114 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Fers., 1902. 
Tropical Industries. 
RAISING TOBACCO IN OLD KENTUCKY. 
How puis Great Crop 1s Cunrryarep anD PREPARED FOR MARKET. 
Mr. R. 8. Neville, Tobacco Expert, has handed us the following interesting 
article which appeared in The Weed, a journal published at Louisville, 
Kentucky, U.S.A., devoted to the interests of tobacco-growers:— 
While the fragrant wreaths of smoke encircle his head, does the reader | 
ever stop to think of the labour necessary for the proper growth of “the — 
weed.” ‘The vast majority of us take our luxuries and necessities too much as — 
a matter of fact. We are reaching a point in our civilisation when we lose 
sight of the labour necessary for the production.. It is all a matter of cost. 
Jn just this manner we lose a great amount of pleasure which is ours if we — 
take it. Of course, everyone knows that Louisville is a great tobacco market; | 
in fact, the largest on the globe, and yet ask any of them something about the 
growth of the crop and they have to confess their ignorance. 
When the hardy pioneer and his family formed what might be termed @ 
close community, everything was done in the home. They not only produced 
and manufactured all the necessities of life, but in each garden the hardy 
settler raised a small patch of tobacco. He did not have to give it the time 
and patient work which tobacco gets to-day, for it matters very little whether 
the leaf was long or short, or light or dark cured, so long as he raised enough 
for his family the coming season. 
How Tosacco Harr Sprean. 
To-day “the weed” is almost universally used, and by its use the various 
races and colours of man soothe themselves as they can in no other way. 
Tobacco came into use as a narcotic very soon after the pincayery of this 
country, and its use spread with wonderful rapidity over the whole of Europe. 
Strenuous efforts were made by State and Church to stamp out what was con- 
sidered a growing evil, but the use of “‘ the weed” grew steadily. 
The growing of tobacco has been a large and increasing business in this 
State for a great many years. It is a very peculiar business in that it has a 
certain class of people who follow it as a special work, and thus make it 
picturesque. In the old days before the war the large and small landowners 
grew the tobacco with their slaves. To-day it is grown by a class of men called 
tobacco tenants, who rent from the large landowners. There are some few 
men in the State who make a speciality of tobacco-growing and hire their work — 
done for them just as in other farm work. But these men are few. 
Waitt Buriey in Bive-Grass. 
The tobacco grown in the old slavery days was the heavy, dark tobacco, 
which is still grown over a great part of the State. The tobacco tenant of 
central Kentucky grows almost exclusively the white Burley for “ wrappers.” 
The Burley being grown mainly for ‘“‘ wrappers,” great care is taken to obtain 
the proper size of leaf, fine colour, and good texture. The great difference in 
the selling price of Burley is just on these points which make or mara good 
“wrapper” for plug tobacco. 
The Burley grows luxuriantly on any of our blue-grass uplands ; but when 
grown on the virgin soil it has a fine texture and colour which it is hard to get 
from any other soil. When grown on alluvial bottoms along our Kentuc 
streams it is apt to become too heavy to make a good and economical “ wrapper.” 
The lands uncleared in the central portion of the State are yearly becoming 
