CHAPTER XXX 

 TOBACCO — NicoTiANA tabacum 



Tobacco belongs to the nightshade family (Solanacece). 

 This family also includes the Irish potato, tomato, and 

 the Jimson weed. 



Tobacco is used chiefly for human consumption, the 

 habit of chewing and smoking being general throughout 

 a large part of the world. Snuff, insecticides, and some 

 other articles are also manufactured from tobacco. The 

 stems and other cheap by-products make valuable fer- 

 tilizers. 



508. Description. — Tobacco is annual and makes its 

 growth during the warm season. The plant has a stout 

 stem, usually 4 to 7 feet high, from which grow large, thin 

 leaves, which constitute the valuable part of the plant. 

 The root system is rather shallow ; the leaves vary in size 

 and shape in different types and varieties of tobacco. 

 They are arranged in eight vertical ranks, so that the 

 ninth leaf is immediately above the first or lowest leaf, a 

 fact which enables the farmer to top the plant to a definite 

 number of leaves without stopping to count all of them. 



509. Distribution of tobacco. — The first settlers in 

 America found the Indians cultivating tobacco, and this 

 crop soon becahie the leading cash crop of the Virginia 

 and Maryland colonists. It even became the medium 



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