262 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



" Trenching ", derived from the French /riser (to curl), occurs almost exclusively upon cold, stiff uplands, having 

 a close and stiff clay subsoil. During a wet season it is very prevalent upon clayey lands, and is sometimes found 

 upon sandy soils in small basins during excessively rainy weather. This disease renders the plant worthless when 

 it has progressed to any considerable extent. The effects are first seen in the buds of the plant, which become of a 

 yellow color. The leaves afterward become thick and fleshy, have a semi-transparent or honey-colored appearance, 

 and often curl around the edges downward, sometimes growing in long, narrow strips, with ragged outlines. When 

 cured, the leaves are dull and lifeless in color, and very brittle. No remedy for the disease has been found. It is 

 sometimes arrested by close plowing, or by giving the plant a vigorous pull, so as to break the tap root, but the 

 only preventive measure is to avoid planting upon a soil not properly underdrained, either naturally or artificially. 



"Walloon", or " water-loon", is of very common occurrence, and is closely akin to "freuching". The leaves, 

 instead of curviug over in graceful outlines, stick up like a fox's ears, whence the disease is known in some sections 

 of the country as " fox-ears". When tobacco is thus attacked it becomes rough and thick, and is-uufitted for any 

 but the most inferior purposes. Excessive tenacity of the soil or defective drainage are causes of the disease. 



"Hollow stalk" and "sore shin" rarely occur, except when the plants have been overflowed, and then mostly 

 upon old lands. Some planters attribute "hollow stalk" to an insect feeding upon the pith of the lower stalk, or 

 to the after effects of an attack by the wire- worm upon the young plant; others think it the effect of a bruise or a 

 wound upon the stem of the young plant. The two names above given are descriptive of different appearances 

 of the same disease. It is most probably produced by excessive absorption of water by the pith of the stalk while 

 partially submerged and subsequent exposure to a high degree of temperature. It is not reported as occurring 

 upon such lands as are never flooded by rain water, nor has it been observed upon soils well underdrained or 

 overlying a porous subsoil. There is no remedy for it, and unless the plants are cut as soon as it appears they 

 become worthless. The affected plant presents very much the same appearance as if nearly severed from the stalk, 

 withering slowly without ripening. 



"Prog-eye", or "white speck", sometimes occurs in tobacco thoroughly ripe. This disease, if it is such, is of 

 rare occurrence, and is little understood. In Florida white specks are a sure indication of fine texture in the leaf, 

 and this ''frog-eye" appearance was at one time much esteemed. This particular marking seems to result from 

 conditions of soil or climate, or from both, and some varieties are more frequently affected than others. 



"White veins" occur in the cured product. By some they are believed to be caused by long-continued dry 

 weather before and after cutting; by others they are ascribed to any check in the growth of the plant, whether 

 for lack of manures, from deficient cultivation, drought, bad seed, or too much water. Some think they are caused 

 by the absence of some soil constituent. All that can be said is that they do occur, very much to the injury of the 

 leaf for wrapping purposes. As a general rule, the product from a field well prepared, well fertilized, and well 

 cultivated, planted in good season, properly topped, and kept free of suckers, will show, when cured, very few white 

 veins. 



"Leprosy" is a name given to a fungoid mold which is occasionally found upon cured tobacco hanging in the 

 barn during warm, moist winters. This mold affected a large portion of the crop of 1880 in the Ohio Eiver 

 valley, especially in southern Illinois, and in the lower Ohio Eiver districts of Kentucky. This fungous plant 

 increases with amazing rapidity wherever the spores find congenial lodgment, and even sound, dry tobacco is 

 sometimes infected and seriously damaged. This disease, although not a new one, is imperfectly understood. 

 Appearing to a serious extent only in weather congenial to its development, and propagated from spores which 

 have escaped detection in badly-kept barns or tobacco-sheds, too many planters look upon it as of obscure or 

 doubtful origin, or as an inevitable concomitant of unfavorable atmospheric conditions. The remedy is prevention. 

 Thorough cleansing of the tobacco-barns, stripping, assorting, and packing rooms, and the careful destruction, by 

 burning, of all the trash and dirt which accumulate about the premises, will secure well-handled tobacco against 

 "leprosy", and perhaps other diseases of fungous origin. 



TOBACCO STRIPS. 







The making of strips, although a distinct branch of business, rarely, if ever, carried on by tobacco growers, is 

 regarded as a part of the necessary preparation of the leaf when designed for shipment to English markets. This 

 stemming process is employed almost altogether upon the heavier types of tobacco, so that the leaf, deprived of 

 the midrib or stem, may be shipped in a dry condition. The tax in England on tobacco is 3s. Gd., about 84 cents, 

 per pound. On a hogshead of tobacco weighing 1,000 pounds net a tax of $840 must be paid to the government 

 Assuming the tobacco to cost 15 cents per pound, the value of the hogshead, tax paid, would be $990, or 99 cents 

 per pound. If it should have the capacity to absorb 15 per cent, of water, the profit from this would be $148 50. 

 Tobacco selected for strips should therefore be porous and a "deep drinker". The greater its capacity for absorbing 

 water, other things being equal, the larger the profit. Kecently the government of Great Britain has taken 

 cognizance of this source of profit, and now requires a duty of 3s. Wd., about 92 cents, to be paid on all tobacco 

 containing less than 10 pounds of water to the 100 pounds. 

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