B 



The city's sales markets were more active than ever. 

 It made the headlines when 244 hogsheads were sold off 

 warehonse Hoors in a single day, May 8, 1852. Prices 

 ranged from $1.50 to $7.05 per hundredweight, the latter 

 tor leaf from Mason Connty. (TweKe years later sales 

 at Louis\ille warehouses totaled 63,000 hogsheads.) 



Not all the tobacco took the Mississippi route to New 

 Orleans. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, a success 

 from the time of its incorporation in 1850, was shortly 

 to begin car-loadings of tobacco for delivery to eastern 

 depots. Production of leaf in the state exceeded 108 

 million pounds in 1859, around 16 million pounds less 

 than that produced in \'irginia, long the major source of 

 supply. 



During the Ci\'il War Kentucky became the largest 

 tobacco-producing state. The fact, then general knowl- 

 edge among growers, was proudly announced by Col. 

 Laban J. Bradford of Augusta, Kentucky, in a published 

 letter dated February 2, 1863. There had been a marked 

 increase in harvests of the dark fire-cured types. Maxi- 

 mum production had been reached just prior to the 

 beginning of the war. 



right" Burley 



Through a fortunate accident of nature — assuming 

 that there are "accidents " in nature — a revolution took 

 place in tobacco farming. It affected other areas than 

 Kentuck)-, as well, but that state became its chief bene- 

 ficiary. 



On a forgotten da\ in the spring of 1864, which should 

 be celebrated b\' Burley growers, two tenants (George 

 Webb and Joseph Fore) were seeding tobacco beds on 



43 



