skilled curers and packers command better wages, proportioned to their special abilities. 



Land is rarely rented by the acre. Where worked on shares, the cropper gets two-thirds and the landlord 

 one-third the latter furnishing only the land, barn, and barn fixtures. Where the land is to be newly cleared, the 

 cropper gets a larger percentage of the product. 



The number of acres planted to the hand varies widely, according to locality and peculiar circumstances. 

 Where tobacco is one of several crops grown upon the farm, from 3 to 4 acres are planted for each full hand ; 

 where this is the main crop, or made a specialty, 5 to 6 acres per hand is not accounted too much. Extra labor 

 must be employed, however, at certaiu times; for no one man can worm, sucker, cut, house, and cure 6 acres of 

 tobacco without help. 



Co-operative labor to a certaiu extent can produce tobacco more cheaply, aud doubtless of better quality, than 

 individual effort upon a limited area. When the number of workers is too small the work is performed at a 

 disadvantage, and the planter is forced to rely upon assistance, which is not always obtained when needed, an! not 

 always skillful or reliable. On the other hand, when the working force is a large one, only the most careful and 

 energetic supervision, with judicious management, will secure profitable results. 



INSECT ENEMIES OF TOBACCO. 



In West Virginia little damage by the cut- worm is reported, which is accounted for by the fact that most of the 

 land cropped in tobacco is newly cleared. 



The tobacco of the Ohio river counties bears evidence of a multiplicity of horn-worms, but in the interior counties 

 they are not so numerous. The injury to the product along the Ohio, including the cost of hunting and killing the 

 worms, is estimated at 15 per cent, of the entire crop. 



