CALIFORNIA TOBACCO LANDS. 339 
wheat and gold seem likely to be realized. The soil and 
climate of California are admirably adapted for tobacco. In 
the valleys the land is a deep alluvial loam, easily worked, 
producing bountiful crops of the finest leaf tobacco. The 
planters have experimented with several varieties, including 
Havana, Florida, Latakia, Hungarian, Mexican, Virginia, 
Connecticut, Standard and White leaf. Large crops are 
grown, especially of Florida tobacco, which, with careful 
culture, produces two thousand five hundred pounds of 
merchantable leaf to the acre. The planters get their 
Havana seed from Cuba, preferring to do so rather than to 
risk the seed from their own plants. At first they used 
home-grown seed and could not see any serious deterioration 
or change in the quality of the tobacco, but a singular change 
in the form of the leaf took place. That from home-grown 
seed grew longer, and the veins or ribs, which in Havana 
tobacco stand out at right angles from the leaf stalks took an 
acute angle, and thus became longer and made up a greater 
part of the leaf. Of Florida tobacco the home-grown seed 
comes true. 
Tobacco is now being tested in the several counties in the 
State and with every promise of success. Many of the 
ranches seem well adapted for the plant and the planters are 
confident by their new process of curing, of being able to 
produce an article equal to the best Havana brand. The 
plants attain a remarkable size, and grow up like many kinds 
of tropical vegetation, without. much care being bestowed 
upon them, although the plants are regularly cultivated and 
hoed. The planters are not troubled with that foe of most 
tobacco fields, “the worm.” They attribute this in part to 
the excellence of their soil and partly to the abundance of 
birds and yellow jackets. The planters do not always “top” 
the Havana and do very little “suckering.” If the ground 
is rich, and free from weeds they let one of the suckers from 
that root grow, and thus become almost as large and heavy 
as the original plant. They believe that the soil is strong 
enough to bear the plants and suckers, and that they get a 
better leaf and finer quality without suckering. 
