78 EXPORT AND MANUFACTURING TOBACCOS. 
GRADES AND PRICES. 
Burley tobacco possesses very little gum or oil, is comparatively 
low in nicotine, is of light color and body, and is rather dey and luster- 
less in appearance. 
The small proportion of the fine grades suitable for wrappers for 
cigarettes and twist are of very fine fiber, of clear, uniform, solid 
eolon very soft and smooth in texture, and, of course, free ae holes, 
raggedness, or other mutilation. The supply of these grades in a 
crop is always small, and they can only be picked up here and there in 
small lots. The demand, of course, is comparatively small also, but 
these grades usually bring 20 cents or more a pound. Freshly 
cleared hillside land of a loose, porous nature is most likely to pro- 
duce these finer grades. Mason County, Ky., has long had the reputa- 
tion of producing a considerable portion of this high-grade wrapper 
leaf. Among the newer sections the hill lands of the West Virginia 
Burley district produce a fine grade of leaf, much of which is useful 
for wrapper purposes. The grades adapted for cutting purposes 
require good, bright, clean stock of reasonably fine texture. The 
use of these grades for manufacturing the great number of popular 
brands of plug-cut smoking tobacco and also for fine-cut chewing 
tobacco, which requires some very fine, bright leaf, makes the demand 
for them quite large. The cut-plug stock is usually obtained from 
the grades known as bright lugs and trash from near the bottom of 
the plant. 
The greatest quantity of Burley is, of course, used for plug filler 
of the heavily sweetened type. For this purpose the most important 
requisite is porosity, in order that it may absorb and retain the large 
amount of sauces used in its manufacture. Color is net of so much 
importance, as it is lost in manufacture, but the leaf should be sound 
and of good body and substance. This type of leaf is produced in 
large quantities on the rich, level, bluegrass fields of central Kentucky. 
When Burley was first extended to these rich bluegrass fields it 
was thought the leaf would be too coarse and dark. The expedient 
of closer planting and higher topping, however, corrected much of this 
tendency, and it is the general custom to set 7,000 to 8,000 plants to 
the acre on the best bluegrass soils and about 5,000 or 6,000 to the 
acre on the hill lands. 
The lower ground leaves or flyings of flimsy texture are used largely 
for granulating purposes in smoking mixtures and for export. 
The average selling price of Burley tobacco from first hands has 
been subject to extreme fluctuations. In 1893 and 1894 prices were 
very low, averaging about 4 to 5 cents a pound. The general 
average through a long period of years, however, has probably been 
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