94 EXPORT AND MANUFACTURING TOBACCOS. 
PERIQUE TOBACCO. 
— Out of the attempts to produce tobacco for export on the rich 
river lands of Louisiana in the early days when it was a French 
‘colony a peculiar method of manipulation in curing the tobacco 
that is unique and distinctive was finally introduced among the 
Arcadians of a community in St. James Parish. 
Although the production of Perique is so small as to make it of but 
slight importance commercially, the process is so unique as perhaps 
to warrant a brief description of the manner in which this tobacco is 
produced. 
METHODS OF PRODUCTION. 
The tobacco is grown on the more elevated and drier portions 
of the rich Mississippi alluvial soil in the heart of the sugar-cane and 
rice country in St. James Parish, La. The type of seed used does 
not seem to be important, but the large, heavy, dark varieties are best. 
Burley was tried a few years ago by some of the growers, but it proved 
distinctly unsuitable, as it would not blacken properly and gave up its 
juices too freely under pressure. 
The land is heavily bedded in rows about 5 feet apart in preparation 
for planting and about 2,500 plants are set to the acre. The tobacco 
is generally grown continuously on the same land year after year, 
but as the crop is harvested about the last of June, cowpeas are grown 
during the remainder of the year and are turned under in preparation 
for the next crop. About 200 pounds of cottonseed meal per acre 
are also generally used as a fertilizer. Topping and ee are 
practiced about as in the dark-tobacco districts. 
In harvesting, the entire plant is cut and hung from the wires 
stretched across the barn by suspending each plant separately by 
means of a nail driven partly into the butt of the stalk at an appro- 
priate angle. 
In about 10 days most of the leaves are sufficiently cured to strip, 
and the stripping must be done at the right stage, that is, while the 
web of the leaf is brown and the midrib is still green for about two- 
thirds of its length. The stem is removed and the leaf split in half 
and made up into large twists about a foot long, weighing approx- 
imately 1 pound each. About 50 of these twists in very soft order 
are then packed in strong pressing boxes 11 inches square and 16 
inches high. 
The tobacco is then placed under very high pressure by means 
of lever presses. Heavy weights, usually of stone, are applied at 
the long end of the lever in order to give a steady, uniform pressure, 
such as could not be obtained with a screw, the object being to start 
the juices which ooze from the leaves, black and sticky. The pressure 
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