328 FIRST WESTERN PLANTERS. 
With no crop has the Emancipation Act interfered so much 
as with this, and the old tobacco planters will tell you with 
a sigh that tobacco no longer yields them the profits it once 
did: the manufacturers are the only people who make for- 
tunes on it now-a-days; $12 per hundred is the lowest price 
which pays for the raising, and few crops average that now. 
Still every farmer essays its culture, every freedman has his 
small tobacco patch by his cabin door, and the Indian weed 
is still the great staple of Eastern Virginia.” 
The first planters of tobacco at the West were the Obioans, 
who began its culture about fifty years ago. From the first 
they have taken much interest in the plant, and as the result 
of many experiments not only produce seed leaf, but the 
finest cutting leaf grown in this country. The Ohio tobacco 
growers have shown a spirit of enterprise in this direction 
that is as commendable as it is rare. While they have not 
tested the great tropical varieties like their brother tobacco 
growers of Connecticut, they have succeeded in producing a 
leaf for cutting that is the admiration of the world. At first 
their experiments were unsuccessful, and the early growers 
were ridiculed for entertaining the belief that tobacco could 
be grown at the West. Yet despite all objections and seem- 
ing failures, the growers continued its cultivation until it has 
become one of the great products of the State. Of late the 
Ohio growers have demonstrated that their soil is better 
adapted for the finer grades of cutting leaf, than for seed leaf 
or even the more common “cinnamon blotch.” 
The soil is rich, and an experience of half a century has at 
length given them a thorough knowledge of the plant and 
the most successful modes of cultivation. In appearance an 
Ohio tobacco field resembles those of the Connecticut valley 
—the leaf is large, and though coarser, cures down a dark 
rich brown, like “cijnamon blotch,” or a light yellow, the 
color of the famous “white tobacco.” The Ohio growers 
have taken much pains with the Ohio broad leaf, and have 
produced a seed leaf tobacco that in many respects is a supe- 
rior wrapper for cigars. While it does not possess the fine 
texture of Connecticut seed leaf it still has many good quali- 
ties, and with the careful culture given it will doubtless: 
