DEVELOPMENT DURING THE PERIOD SINCE THE CIVIL WAR. 29 
The main differentiation of type of tobacco in the early days was 
probably as it is to-day, namely, between the dark, heavy, strong 
types and the lighter and milder types; and this of course was suc- 
ceeded by a great number of subsidiary refinements of quality within 
the two broad classes. 
Even before the outbreak of the Civil War the cultivation of to- 
bacco in Virginia was almost completely abandoned in the tide-water 
section and was confined mainly to the middle and piedmont section 
of the State between the Blue Ridge and the coastal plain. The 
great bulk, fully 90 per cent, of Virginia tobacco is now produced 
south of the James River, but more or less tobacco 1s grown, mostly 
of the “Sun-Cured”’ type, as far north as Fredericksburg and Char- 
lottesville. 
DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFERENT METHODS OF CURING TOBACCO. 
From the earliest colonial history we learn that the Indians were 
in the habit of curing leaves of tobacco in the sun or by hanging them 
in the hut or wigwam where the heat and smoke of the open fire 
assisted in the cure. The colonists themselves, however, soon began 
the erection of special log houses for curing the tobacco, which were 
left more or less open between the logs so that the air could pass 
through without exposing the tobacco too much to the weather. 
Figure -9 shows one of these older types of log barns. Unfortu- 
nately they are still to be seen here and there in some sections. 
The origin of the use of fire in the curing process found its principal 
reason in the early days in the necessity for protecting the tobacco 
against damage by pole sweating or house burning as it is more 
generally called. It was also soon learned that the tobacco cured by | 
open fires kept much better, especially if it was to stand a long ocean 
trip. It was true also that the desirable qualities of the light, mild 
tobaccos would be obscured and negatived by heavy firing with 
smoky fires, which would not be the case with the heavy types, whose 
rankness would be modified and quality improved by the heat used 
and the creosotic flavor imparted. 
In the early days the British colonial policy demanded that the 
product of her colonies be shipped only to England. The product of 
Virginia, therefore, consisting mostly of open-fire and smoke-cured 
tobacco, went directly to England and was there used for home con- 
sumption and distributed by her merchants to continental countries. 
The habit of using this heavy fire-cured tobacco of smoky flavor, 
therefore, became firmly fixed in a number of the nations of Europe 
which used American tobacco. Habit is everything in the use of 
tobacco and the tobacco user desires what he has been in the habit of 
having. The reasons for continuing the practice of fire curing the 
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