26 



the necessary equipment has been prepared, the field operations may 

 be begun. To do things the other way round is to risk the whole 

 investment, for tobacco is not tobacco unless it is properly handled. 

 The best Partidos, Cuban wrappers, and the plants producing Deli 

 or other famous Sumatra types, are forced from the time the young 

 plant makes its appearance in the seed bed. On the best Cuban 

 plantations the plants are watered in the field every three or four 

 days during the whole growing period. That plant which grows 

 the most rapidly, other things being equal, will produce the best 

 leaf, and of two plants set side by side, the one forced and the other 

 not, that which is forced will produce the greatest percentage of 

 wrapper leaves on the plant. 



To grade the leaf and cure it requires a heavy investment of capital, 

 but the growing of the leaf alone is an ideal occupation for a farmer of 

 small means. It is becoming customary in Florida and other tobacco- 

 producing sections of the United States for the larger growers, who 

 control the curing barns and operate the fermenting and assorting 

 establishments, to purchase the green leaves from small producers. 

 The value of the finished product is sufficient to enable the larger 

 tobacco grower to cultivate his small neighbor by paying good prices 

 for the leaf. In fact, it is to their interests to do so. The greater 

 the acreage of tobacco planted in any section, the greater will be the 

 stock from which to select grades of the highest quality. 



It is, furthermore, an advantage — even more than that, a neces- 

 sity — that every tobacco-producing section should have a large per- 

 manent population from which to draw labor, and the individuals 

 of that community should be landowners. The crop calls for a great 

 deal of labor, and when labor is required it can not be put olf. 

 Wrapper tobacco which is allowed to become overripe will not make 

 good wrappers and is not salable as such. Sumatra wrapper tobacco 

 of the best lengths and light colors cost $4 per pound laid down in 

 New York in April, 1907, whereas prime domestic filler was obtain- 

 able at from 15 to 20 cents per pound. This relative proportion be- 

 tween filler and wrapper almost always prevails, so that every effort 

 must be made to force the tobacco plant to make wrapper leaves, and 

 to so cultivate, cure, and ferment that the largest proportion of 

 wrapper shall be of suitable colors, sizes, and texture. The rewards 

 of the successful cultivator are greater than in almost any other 

 agricultural crop. 



On account of the fact that the enemies of the cultivated crop 

 increase rapidly with each successive cultivation on the same land, 

 it is highly desirable that the land should be occasionally allowed 

 to rest. Hence, to grow an annual crop of 100 acres of tobacco the 

 planter should own or have available, if required, from 250 to 350 

 acres. 



