232 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



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The Vallandigliani is cultivated to a considerable extent, in the neighborhood of Edgerton, Bock county, and 

 has a large, pointed, smooth leaf, which makes it easy to worm. 



All these varieties of seed-leaf are used for wrappers, fillers, and binders in cigar-making, the inferior grades 

 being often mixed with southern leaf, in the proportion of one to four, for making fine-cut smoking tobacco. 



The Cuba varieties, for the reasons already mentioned, are growing rapidly into favor. After three or four 

 years' planting from seed originally brought from Cuba these varieties lose much of the aroma which distinguishes 

 them the first year, but the size of the leaf is greatly increased, and enough of the sweet flavor is retained to 

 make the product of great value; for as the amount of sweet fillers is decreased the ratio of wrappers to the whole is 

 increased, and it is a question among growers whether the change is not, on the whole, a benefit rather than au 

 injury an improvement rather than a deterioration in the variety. 



SOILS FOR TOBACCO. 



Three classes of soils are recognized by the tobacco-growers in Wisconsin : 1. The calcareous sandy soil. 

 2. The clayey softs, light and heavy, mulatto in color. 3. The prairie soils. 



The first is greatly preferred, not only because it is more easily tilled, but because the quality of tobacco 

 grown upon it commands a higher price and readier sale. It produces a silky, elastic, glossy leaf, uniform in 

 color, and the plant matures fully a week earlier than the clayey soil. The timber growth is chiefly white and 

 burr oak, with hazel undergrowth. Sometimes this soil is found on the prairie lauds. The clayey soils occupy 

 more elevated areas, with open woods, the principal arboreal growth of which is white and burr oak, with maple 

 on the heavier soils. 



The tobacco grown ou clayey soils is coarse, thick, not uniform in color, and is generally of an inferior quality 

 in every way. The lighter the clay the better the tobacco. 



The prairie soils are extremely variable in their adaptability to the growth of tobacco. Where there is a 

 predominance of clay, and when these soils are of a black, waxy character, they are totally unfitted for the production 

 of tine leaf, but with a suitable admixture of sand they belong really to the class first mentioned, and have the 

 capacity of producing tobacco of a most desirable quality. The largest proportion of tobacco land in Jefferson 

 county is prairie. 



It has been ascertained by experience that the presence of gravel in a dry season is a great disadvantage 

 to the tobacco -pi ant, but in a wet season it proves of benefit, inasmuch as it allows the superfluous water to 

 drain off. 



The slopes which run down to the shores of the lakes, and more especially the eastern slopes, in which there 

 is a variable quantity of feldspathic, gueissoid, and limestone gravel, with sand in varying proportions, are found 

 well adapted to the production of tobacco. Between the low bottoms on the streams and lakes and the elevated 

 areas which rise up probably a hundred feet or more above the valleys are moderately undulating plains, in which, 

 for the most part, the soils best suited for tobacco are found. Around Edgerton, which may be considered the 

 center of the tobacco-growing region, there are many square miles occupying this medial topographical position, in 

 which the light, marly clays and the calcareous, sandy loams abound. So also east and west of Jaiiesville, for twelve 

 or fifteen miles, the calcareous, sandy loams predominate. In the southwestern part of Jefferson, north and east of 

 lake Koshkonong, the light, marly clays, well adapted to the growth of tobacco, abound ; but the quality of the 

 product grown upon these light clays is considered inferior to that grown on sandy loams or calcareous sands. 



The prairie soils do not wash so easily as the more loose calcareous soils, the latter requiring considerable care 

 in their cultivation, especially when the slopes are sharp, as they are liable to be damaged almost irreparably by 

 heavy rain storms. 



GRADES OP TOBACCO PRODUCT. 



There are three grades of tobacco in Wisconsin : wrappers, fillers, and binders, the proportion of grades varying 

 greatly with the seasons. If the season be entirely favorable, the proportion of wrappers will, in a good crop, reach 

 66 per cent, of the whole; but a very wet or a very dry summer will diminish this proportion to 50 per cent., or even 

 less. Taking the average of crops and seasons, a fair estimate of the proportion of grades will be: wrappers, 50 

 per cent. ; fillers, 25 per cent. ; binders, 25 per cent. It is believed that the proportion of high grades has been very 

 much increased during the past few years, and one reason given for such improvement, namely, that the tobacco is 

 planted, year after year upon the same laud, is certainly an anomaly in agriculture. 



The proportion of grades probably depends more upon the character of the soils than upon anything else. 

 Tobacco grown upon new laud, or land freshly cleared, has a harsh, woody, stiff leaf, but a pleasant flavor. Such 

 tobacco furnishes a small proportion of wrappers, but a large amount of excellent fillers. It has but little gum, 

 not enough to make it stand the sweating process well, and the color is light and the leaf thin. When the soil has 

 been properly fertilized, there is an elasticity in the leaf which peculiarly tits it for wrapping purposes, and when 

 tobacco is grown on such laud the proportion of wrappers is largely increased and the inferior grades are reduced 

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