116 CIRCULAR 249, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The general direction of change has been from “‘strong’’ tobacco to 
‘mild’, from chewing to pipe smoking, from cigars to cigarettes, 
from dark, heavy-bodied types to lighter types. These changes may 
be associated in some degree with the changes that have taken place 
in conditions of employment and modes of life. From a predomi- 
nantly agricultural nation we have become largely industrial. In- 
creasing numbers of people work indoors, in factories, shops, offices. 
There has been a notable shift from rural to urban living conditions. 
The tobacco the system could tolerate under the robust outdoor life 
becomes too strong under more confining conditions. 
Broad changes in tobacco-consuming habits have motivated changes 
in cultural and curing practices in the search for milder tobacco. 
More significantly they have had a profound effect upon the geography 
of tobacco production as soil types were found which could better 
meet the requirements for tobacco production. 
The geography of tobacco production has from colonial times been 
in a process of constant readjustment to the gradually changing re- 
quirements of consumer demand. ‘The reasons for, and methods of, 
such readjustment may be summarized as follows: 
(1) Since those areas predominate which can produce tobacco suitable for the 
products currently most popular, a shift in popular demand inevitably brings 
about corresponding increases or decreases in the size and importance of the type 
areas affected. As to the more favored area, increasing demand brings prices 
that stimulate expanded production. As to the less favored area, as effective 
demand decreases, prices tend to become unprofitable except as production is 
readjusted to the smaller consumption requirements. 
(2) The necessary readjustment may be accomplished within a given area by 
changes in the method of curing the tobacco. Historically, this was the cause 
which induced the development, first of fire-curing where air-curing had been 
universal, later the evolution of fire-curing into flue-curing in portions of the same 
district, and finally a reversion to air-curing in still other portions. It is im- 
portant to note that although these changes in curing methods occurred within a 
small area where air-curing previously was universal, they had the effect of 
differentiating tobacco into very distinct types. Further, that these types reached 
their ultimate development only as the right combinations of soil, climatic con- 
ditions, varieties of seed, cultural treatment and curing methods were attained. 
This explains the present relative inflexibility of particular districts as to the types 
of tobacco which can be grown therein. (See p. 3.) 
(3) Within certain type districts—notably flue-cured and Burley—readjust- 
ments have been made to changing consumer preferences by changes in cultural 
practices. These types were at first used principally in the manufacture of 
chewing tobacco, for which heavy-bodied and rather strong tobacco is desired. 
Later chewing became less popular and cigarette smoking came into prominence. 
This created a rising demand for thinner and milder grades of tobacco, accompa- 
nied by a decreasing demand for heavy leaf grades. In tobacco production it is 
found that wide spacing of the plants in the field and low topping tend to result 
in relatively thick leaves; and that closer planting and higher topping tend to 
result in thinner leaves. By this means and by systematic breeding and selection, 
flue-cured and Burley have been modified in the direction of thinner, milder 
tobacco. Flue-cured has become the preeminent cigarette tobacco of the world. 
From the foregoing discussion it will be seen that the changes in 
modes of consumption that have occurred and are still in progress 
are fundamental in their economic significance. Types which in years 
gone by dominated the domestic export trade in tobacco have lost 
some of their foreign markets completely and other markets partially. 
On the other hand, types favored by the world-wide trend toward 
cigarette consumption have been in demand to an extent undreamed 
of a few years ago. Whereas the scale of tobacco production in some 
sections has shrunk to a fraction of its former size, in other sections 
