RULES FOR SELECTING SOIL. 427% 
for a cigar wrapper. In some countries, however, the leaf 
grown near salt water is equal in color and texture to any 
grown in the interior. But generally the plant obtains its 
finest form and quality of leaf—whether in the islands of 
the ocean, on the great prairies of the west, amid the sands 
of Arabia, on the mountains of Syria, or along the dykes of 
Holland—on lands bordering the largest rivers. This is true 
of the tobacco lands of Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia, 
Florida, Brazil, Venezuela, and Paraguay, as well as of those 
in the islands of Cuba and St. Domingo, where the rivers 
flow to the southern coast from the mountains which lie to 
the north. It must not be imagined from this that tobacco 
can not be successfully cultivated at a distance from valleys 
enriched by large and overflowing rivers. Some of the finest 
tobacco grown in Connecticut is grown in counties some 
distance from the river that gives name to our state. 
When possible, select that kind of soil for the tobacco 
field that will produce the color and texture of leaf desired. 
For Connecticut seed leaf a light moist loam is the proper 
soil. The same field can be used a number of seasons in 
succession; the result will be a much finer leaf than will 
come from selecting a new field each year. The early plant- 
ers of tobacco in Virginia soon ruined their fields by failing 
to manure them. In Maryland the soil best adapted for the 
growth of tobacco is a light, friable soil, or what is commonly 
called a sandy loam, not too flat, but of a rolling, undulating 
surface, and not liable to overflow in excessive rains. New 
land is far better than old. 
A-Missouri tobacco grower gives the following account of 
the selection of soil for tobacco in that State :— 
“Select upland, or black oak ridges and slopes, which 
comprise a large area of the tobacco lands of our county, 
and carefully clear off all the timber, and take out all 
the roots we can conveniently, and break up the ground as 
thoroughly as can be done by ploughing and harrowing until 
all the tufts and dirt are perfectly pulverized.” 
In Cuba the planters select the red soil as the best for fine 
tobacco. Some planters, however, prefer a soil mixed of 4 
