SUPERIOR QUALITY OF TOBACCO. 337 
to resume its former statu icultur: 
products of the country.” pe cee ee cee 
“Whether this success is attributable to any peculiarity 
in the elements of the soil, I am not able to determine, but 
this fact is worthy of note, that, except immediatel on the. 
banks of the Apalachicola River, which forms the Western 
boundary of the County, there is an entire absence of the 
rotten limestone which so largely pervades the other sections 
of the State. For the planter of. limited means, there is no 
crop so well suited to his condition as the Cuba tobacco. 
To produce a given result there is a less area of land required 
than is demanded for the production of-any other field crop. 
The cultivation, harvesting, and preparation for market is 
simple, and the labor so light that it may be participated in 
by every member of the family, male and female, over six 
years of age. The growth of the plant is so rapid, and its 
arrival at maturity so quick, that it never interferes with any 
of the provision crops, and rarely with a moderate cotton 
crop. 
In Louisiana the tobacco plant flourishes well and grows as 
well and as luxuriantly as sugar cane. Even along the banks 
of the Mississippi the plants attain good size, and succeed as 
finely as in some of the other parishes in the interior of the 
State. The Perique and Louisiana tobacco are the principal 
varieties cultivated, and attain nearly the size of Connecticut 
seed leaf. In St. James parish the soil seems well adapted 
for Perique tobacco, and here it readily takes on that black 
hue that is one of the peculiar features of this singular 
variety. In Coddo parish tobacco is cultivated to some 
extent, but does not produce a leaf equal to that grown in 
St. James Parish. The tobacco grown in the Parishes of 
Bossier and Natchitoches is used chiefly by the growers of 
the parishes and is fitted for both smoking and snuff. 
The Louisiana planters have adopted the method of the 
French in doing up their tobacco—twisting it in rolls, or as 
the French call them, “Carrots.” The planters of St. James 
Parish annually put up from ten to fourteen thousand car- 
rots of Perique, each carrot weighing about four pounds. 
Mr. Perique, from whom the tobacco takes its name, made 
many improvements in the manner of preparing the tobacco 
