United States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF SOILS.— Circular No. 14. 



Milton Whitney, Chikf of Bureau. 



OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CltfAR-LEAF TOBACCO IN 

 EAST TEXAS AND ALABAMA. 



A few years ago the attention of the Bureau of Soils was called to a 

 new tobacco industry in east Texas, where it was reported considerable 

 progress had been made in growing a domestic filler leaf from Cuban 

 seed. It was found that quite an extensive acreage was being planted 

 around Willis, Montgomery County, and that several warehouses and 

 cigar factories were in operation there. 



An examination of the tobacco, made by the Bureau expert, showed 

 that some of the leaf produced was of excellent quality, surpassing in 

 aroma any domestic leaf examined up to that time, but that the crop 

 as a whole, for reasons not determined, was not such as to warrant the 

 prediction of any phenomenal development of the industry along the 

 lines then being followed. 



The matter was again given some study in 1899, when the Bureau 

 was engaged in making a collection of domestic tobaccos for exhibition 

 at the Paris Exposition. Included in this exhibit were a number of 

 samples of the Texas tobaccos, and the marked superiority of some of 

 the leaf was noticed, although, owing to the manner in which the col- 

 lection had been made, it was impracticable to determine whether this 

 quality was the result of the particular soil upon which the leaf had 

 been grown, of the kind of seed used, of any special system of fertili- 

 zation, or of care and skill in handling and curing. 



In 1901 the Bureau made a survey of the soils around Willis, at the 

 same time investigating the condition of the tobacco industry, and 

 especially the relations of the quality of the leaf to the soil producing 

 it. The tobacco interests were then found in a languishing condition. 

 From a maximum acreage of 1,000 acres planted in 1898, the plantings 

 had declined to 506 acres in 1899, and thence to less than 100 acres in 

 1901 ; and the growers, although needing some crop, like tobacco, in 

 which to specialize, had become very much discouraged. In the fol- 

 lowing year the investigation was carried further by a tobacco expert, 

 who began experiments in growing tobacco which were not conclusive. 

 The causes assigned by the Bureau's agent for the decline in the pro- 

 duction of this crop were mainly two — the lack of knowledge among 

 the growers as to the methods of handling the crop, and the peculiar 

 market conditions always to be met with in a trade so highly specialized 



