[Footnote 68: Probably most writers would divide tobacco into but two classes, including tobacco used for the manufacture of snuff with cut tobacco.]

South American tobaccos are almost exclusively used for the manufacture of cigars. Although of various qualities, they possess the distinctive flavor which characterizes all tobacco used for this purpose. This is generally the case with most of the tobacco grown in the tropics—it seems to be especially adapted for the manufacture of cigars, rather than for cutting purposes. European tobaccos are milder in flavor, and are used extensively in the manufacture of snuff; while the tobacco of the East is well adapted for the pipe.

Tobacco to be used for cigars must not only be of good flavor, but must burn freely, without which it has no real value for this purpose. Non-burning tobaccos cannot be used, and are either employed in the manufacture of snuff or for cutting.

Of the many kinds of tobacco of both the Old and New World, doubtless the most curious of all is that kind known as

DWARF TOBACCO.



This plant is a native of Mexico, and was discovered by Houston, who found it growing near Vera Cruz. This is probably the smallest kind of tobacco known. The plant grows to the height of about eighteen inches, the leaves growing tufts at the base of the plant. Some have supposed this tobacco to be what is known as Deer Tongue, which is used for flavoring, but it is quite probable that it is entirely different. The leaf is small and light green, and it is quite a showy plant when in blossom. As a curiosity it can hardly fail to attract attention from all those acquainted and interested in tobacco, but will hardly admit of cultivation, on account of the absence of leaves, with the exception of the few growing near the ground. Of all the tobaccos used for the manufacture of cigars, none have obtained an equal reputation (simply as a cigar wrapper) with the famous and much sought for variety known as

CONNECTICUT SEED LEAF,

which in all respects towers far above the seed products of the other states. The varieties cultivated in the United States and known as "seed leaf" tobaccos, are grown in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin. All of the seed leaf of these states is used exclusively in the manufacture of cigars. Connecticut seed leaf is justly celebrated as the finest known for cigar wrappers, from the superiority of its color and texture, and the good burning quality of the leaf. The plant grows to the height of about five feet, with leaves from two and one half to three feet in length and from fifteen to twenty inches broad, fitted preeminently by their large size for wrappers, which are obtained at such a distance from the stem of the leaf as to be free from large veins.

Connecticut seed leaf tobacco in color, is either dark or light cinnamon, two of the most fashionable colors to be found in American tobaccos. The plant is strong and vigorous, ripening in a few weeks, and when properly cultivated attaining a very large size. There are two principal varieties of Connecticut seed leaf, viz.—broad and narrow leaf: of these two, the broad leaf is considered the finest, cutting up to better advantage and ripening and curing fully as well. Connecticut seed leaf attains its finest form and perfection of leaf in the rich meadows of the Connecticut Valley, where it has been cultivated to a greater or less extent for nearly half a century.



The plant is one of the most showy of all the varieties of tobacco. The stalk is straight and large, while the leaf (especially the broad) is admirably proportioned, and the top is broad and graceful, rendering it far more symmetrical in appearance than many of the smaller varieties.

Before Connecticut tobacco became known as a wrapper, Maryland and Havana tobaccos were used for this purpose, and when Connecticut first came into use, it was only as a filler. This variety differs very materially from Havana in this respect—it has not that fine flavor of Cuba tobacco, but in texture is much superior. The lighter shades of it burn purely and freely, leaving a white or pearl colored ash, which is one of the best evidences of a good wrapper. The leaf also is very firm and strong, and sufficiently elastic to bear considerable manipulating in manufacture. The various shades also of the two colors, dark and light brown or cinnamon, are among the finest and most delicate of any to be found among the numerous kinds of tobacco used for cigars. The color of the wrapper, however, is merely a matter of taste; when first used for a wrapper the color in demand was a dark brown or cinnamon, now it is light cinnamon leaf that is the most fashionable, and leaf of this color is considered the finest and of the most delicate flavor. As a superior burning tobacco, seed leaf especially commends itself, and while all of the seed products of the various states producing this description of tobacco, are remarkable for their good burning qualities, none are more so than Connecticut seed leaf.

Thorough cultivation by the growers has made this quality of tobacco the most profitable of any grown in the United States. Some considerable controversy has arisen among tobacco-growers concerning the origin of this famous variety. One opinion sets forth that it sprung from plants or seeds brought from Virginia, while another is that tobacco seed from Cuba gave it origin. Most probably the former theory is correct, as the plant was cultivated in gardens in New England, during the reign of Charles I.

However this may be, the system of cultivation pursued has been successful in the production of a leaf tobacco that can hardly be improved, so far as the texture of the leaf is concerned. Some of the "selections" of seed leaf have that fine soft feeling peculiar to satin or silks, and we have seen specimens of such selections, that seemed almost destitute of veins, or anything that would naturally suggest that it was a leaf. In this respect it is quite remarkable, for while the leaf is very large the stem and veins are quite small, no larger than in many varieties with a much smaller leaf. From its first cultivation in the Connecticut valley, the quality has gradually improved until now, and it seems at last to possess almost every feature desirable in a good wrapper.



This famous variety of the tobacco plant is by common consent the finest flavored tobacco for cigars now being cultivated. Some, however, consider Paraguayian, Brazil, and Mexican coast tobacco its equals, while, according to Tomlinson, Macuba tobacco, grown on the island of Martinica, stands at the head of all varieties of the plant. These statements may, however, be regarded as mere opinions rather than acknowledged facts.

Havana tobacco, according to Hazard, "grows to a height of from six to nine feet, as allowed, with oblong, spear-shaped leaves; the tobacco being stronger when few leaves are permitted to grow. The leaves when young are of a dark-green color and have rather a smooth appearance, changing at maturity into yellowish-green. The plant grows quickly, and by careful pruning a fine colored leaf is obtained, varying from a straw color to dark brown or black." The plant bears a pink blossom, which is succeeded by capsules not quite as large as those of seed-leaf tobacco. The finest is grown in the Vuelta de Abajo, which, for nearly a century, has been celebrated as a fine tobacco-producing district. When growing, a vega of Havana tobacco forms a most pleasing feature of the landscape. As the plants ripen, the dark, glossy green of the leaves is succeeded by a lighter shade and a thickening of the leaf. The plant ripens in from eight to ten weeks after being transplanted. The stalk and leaves are not as large as its great rival, Connecticut seed-leaf, but it far surpasses it in flavor. The plant emits a pleasant odor while growing, like most varieties of the plant grown in the tropics.

YARA TOBACCO.

This variety of tobacco, like Havana, is grown upon the island of Cuba, but is unlike it in flavor, as well as in the appearance of the plant. It is well known as an admirable tobacco for cigars, but is not sought after or grown to such an extent as Havana. The leaf when growing, is in color a fine green, and when cured is of considerable body and fine texture. A writer in alluding to Yara tobacco says:

"The most noted vega or tobacco plantation is situated near Santiago de Cuba and is called Yara. The choicest tobacco is that grown on the banks of rivers which are periodically overflowed. They are called Lo Rio, Rio Hondo, and Pinar del Rio, and the tobacco is distinguished from all other grown upon the island by a fine sand which is found in the creases of the leaves."

The flavor of Yara tobacco is so essentially different from Havana, that it is not cultivated as extensively, if indeed it could be. It is grown more particularly for home use and for exporting to Europe, where it is considered one of the finest of tobaccos. Of the other varieties grown in the West Indies such as St. Domingo, Jamaica, and Trinidad, much may be said both in praise and dispraise. St. Domingo and Trinidad have been cultivated for more than two hundred years. St. Domingo tobacco has a large leaf, but is of inferior flavor to most varieties of West India tobacco.



Virginia tobacco has acquired a reputation which has gradually strengthened for more than two hundred and fifty years. It was one of the first products to be cultivated by the English colony, and in less than a quarter of a century after the settlement of Virginia, had acquired a reputation hardly surpassed by its well known rivals, Trinidad, Brazil, St. Domingo, and Various tobaccos. The plant grows to the height of from five to seven feet; the leaves are long and broad, and when cured are of various colors, from a rich brown to a fine yellow. The finest of Virginia tobacco comes from the mountainous counties, but the amount is small in proportion to the vast quantities raised on the lowlands of the Dan and James rivers and their tributaries. The leaf grown in the higher counties of South-western Virginia is much lighter in color and much softer than the ordinary Virginia tobacco. Shades of color in Virginia tobacco (as well as in most others) serve to determine its use, while texture and length of leaf affect as well its market value. There are various grades of Virginia tobacco, especially in that grown in Southside, Virginia. "Long bright leaf" is considered the finest, while that known as "Luga" is the poorest and lowest grade of leaf.

The staple known as James River tobacco has acquired a world-wide reputation, and the same ground is cultivated and planted with tobacco now as in 1620. Virginia tobacco is known chiefly as a cut tobacco; "good, stout snuff leaf" is also obtained from it, which brings as much in European markets as "fine spinners." Missouri, Kentucky, and some parts of Ohio also produce large quantities for manufacturing into chewing and smoking tobacco.

OHIO TOBACCO.



The tobacco plant has been cultivated in this State for nearly fifty years. Sullivan, in describing the kinds used for cutting, says:—

"Two kinds of seed are used, viz., the 'Thick Set' and the 'Pear Tree,' and of late years the 'Burley' has come into favor. Nearly all tobacco grown in Ohio is 'fired,' that is, cured by fires or flues; it is packed in hogsheads of about eight hundred pounds net."

Another writer says:—

"In some parts her soil produces a fine yellow article called 'Northern Ohio;' it is manufactured into the finest quality of smoking tobacco, and is extensively used by all epicures of the meerschaum, both in this country and in Europe. Ohio also produces another variety called Ohio seed leaf, or more familiarly, 'Seed.'"

While in another section she produces an excellent article of leaf for chewing. Ohio tobacco of all kinds is a large plant, and cures "down" to fine colors. One variety for cutting, known as "cinnamon blotch," is a leaf of good body and is considered an excellent tobacco for chewing. A few years since a variety originated in a very curious manner. We give the account as published by Prof. E. W. Smith:—

"This tobacco is known by the name of White tobacco. The seed was procured about three years ago, in a very singular way. There were a few hills of tobacco that looked very singular, situated near a thicket of bushes and trees. The rising morning sun sent its rays through this thicket, striking diagonally upon a few hills, and producing by some chemical law or daguerreotyping process the (white) tobacco. The tobacco was allowed to go to seed. This seed was sown the next year, and produced the same kind of tobacco. The tobacco, before the white tobacco was daguerreotyped, was a cinnamon blotch, so it may be seen by this freak of nature how it was changed from red to white."

PERIQUE TOBACCO.

There are many varieties of tobacco well adapted for smoking, of all colors and strengths. Of American tobaccos suitable for this purpose, none have acquired a wider reputation at home than Perique. It is cultivated only in small quantities in one or two parishes in Louisiana. Perique tobacco may be used not only for smoking, but for chewing and for snuff. The leaf when cured measures some eighteen inches in length by fourteen in width, is thick and substantial, has the appearance of a rich Kentucky tobacco, and when placed under press immediately after being cured becomes black without the aid of any artificial means. It is put up in rolls, or, as they are called, "carrots." This tobacco is raised mostly in the parish of St. James, La., and derives its name from an old Spanish navigator who settled in St. James parish in the year 1820. His first attempt at raising tobacco, for his own use, succeeded so well and gave him such a fine result, (the plant developing itself to a great extent and being very rich,) that he concluded to devote all his time to the culture of tobacco, in order to make a living out of it.

The seed first used by him was the Kentucky, but this was subsequently changed for the Virginia, which has been in use up to this time, being renewed every four or five years. The tobacco originally put up by Perique was twisted by hand and placed under press for three or four days, then taken out, untwisted, retwisted and replaced in the press for five or six days. After undergoing the same process three or four different times, it was finally left to remain under press for six months, and then taken out for use. Mr. Perique, however, soon made a capital improvement in the mode of putting up his tobacco; for, as early as the year 1824, we find the tobacco in beautiful rolls of four pounds, and as hard as a "Saucisson de Boulogne."

This tobacco, which has retained the name of its producer, is still manufactured in the same manner as it was fifty-four years ago, the work still being done entirely by hand. The plant is cultivated as the Virginia tobacco by about a dozen small planters in that part of the Parish called "Grande-Pointe," seven miles from the Mississippi river. A small quantity is also raised on the banks of the river in the same parish by a few planters. The growers of Perique tobacco have tried Virginia, Kentucky, and Havana seed, but prefer the former—Havana producing too small a plant without a much better flavor.

Tobacco is grown in other parishes of the State; it is however of inferior quality, and is used only for smoking or snuff. Perique tobacco, when cut for smoking, is very black in appearance, exceedingly smooth, and of peculiar odor. It is probably the thinnest tobacco cultivated; and is strong, but of agreeable flavor.

PERUVIAN TOBACCO.

John Gerard gives the following description of the tobacco of Peru:

"Tobacco, or henbane of Peru, hath very great stalks of the bigness of a child's arme, growing in fertile and well-dunged ground of seven or eight feet high, dividing itself in sundry branches of great length; whereon are placed in most comely order very faire, long leaves, broad, smooth and sharp-pointed, soft and of a light green color; so fastened about the stalk that they seem to embrace and compass it about. The flowers grow at the top of the stalks in shape like a bell-flower, somewhat long and cornered; hollow within, of a light carnation color, tending to whiteness towards the rims. The seed is contained in long, sharp-pointed cods, or seed-vessels, like unto the seed of yellow henbane, but somewhat smaller, and browner of color. The root is great, thicke and of a wooddy substance, with some threddy strings annexed thereunto."

MEXICAN TOBACCO.

The tobacco plant seems to have been cultivated in Mexico from time immemorial. Francisco Lopez de Gomara, who was chaplain to Cortez, when he made conquest of Mexico, in 1519, alludes to the plant and the custom of smoking; and Diaz relates that the king Montezuma had his pipe brought with much ceremony by the chief ladies of his court, after he had dined and washed his mouth with scented water. The Spaniards encouraged its cultivation, and to this day it is grown in several of the coast states. Various kinds are cultivated, but chiefly a variety bearing yellow flowers, with a large leaf of fine flavor resembling the Havana. The plant is a favorite with the Mexicans, who prefer it to any other product grown. It is cultivated like most varieties of the tropics, and is hardly inferior to any grown in the West Indies, and is especially adapted for cigars and cigaritos. After the first harvest another, and sometimes a third crop is gathered by allowing one shoot to grow from the parent root, which oftentimes develops to a considerable size. The quality of leaf, however, is inferior; as is the case with all second and third crops grown in this manner.

ST. DOMINGO TOBACCO.

This well-known West India variety is inferior to most kinds grown on the neighboring islands. The plant attains a large size, cures dark, is coarse, and of inferior flavor. It is a favorite tobacco in Germany, and thousands of Ceroons are annually shipped to Hamburg. The West India islands produce many varieties of tobacco, which is owing more to the composition of the soil and climate than to the method of cultivation and curing.

The demand for St. Domingo tobacco is limited. It has no established reputation in this country, and on account of the high duties can not compete with our domestic tobaccos.

LATAKIA TOBACCO.



This variety of the tobacco plant is one of the most celebrated known to commerce. It attains its finest form and flavor in Syria, where it is cultivated to a considerable extent. For smoking it is among the best of the varieties of the East, and is used for the more delicate cut tobaccos and cigars. It grows to the height of three feet—each offshoot bearing flowers, the leaves of which are ovate in form, and are attached to the stalk by a long stem. The flowers are yellow, and number only a few in comparison with most varieties. When growing, the leaves are thick, but after curing are thin and elastic. The stalk is small, as are also the leaves. While growing, the plants emit a strong aromatic odor not like that of Havana tobacco, but stronger and less agreeable.

The plant was introduced into this country by Bayard Taylor, and attains its full size in the Connecticut valley, where it has been tested by many growers. After curing, the leaf is a bright yellow of agreeable flavor, having the odor of ashes of roses. The flavor is similar to Turkish tobacco, but is said to be less delicate.

After harvesting, the plants cure rapidly and on account of their small size rarely sweat. Latakia tobacco, however, is not adapted to the taste of American smokers, most of whom prefer tobacco of home growth to even the finest of Turkish leaf. Latakia tobacco can be raised with less labor than most varieties. Its diminutive size and its unpopularity, however, prevent its general culture in this country.

RUSSIAN TOBACCO.

In no other country in Europe is the tobacco plant attracting as much as attention as in the empire of Russia. The varieties grown in America, Cuba, Turkey, and Persia, have been tried, renewing the seed once in two or three years. The tobacco of Russia is mild, and of inferior flavor, and brings from 40 to 80 kopecks per pood. A very good quality of tobacco is grown in the trans-Caucasian provinces; it also flourishes well in the Southern provinces.

The plants attain good size, but lack that fine flavor when cured that other tobaccos possess. A recent traveler through Russia, describing the tobacco, says:

"Russian tobacco is very mild and rather sweet flavored, though not equal in aroma to the Havana, or posessing that rich ripe taste so much prized in that well known tobacco."

COLOMBIA TOBACCO.

Colombia has long been celebrated for the quality and varieties of its tobacco. Its cultivation has been carried on for more than two hundred and fifty years, and Varinian tobacco had obtained a well established reputation in Europe long before Raleigh's "would-be-colonists" sailed for Virginia. The principal varieties grown are Colombian, Carmen, Ambalema, Palmyra, and Giron. Most of these tobaccos are used for cigar purposes, especially the latter. The leaf is fine, of good size, and marked with light yellow spots. Tanning says of the tobacco of Colombia:

"The Cumanacoa, Tobacco de la Cueva, de los Misones, de la Laguna de Valencia cura seca and Caraco, de la Lagunade Valencia cura negro, de Oriluca, de Varinos cura seca, de Casovare, de Baylodores, de Rio Negro en Andull, are equal to the tobacco of the Brazils. The tobacco of the Cueva, in the department of Cumana, is said to be grown from the excrements of certain birds deposited by them in a cavity, from which the natives extract it: it is considered the finest tobacco in Colombia. The birds are a species of the owl.

"The natives of Varinos, and in fact of the whole kingdom, chew a substance called chimo, which is made of a jelly, by boiling the Varinos tobacco, and afterwards mixed with an alkali called hurado, which is found in a lake near Merida. Both are an estanco of government, and produce a large annual income. The mode of cultivating the above tobacco by the natives is as follows:—They prepare a small bed, sifting the earth very fine, on which they sow the seed, and then cover it with plantain leaves for some days. As soon as the plants make their appearance, they raise the leaves about two feet, so as to give the plants free air, and to allow them sooner to grow strong. When they become large enough to transplant, they have the land prepared; and as soon as the rainy season sets in, they plant out their young plants, taking great care to protect them from the sun, and to keep them clean as they grow up, as well as to prevent the worms from destroying or eating the leaves. When the leaf is ripe, it gets yellow spots on it; and on bending the leaf it cracks. Then it is fit for pulling off, which is done, and the leaves are neatly packed in handsful, placed in a dry situation, and occasionally shifted from one place to another. When the leaves are well dried they are all packed closely, and well covered, to keep the flavor in.

"The leaf is left in this state for one or two months, and then made up for use. They never top their tobacco, and the leaves never ripen together. The mode adopted by the North American planters is somewhat different; they top their plants when they have eight full leaves, or they keep it suckered; and, by this means, the leaves are large and sappy.

"They cut off the stem at the ground, when ripe, and hang it on laths for one day and a night, with the leaves all hanging down; they then place it in their barns; and, when these are quite full, they smoke it for some days, and let it remain in that way until the stem, as well as the leaf, is quite dry; they then put it in a heap, and cover it up for market. They strip off the leaves, and pack them in hogsheads, and it is received in London."

SUMATRA TOBACCO.

Sumatra tobacco is one of the finest varieties cultivated, and commands in European markets the very highest prices. The plant is a vigorous grower, and produces large, fine leaves of most delicate odor. The leaf is of beautiful appearance, of almost a silky texture, and in color a rich brown. It is extensively used in the manufacture of cigars, and on the continent it frequently realizes as much as 5s. per pound for this purpose. It sells in London for from 3s. 6d. to 4s. per pound.

BRAZILIAN TOBACCO.

Brazil tobacco is grown chiefly in the valley of San Diego and San Francisco. The former being on the west side of the Brazilian mountains, and the latter on the east. The San Diego is the finest, and the following analysis of the San Diego of Brazil, and Vuelta de Abajo, will give one an idea of the soil of these famous tobacco lands:—

VUELTA DE ABAJO, CUBA. SAN DIEGO, BRAZIL.

PARTS. PARTS. Organic matter, 9.60 4.60 Silica, 86.40 90.60 Lime, .40 Alumina, .68 3.00 Oxide of Iron, 1.92 1.20 Loss by Evaporation, 1.40 .20 ——— ——— 100.00 100.00

The tobacco of Brazil is grown in the same manner as in other parts of South America. The planter raises two crops a year; curing for exportation as in Cuba or Venezuela. The plant grows to the height of about six feet, bearing leaves lanceolate in form, about thirty inches long, and from eight to twelve inches wide. The tobacco fields are very irregular. After it is cut it is placed on poles in the field, and afterwards carried to the drying sheds. It is gathered in the dry season in September. After curing, it is removed to the packing house and baled in packages, and then transported on mules to the coast for shipping. A large portion of the crop is shipped to Portugal. It is a dark maroon-colored leaf, and contains a large proportion of the nicotine oil. It is a high-flavored tobacco, and on this account is used for cigars and cutting.

Burton says of the tobacco of Brazil:

"The tobacco of the Rio de Pomba, especially the 'Fumo crespo,' is a dark strong leaf, well fitted for making 'Cavendish' or 'Honey-dew;' the weed flourishes throughout Minos Gerals. The soil will be much improved by compost; and the produce by being treated in Virginia style delicately dried in closed barns with fires."

VENEZUELAN TOBACCO.



The Orinoco tobacco grows from four to five feet high, bearing large ovate leaves, and is in all respects a fine quality of tobacco. The plant is grown during all seasons of the year. It is used chiefly for cigars, and is shipped to Northern Europe. It is packed in carrottes, and then baled. In color it is dark mahogany, and of good body and texture. The leaf is about eighteen inches long, and about ten inches wide. The planters cure by air-drying in sheds, and afterwards it is tied up in hands and baled for export. For their own use, they have adopted the method of the Brazilians, sprinkling the leaf with water containing the juice of the poppy.

The flavor is rich and mellow; a little more oily than Havana leaf. It is used for the manufacture of cigars. Orinoco tobacco makes very fine flavored cigars, burning freely, and leaving a pearl-colored ash; it is considered by the Venezuelans to be much better than any variety grown in South America. In cultivating it the planters use no fertilizers whatever, taking up new land as the old wears out. The crop is gathered first in May, and then in September.

PERSIAN TOBACCO.



Shiraz tobacco is a native of Persia, and is one of the finest varieties for the pipe to be found in the East. The plant differs from most varieties in the color of the flowers and the form of the leaves. It is not adapted for cigars as it does not readily ignite, and this variety together with Manilla, are known as non-burning tobaccos. After curing, the color is a light yellow, the flavor mild and not unlike Latakia and Turkish tobacco. The color of the flowers like those of Guatemala tobacco, is white, but in other respects nearly similar to other kinds.

AMERSFOORT TOBACCO.

This variety of tobacco is cultivated quite extensively in Holland, in the Veluwe (valley of Guelderland). The plant is of good size and averages 1.580 kilos to the hectare. The cultivation is very carefully conducted on the richest soil. The leaf is very fine and is free from large fibres, fitting it for cigars. Large quantities are also used in the manufacture of snuff. The tobacco plant has been cultivated in Holland since its first introduction, with complete success, producing a variety for snuff unrivaled by any other tobacco grown in Europe.

In color Dutch tobacco is both dark and light; the former being used for snuff and the latter for cigars and cheroots.

ST. OMER TOBACCO.

Tobacco is an important product in France, and affords the government an immense revenue. In the north of France two varieties are cultivated, the Brazilian and the Mexican, but the tobacco is unlike that grown in those countries. Most of the tobacco of France is small and inferior to Havana and Manilla. In the South of France tobacco is cultivated to a considerable extent, but is of inferior quality, lacking the rich flavor of the tobacco of Cuba. The cultivation is permitted only in certain departments, and the cultivators must use only the seed supplied to them by the officers of the regie. This is selected with the greatest care, the kind and quantity depending upon the nature of the land, the soil being carefully analyzed, and cultivation prohibited in soils which do not possess the constituents necessary for the growth of good tobacco. These analyses also determine the quantities and sorts of manure required to bring the land into fit condition. Most of the seed used is the produce of seed imported at various times from North America and Cuba.

The cultivation is most carefully watched, and the statistics available concerning it are of the minutest kind. Not only is the area of each field of tobacco accurately measured, but each plant is noted down, and even each leaf on each plant is accounted for. St. Omer is used chiefly for snuff, sometimes used with other kinds and is much esteemed by the French who consider it among the best of tobaccos.

HUNGARIAN TOBACCO.

This variety is attracting considerable attention, from the fact that it is well adapted for the manufacture of cigars. Like Connecticut seed leaf, the leaves are large and well suited for cigar wrappers. A considerable portion is adapted for other uses, and it is in some respects a good cutting tobacco. When in fine condition, Hungarian leaf burns freely and leaves a clean, light-colored ash. No variety of tobacco grown in Europe is attracting more notice than this, and if good leaf tobacco suitable for cigars can be grown, American tobacco will diminish in proportion. Hungarian tobacco is a favorite with the Italians, and large quantities are sold to the Italian monopoly to be used both for cigars and cutting.

SPANISH TOBACCO.



For several years the growers of tobacco in the Connecticut valley have directed their attention towards the production of a tobacco possessing all of the excellencies of both wrapper and filler; in other words, if possible securing a leaf of light color and fine texture and good flavor, so as to combine all of the desirable features and qualities of tobacco in one variety. Some few years since the Department of Agriculture at Washington distributed a variety of tobacco seed among the Connecticut tobacco growers known by the name of Spanish tobacco.

It has been tested by many of the largest tobacco growers in Connecticut, and found to be one of the best varieties of the plant ever cultivated in the valley. The plant grows to the height of eight feet, bearing leaves about two feet in length by one foot in width, is an erect, strong, growing tobacco with a small, hard stalk and stout, long roots. The plant, when growing, imparts a strong aromatic odor not unlike Havana tobacco, but is larger everyway, and of inferior flavor for cigars. By repeated trials its superiority has been demonstrated to a certainty, while the profit arising from its culture proves it worthy of attention from all cultivators of tobacco.

When cured the leaf is very fine and light of color, the stem and veins of the leaf are small, thus fitting it for a good wrapper as well as filler. If the tobacco growers in the Connecticut valley can succeed in raising this variety, they will produce a leaf tobacco much superior to the common variety known as seed leaf. Beyond all question a much finer flavored tobacco than Connecticut seed leaf can be grown, and still retain all of the excellencies of the latter, such as color, texture, and size of leaf.

TURKISH TOBACCO.

The tobacco of Turkey has been called by some enthusiastic smoker "the king of tobaccos," but whether it possesses this royal preeminence over all other varieties must be decided by other than ourselves. That it is a fine smoking tobacco, no one can doubt that ever "put breath" to the favored pipe that contains the yellow shreds, but we should prefer by far to part with it rather than with its great rival, Havana tobacco.

The plant is not as large as many varieties, but grows up strong and flourishes well on account of the care and attention given it by the Turk and his family, as it is in all respects a family plant, and the flower garden is generally the tobacco field. Turkey tobacco ranges in color from brown to light yellow, the latter being the most in demand. This variety is similar in flavor to Latakia and Shiraz, and these three tobaccos, Persian, Syrian, and Turkish, are considered the finest and best adapted of all tobaccos for the pipe. The work of cultivating a field of Turkish tobacco is very tedious, as large quantities of water have to be carried to sprinkle upon the plants. The finest colored, a pale yellow leaf, brings "inflated" prices, but more often by others than the poor Turk who grows it.

JAPAN TOBACCO.



Of the tobacco of Asia, the best known in Europe is the yellow leaf grown in Japan. In those provinces where a high degree of temperature prevails, the plant lives throughout the winter, but it is nevertheless customary to sow fresh seed in the early spring of each successive year. When fully grown, Japan tobacco attains an altitude of about six feet, bearing leaves long and pointed, completely enveloping the stalk. The leaves, however, differ in form in different provinces, some being round and wide, others narrow and pointed, and others thick and long.

The mode of cultivating also varies in the different provinces. The sowing and transplanting are dependent on the temperature of the locality, and each place follows its own customs. In autumn a great number of flowers spring from the tip of the stalk. These are about an inch in length, and of a pale purple tint. To these succeed small round capsules, inside of which are three small chambers containing a great number of light red seeds. The method of cultivation is novel, the manuring of tobacco differing from that of other plants in that it is plentifully applied both to the roots and leaves.

GUATEMALA TOBACCO.

The tobacco of Central America, though possessing considerable excellence, has never become an important product, nor to any great extent an article of commerce. There are several varieties grown in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the other Central American states; some of which by proper cultivation might be valuable to both the user and the manufacturer. One variety bears white flowers like the tobacco of Persia, but in other respects it differs but little from South American varieties. Numerous other sorts occur, many of which are local, and differ principally, if not solely, in the size or form of the leaves.

The soil of Guatemala is well adapted for tobacco, and with careful cultivation it could hardly fail of becoming an important agricultural product. It is also probable that the soil of nearly all of Central America is adapted to the plant, and with the favorable climate, the varieties now grown would doubtless with proper care, become noted as tobacco well adapted for cigars.

MANILLA TOBACCO.

This variety is one of the most celebrated grown in the East.[69] It is used exclusively for the manufacture of cigars and cheroots, and supplies India and Spain with a vast quantity of the manufactured article. The plant is a strong, vigorous grower, bearing dark green leaves; coming forward rapidly under the careful culture bestowed upon the plants.[70] After curing, the leaves show a variety of colors ranging from dark brown to light yellow or straw color. The leaf when cured, has a peculiar appearance unlike that of any other tobacco. It is of good body but smooth, and has the appearance of tobacco that has been 'frost-bitten.' The leaf is not as porous as most other tobaccos, and therefore does not as readily ignite, and frequently 'chars' in burning—thus giving it the name of a non-burning tobacco.

[Footnote 69: Blanco thus describes the tobacco of the Philippines: "It is an annual, growing to the height of a fathom, and furnishes the tobacco for the estancos (licensed shops). General opinion prefers the tobacco of Gapan, but that of the Pasy districts, Laglag and Lambunao, in Iloilo, of Maasin or Leyte, is appreciated for its fine aroma; also that of Cagayan, after being kept for some years,—for this use like the tobacco of the island of Negros it burns the mouth."]

[Footnote 70: The seedlings are planted in January, and the greater part of the crop comes forward in May and June.]

The plants are 'set' wide apart, and during the first two months are carefully cultivated, when the top is broken off and the leaves allowed to ripen. In some respects, Manilla tobacco is one of the best varieties of the plant cultivated, and were it not for its non-burning quality, it would have but few rivals among cigar tobaccos.[71] We have thus, at some length, described nearly half of the varieties of tobacco now being cultivated. There are, however, others as well known and of equal value and favor. Some of these are of superior quality and of world-wide repute. Of those described, the varieties grown in the tropics are the most celebrated and of the finest flavor. As when first discovered, the tobaccos of the tropics command the highest prices, and possess qualities not easily transmitted when grown in a temperate clime.

[Footnote 71: "The soil of many of the islands especially of the Bisayas is favorable to the growth of tobacco. The island of Negros formerly produced some of very good quality."]



CHAPTER XII.

TOBACCO HOUSES.

The drying houses or sheds for the curing and storing of tobacco are among the most interesting objects to be seen on the tobacco plantation. These sheds vary in size from a small structure capable of holding only a few thousand plants to the immense sheds with sufficient capacity for hanging the products of several acres. In the Connecticut valley, the Southern States, at the West, and in the Philippine Islands these tobacco sheds are often several hundred feet in length, built in the most substantial manner and provided with suitable side doors and ventilators for the free passage of air, and the most perfect system of ventilation. The most substantial and finest tobacco sheds are to be found in the Connecticut valley, which are provided with every convenience for hanging and taking down or "striking" the crop. Many of them are painted and adorned with a cupola, which serves the double purpose of an ornament and a ventilator for the hot air to pass off from the curing and heated plants. Formerly, the tobacco being harvested was hung in barns and sheds, used for storing grain and hay, and better adapted to other purposes than to that of a tobacco shed, where thorough ventilation is necessary to avoid sweat and pole-rot, attending upon the curing of the plants. Of late, tobacco growers, throughout the world, have paid considerable attention to the method of curing, and to erecting more suitable buildings for the purpose. At the South and West, the log tobacco barns are giving way to the more substantial frame buildings, and better facilities are employed for "firing" the tobacco in the sheds. Formerly, the tobacco sheds at the South looked more like the rude huts of the herders on the pampas of South America, than buildings devoted to the curing of tobacco. Tobacco barns and sheds are built of a great variety of material, and in various ways, according to the manner of building where the tobacco is grown. Thus in the Connecticut valley, such sheds or barns are large and commodious frame buildings; at the South and West, many of them are built of logs; in Cuba, of slabs covered with palm leaves or thatched. In Turkey, of stones covered with rough boards, and daubed with mud.



In selecting a site for the tobacco shed, not only should its proximity to the tobacco field be considered, but also the ground on which it is to be built. It should always be erected on dry ground, rather than upon moist, so that no dampness may arise and injure the leaves in curing. The tobacco shed should also be built on an elevated spot, so that a free circulation of air may be had, which is hardly possible if built on low ground or among trees or in the woods as at the South. This applies more particularly to sheds where the method of curing is by air-drying instead of by "firing" or by "flues." In New England the strongest timber, as oak, is used for building, as the weight of the plants before fully cured is immense. The shed is braced at every point and generally rests upon stone posts so as to allow a good circulation underneath the building. Poles are used for hanging, either round or sawed, when the plants are hung with twine; when hung on tobacco hooks, laths are used, the hooks attached to the lath; more frequently the plants are strung upon the laths without the aid of hooks, the lath passing through the center of the stalk an inch or two from the end. The doors lengthwise of the building are simply the outside boards hung on hinges, every second or third being chosen according to the ideas of curing entertained by the grower. Some planters are of the opinion that the plants need all the air that can be obtained, and keep the sheds open during both day and night, while others open the doors only now and then—closing during warm days, and during a storm. Sometimes the doors are hung on hinges at the top—opening but partially and not allowing as free circulation as when hung on the sides.



Another building of late has been built by the growers in the Connecticut valley, called a stripping house. This building is frequently attached to the shed or near by so that stripping may be performed during all kinds of weather, without danger of injuring the tobacco, or the health of the stripper. Such buildings however are needed only in tobacco sections where the cold is extreme during the winter, when most of the tobacco is to be stripped. The stripping room or house is provided with a stove, a long table, or elevated platform, in front of the windows, of which there should be several to admit plenty of light, and a number of chairs to accommodate the strippers. On the stove a kettle of water is kept constantly boiling or heated, the ascending steam of which keeps the leaves of tobacco from drying and consequently from cracking or breaking. When in condition for "striking" or taking down, the plants are carried to the stripping-room, and covered with boards and blankets, when the operation called stripping commences. Many of the stripping-rooms are built large enough to contain the cases after the tobacco is packed, thus answering a double purpose.



In Virginia and the other tobacco-growing states of the South, the tobacco barn is built altogether different, as the method of curing is by fires or flues instead of air curing. The height of the building is usually twice its width and length. In the center of the smooth earthen floor, is the trench for "firing," while around the sides of the building runs an elevated platform for placing the tobacco leaves in bulk; and, commencing at a safe distance from the trench, up to the top of the building, reach beams stretching across for the reception of the pine laths, from which are suspended the tobacco plants. Many of the tobacco sheds at the South, are built like those of New England, but many log structures are still to be seen and many planters prefer them to those made like other frame buildings. The old Virginia planters of a hundred years ago, built rough log sheds for housing the plants, which afforded little protection from wind and rain, which, in consequence, injured much of the tobacco hanging around the sides of the building. Tatham gives the following description of the "Tobacco house and its variety" in his work on tobacco.



"The barn which is appropriated to the use of receiving and curing this crop, is not, in the manner of other barns, connected with the farm yard, so that the whole occupation may be rendered snug and compact, and occasion little waste of time by inconsiderate and useless locomotion; but it is constructed to suit the particular occasion in point of size, and is generally erected in, or by the side of, each respective piece of tobacco ground; or sometimes in the woods, upon some hill or particular site which may be convenient to more than one field of tobacco. The sizes which are most generally built where this kind of culture prevails, are what are called forty-feet, and sixty-feet tobacco houses; that is, of these lengths respectively, and of a proportionate width; and the plate of the wall, or part which supports the eaves of the roof, is generally elevated from the groundsel about the pitch of twelve feet. About twelve feet pitch is indeed a good height for the larger crops; because this will allow four pitch each to three successive tiers of tobacco, besides those which are hung in the roof; and this distance admits a free circulation of air, and is a good space apart for the process of curing the plant. There are various methods in use in respect to the construction of tobacco houses, and various materials of which they are constructed; but such are generally found upon the premises as suffice for the occasion. And although these sizes are most prevalent, yet tobacco houses are in many instances built larger or smaller according to the circumstances of the proprietor, or the size of the spot of ground under cultivation.



"The most ordinary kinds consist of two square pens built out of logs of six or eight inches thick, and from sixteen to twenty feet long. Out of this material the two pens are formed by notching the logs near their extremities with an axe; so that they are alternately fitted one upon another, until they rise to a competent height; taking care to fit joists in at the respective tiers of four feet space, so that scaffolds may be formed by them similar to those heretofore described to have been erected in the open field, for the purpose of hanging the sticks of tobacco upon, that they may be open to a free circulation of air during this stage of the process. These pens are placed on a line with each other, at the opposite extremes of an oblong square, formed of such a length as to admit of a space between the two pens wide enough for the reception of a cart or wagon. This space, together with the two pens, is covered over with one and the same roof, the frame of which is formed in the same way as the walls by notching the logs aforesaid, and narrowing up the gable ends to a point at the upper extremity of the house, termed the ridge pole. The remaining part of the fabric consists of a rough cover of thin slabs of wood, split first with a mall and wedges, and afterwards riven with an instrument or tool termed a froe. The only thing which then remains to be done, is to cut a door into each of the pens, which is done by putting blocks or wedges in betwixt the logs which are to be cut out, and securing the jambs with side pieces pinned on with an anger and wooden pins. The roof is secured by weighing it down with logs; so that neither hammer, nails, brick, or stone, is concerned in the structure; and locks and keys are very rarely deemed necessary.

"The second kind of tobacco houses differ somewhat from these, with a view to longer duration. The logs are to this end more choicely selected. The foundation consists of four well hewn groundsels, of about eight by ten inches, leveled and laid upon cross sawed blocks of a larger tree, or upon large stones. The corners are truly measured, and squared diamond-wise, by which means they are more nicely notched in upon each other; the roof is fitted with rafters, footed upon wall plates, and covered with clap-boards nailed upon the rafters in the manner of slating. In all other respects this is the same with the last mentioned method; and both are left open for the passage of the air between the logs.

"The third kind is laid upon a foundation similar to the second; but instead of logs, the walls are composed of posts and studs, tenoned into the sells, and braced; the top of these are mounted with a wall-plate and joists; upon these come the rafters; and the whole is covered with clap-boards and nails, so as to form one uninterrupted oblong square, with doors, etc., termed, as heretofore, a forty, sixty, or one hundred feet tobacco house, etc.

"The fourth species of these differs from the third only in the covering, which is generally of good sawed feather-edged plank; in the roof, which is now composed of shingles; and in the doors and finishing, which consist of good sawed plank, hinged, &c. Sometimes this kind are underpinned with a brick or stone wall beneath the groundsels; but they have no floors or windows, except a plank or two along the sides to raise upon hinges for sake of air, and occasional light: indeed, if these were constructed with sides similar to the brewery tops in London, I think it would be found advantageous. In respect to the inside framing of a tobacco house, one description may serve for every kind: they are so contrived as to admit poles in the nature of a scaffold through every part of them, ranging four feet from centre to centre, which is the length of the tobacco stick, as heretofore described; and the lower ties should be so contrived as to remove away occasionally, in order to pursue other employments at different stages in the process of curing the crop."

In Ohio, the tobacco barns are built in a manner similar to those in Virginia; constructed of logs and provided with trenches for fires in curing the tobacco. The tobacco sheds for hanging the tobacco cured by air-drying, are built of the same material without trenches, as smoke is not employed in curing "seed-leaf" tobacco. The sheds for both kinds of curing tobacco are large structures, varying in size according to the area of tobacco planted. Sometimes the sheds are built near the woods where fuel can be procured, and in the immediate vicinity of the tobacco field. The tobacco houses are built in the strongest manner and of the most durable material, and are well fitted for the purpose designed. In the counties bordering the Ohio River, where a large quantity of tobacco is raised, the tobacco sheds are to be seen on every hand, the smoke issuing from the sides of the building, giving a stranger the idea of a burning building rather than the curing of a great staple.



The following account of constructing tobacco barns in Missouri, is from a St. Louis paper:

"We believe in small barns for any kind of curing. A house built 16 feet inside and divided into four rooms and six tier high in the body is the preferable size for flue or coal curing. For flues they should be built on a very slightly sloping place; just enough to make the flues draw well. Flues four inches lower at the eye than the chimney will be slope enough. The door should always be between the flues and in the end of the house, to prevent the drip from falling before the door and the eye of the flues. The tiers should begin eight feet above the ground and be placed two feet above each other to the top. They should be placed across the house so that the roof tier can conveniently be placed above them. The door, three feet wide and six feet high, furnished with a good, close shutter. A barn of this size will cure 800 sticks of common size tobacco, which will weigh about 1200 lbs. The proper construction of flues is of great importance; they should be built of any stone that will stand fire without bursting. White sand-stone, bastard soap-stone, or any other that does not contain flint. The size of a flue for a sixteen foot barn, is generally about 12 inches wide by 14 inches high inside. Not much care need be taken to have them smooth on the outside. If stone can be had to make the inside smooth so as not to obstruct the putting on of wood, it is all that is necessary. They should be run just far enough from the house-side not to set the house on fire, and there is not as much danger of this as may be supposed. Run the walls of the house-side all around, running the stem out at the middle of the upper side. The stem should be run far enough above the wall of the house to avoid danger of sparks from the chimney. The height of the inside of the flue should be preserved its whole length. The width may be slightly decreased from the elbow to the chimney. The inner wall is carried all around. But too much explanation bewilders; we think we have said enough. As before said, we like small barns; where too much tobacco is together, it all can not receive the heat alike, which is our main objection to large barns. As to the number of barns necessary, we would say that there ought to be enough to receive all the crop without moving any. Say one sixteen-foot barn to every 8,000 hills of tobacco planted. As a general rule, plant one thousand hills for every hundred sticks house-room. That is, if you have three barns plant 24,000 hills, and if it is common tobacco, they will receive it. A much larger quantity may be saved in this number of barns by curing and moving out, but it is very troublesome."



In Kentucky and Tennessee the tobacco barns resemble those of Ohio and the other Western states, and are large, commodious structures, provided with every facility for curing the plants. In other tobacco-growing countries the tobacco barns and sheds differ but little from those in America, the only difference being in form and building material. In countries where tobacco is a government monopoly, large and comfortable buildings are provided for the crop with all the necessary accessories for the curing, packing, and storing of the tobacco. In South America many of the sheds are large and low, built on the plantation, and close to the tobacco field. In Cuba, the curing houses are located on the vegas, and as soon as the tobacco is cut it is placed on the poles to dry or cure. In Asia, a large quantity of the tobacco is cured in the peasants' huts, where the smoke is said to impart additional flavor to the already fragrant leaves. In the Philippines the largest tobacco sheds are found, described by Gironiere as "vast sheds," and of sufficient capacity to hold acres of the leaves. In Persia, where the celebrated Shiraz tobacco is grown, the sheds are simply covered buildings without any boards on the sides, the only protection afforded from the weather being supplied by light, thorny bushes, so that the plants may be exposed to the wind. After fully curing, the tobacco is removed to another drying-house and turned every day. The drying-houses in other tobacco-growing countries differ but little from those described, while the manner of curing is similar, the plants being "fired," sun-cured, or air-dried—the three modes now employed in drying the leaves. If the tobacco of the tropics is fragrant while growing, it is doubly so after being harvested and carried to the sheds. The odor from the well-filled barns is borne on the breeze alike to friend and foe of the plant. As the process of drying goes on, the plants gradually lose the strong perfume emitted during the earlier stages of curing, and by the time the leaves are "cured down" and the sheds closed, but little odor issues from the plants, and this continues to be the case until the leaves are entirely dried.



CHAPTER XIII.

TOBACCO CULTURE.

Tobacco at the present time is one of the great products of the world. As an article of agriculture and of commerce, it holds an important place among the great staples, while as a luxury, its use has become as extensive as its culture. The tobacco plant is now cultivated in nearly all parts of the world with varying success, according to the system of cultivation adopted by its growers. Primarily cultivated by the aborigines of America in the rude manner common to uncivilized races, the plant has, by numerous experiments and careful culture, become one of the greatest of agricultural products. When first discovered by the Spanish and Portuguese, the plant was small, and in flavor "poor and weak and of a byting taste." As soon, however, as the Spaniards began its cultivation in the islands of St. Domingo and Trinidad, attention was paid to developing it, and in a few years the description we find of the latter variety is that it is "large, sharp, and growing two or three yards from the ground."

At the close of the sixteenth century the Portuguese began its cultivation in Portugal, the soil of which seemed well adapted to the plant, and still further increased the size and quality of the leaf. Tobacco is now cultivated through a wider range of temperature than any other tropical plant, and whether grown amid the sands of Arabia, the plains of South America, or in the rich valley of the Connecticut, develops its finest form and perfection of leaf. During the last half-century the plant has been developed to a greater extent than during the three hundred years succeeding its discovery. Now its cultivation has been reduced to almost an exact science, and the quality of the leaf is in a great measure within the control of the growers of the plant.

Formerly it was supposed that the varieties that grew in the tropics could not be successfully cultivated in the temperate regions, but recent and repeated experiments have demonstrated the fact that the tobacco of Cuba can be grown with success in the Connecticut valley. While the tobacco of the tropics is the finest in flavor, the more temperate regions produce the finest and best colored leaf. The tobacco of the tropics, as to the uses to which it is put, is limited, while the tobacco of the more temperate regions can be used for all the purposes for which the plant is designed.

The cultivation of the plant varies with the variety, the soil, and the use to be made of the leaf. Thus a tobacco designed for cutting purposes is cultivated somewhat differently from that designed for the manufacture of snuff or cigars. In the one case the plant is allowed to remain growing longer in the field, while in the other the work of topping the plants is performed at an earlier stage of their growth. Primarily but little attention was paid to the color and texture of the leaf, the principal object being the production of a leaf of large size, rather than one of good color, and of a silky texture. Now, however, these are most important considerations, and give value to the tobacco in proportion to the perfection of these qualities.

The soil, too, is carefully chosen and fitted in the most thorough manner, while the fertilizers used are selected with reference to the color of leaf desired. When first cultivated in the United States it was thought that tobacco designed for various uses could not be grown in the same state or section; now, however, tobacco for cigars and for cutting are grown nearly side by side. But in the fineness of the leaf, tobacco culture has made its greatest stride. By a careful selection of soil, and by the judicious application of proper fertilizers, the leaf tobaccos of Connecticut, Cuba, and Virginia, resemble in texture the finest satins and silks. This result has been reached, not by the sacrifice of the strength of the leaf, but by the most careful culture and improved methods of curing.

The first labor to be performed in connection with the growth of a crop of tobacco, is the selection of a site for, and the making of, the "plant bed" or "plant patch." These beds for the early growth of the plants until large enough to transplant, are made in various ways and at different times, according to the method of tilling adopted and the climate. In California the tobacco bed is made in January, in the Southern States, Syria, Turkey, and Holland, in March. In New England in April. In Mexico and Java in June, and in Persia in December. In the Connecticut valley the manner of making the

PLANT BED,

as given by a Massachusetts tobacco-grower, is as follows:—

"No rigid rules can be given for any process in tobacco culture, which depends much upon weather and season, but certain advantages may be obtained by skillful adaptation of general principles to circumstances. This is especially true of raising tobacco plants, which occupy an extremely slight depth of ground for weeks after sowing, making it necessary to prepare the whole soil with reference to the state of this thin surface. Any slight mistake of treatment may make in the end a difference of several days; consequently each item is of importance. While every tobacco-raiser wants early plants, and appreciates the value of a good location for growing them, many naturally sheltered spots of ground, protected from northerly winds by buildings, trees, or hills, remain unappreciated. Tight board fences are no protection worth mentioning.

"A heavily manured crop of tobacco would fit such places for tobacco beds, and leave them freer from weeds than any other cultivation; and a subsequent use of some commercial fertilizer would avoid the introduction of weed seed. With these precautions, and a careful destruction of all neighboring weeds, a tolerably clean bed may be expected. To prepare the ground, plow or loosen deeply with a large cultivator; harrow in two-thirds of the fertilizer to be used; rake the bed perfectly level, then rake in the other third; roll once, and another slight raking will fit the bed for sowing, after which it should be rolled down hard. If the soil is handled in drying weather, it should be done quickly, because damp ground, if prepared and rolled down before drying, will 'set' like mortar, and remain damp on the surface. Moisture and darkness are essential to the germination of the seed, and these conditions can be secured only by making the surface compact while damp. The disintegration of the deeper lumps, and the decomposition of fertilizers, will cause the surface to grow gradually softer. The effect of plowing is to break the ground into lumps, which lie upon each other, giving free admission to the air between them. Harrowing makes finer the lumps near the surface, and mixes the fertilizer deeper than a rake can be used. The first raking is to pulverize and level, so that rains will neither collect in ponds, nor run off, but penetrate the soil evenly. The second raking is to mix the fertilizer equally through the soil, to the depth of an inch or less, and reduce the lumps to the size of peas, which is as fine as a medium loam can be made without danger of a tough crust. Too much working destroys the healthy grain of the soil, and reduces it to a paste, which the roots of the tobacco plants can penetrate but slowly.



"The bed should not be watered before nor after the plants come up. The ground will be cold enough without any extra evaporation, and if the place is suitable for tobacco plants, and rightly fitted, the surface will be damp in the morning, even in very dry weather. If the plants need stimulating, sow on them a coat of Peruvian guano or super-phosphate at the commencement of a rain, regulating the quantity used by the amount of the water likely to fall. Superphosphate makes dark-colored, thick-leaved, stocky plants. Fish guano has about the same effect, but gives a lighter color and thinner leaf. Peruvian guano is more stimulating than either, and makes a light-colored, thin leaf. Great caution is necessary in the use of these powerful medicines to avoid an over-dose. A quantity that would be safe in a heavy rain, would in a light rain kill many or nearly all the plants.

"Old seed will sprout sooner than new. The seed should be measured while dry, and the same spoon used every year, so the effect of a given amount may be noted and the quantity regulated by experience. Level the seed in the spoon with a knife-blade, like measuring grain in a half-bushel. After sprouting again, allowing for the seed, increase in bulk for each rod separately. The amount of seed needed to the square rod varies with different seasons, soils, and seeds, but can be loosely a tablespoonful. There are many breeds of tablespoons. Too thick sowing will nearly spoil a bed by causing it to produce weak, yellow, spindling plants, while thin sowing will give good square ones. A bed should appear about half stocked till the plants are nearly ready to set, when they will suddenly spread and seem to multiply.

"Some growers sprout and some prefer dry seed. In favorable circumstances sprouting will give a gain of four to six days, but in many cases dry seed will be fully as early. A long sprout is liable to be broken off in sowing, or killed by cold, after it is in the ground. A sprout just showing will endure several nights' freezing if there is some warm sun in the day-time. One way to sprout is to spread the seed thinly on cotton cloth, and roll it up inside of woolen cloth, keep it in a warm place, and dip in warm water every day. In about four days the white spots will show. Sprouted no more than this, it will stand unfavorable weather as well as dry seed. A pint of meal and a pint of plaster to each rod, is a good mixture to sow in. Pouring from one dish to another many times will mix the plaster, meal, and seed perfectly if dry. If sprouted, it should be rubbed through the hands a few times with the mixture, to dry it and prevent any bunches of plants coming from seed stuck together. The plaster will show on the ground whether the sowing is being done evenly.

"Weeding should of course be done early and thoroughly. Weeds are stronger than the plants, and a little neglect will check them, making practically, perhaps, a difference of several days. A good way to prepare for weeding and taking up plants, is to make the bed about fifteen feet wide, and place round, straight poles across it about eleven feet apart. The poles should be three inches in diameter at the smallest end. They cost nothing and save moving blocks around with the weeding planks."

If the plants are tardy of growth, or the season is backward, wooden frames covered with cloth soaked in linseed oil may be placed over the beds, which is far better than to cover with pine boughs or glass even. The cloth soaked in oil draws the rays of the sun and keeps the earth dry and warm, causing a rapid growth of the plants, which at this stage need forcing in order to be forward enough for early transplanting. A Virginia planter gives the following description of making the

PLANT PATCH.

"Cut wood in September or October, so that it may season, to burn patches (beds) in winter or spring. For ten acres, or fifty thousand hills, burn and sow three patches each of seventy-five square yards. Say one (if the land be in good condition) the latter part of December, and if it be not in condition then, burn one hundred and fifty square yards the first good weather in January or February, and the other the first of March. Select a place on some small constant running stream, not liable to overflow, with a moist, sandy soil; cut down all trees close to the ground; get off all shrubbery, leaves, etc. The patch will then be ready for wooding. Commence by laying on skids ten or twelve feet long, four in diameter, three and a half feet apart; cover thickly with brush, then put on wood regular all over, and thick enough to burn dry an inch in depth. Commence your fires on the side, and continue to move after it has burnt hard enough. After it has burned, sweep off all coals, but not the ashes: then it will be ready for hoeing up, which can be done with good grub hoes; hoe deep, but do not turn over the soil; get off all large and small roots; chop over with hill hoes, and rake until the earth is thoroughly pulverized; then put on twenty-five bushels of good, fine, stable manure, without weed and grass seed, and twenty-five pounds of Peruvian guano, which should be put on regularly, hoed and raked in.

"For sowing, lay off beds four feet wide, so that the water from rains may run or drain off. For every bed four feet wide and twelve yards long, sow one chalk pipe bowl full of seed, after being mixed with ashes; tread with the feet or pat it over with weeding hoes, that it may be close and smooth; cover it with dog-wood, maple, or any fine brush, to the depth of twenty or twenty-four inches, to protect the young plants from cold or a drouth. After the plants have commenced coming up, re-sow the patches with half the quantity of seed first sown, which will not interfere with the plants first up, but make good re-planting plants. When the plants, or some of them, have grown to the size of a Spanish mill dollar, take off the brush, pick off all sticks, weeds, and grass, and keep them well picked until you have finished setting out.

"Should the plants not grow fast enough to suit, manure with Peruvian guano; have it fine, and sow over in the middle of the day when they are dry, or if it be raining briskly, it may then be sown over. Should the patches be suffering for rain, put five pounds of Peruvian guano in twenty gallons of water, and sprinkle it over with a watering-pot. To destroy the flea, bug, or fly, put dry leaves around the patch, and set fire to them at night, which will attract and destroy them if they are disturbed with a broom or leafy brush."

The old Virginia planters selected and made the plant patch as follows:—

"The quality of earth, and places which are universally chosen for this purpose, are newly cleared lands of the best possible light black soil, situated as near to a small stream of water as they can be conveniently found, due attention being paid to the dryness of the place.

"The beds, or patches, as they are called, differ in size, from the bigness of a small salad bed to a quarter of an acre, according to the magnitude of the crop proposed; and they are prepared for receiving the seed in March and the early part of April, as the season suits, first by burning upon them large heaps of brush wood, the stalks of the maize or Indian corn, straw, or other rubbish; and afterwards, by digging and raking them in the same manner of preparing ground for lettuce seed; which is generally sown mixed with the tobacco seed (the same process being suitable to both plants); and which answers the double purpose of feeding the laborer, and of protecting the young tobacco plant from the fly; for which intent a border of mustard seed round the plant patch is found to be an effectual remedy, as the fly prefers mustard, especially white mustard, to any other young plant; and will continue to feed upon that until the tobacco plant waxes strong, and becomes mature enough for transplantation."

A Tennessee planter gives the following description of making the plant bed as practised in his State. In some respects, especially in preventing the growth of weeds, it is the best process of making the "plant patch" that we have ever seen described. He says:—

"To make a good plant bed it requires good management and pretty hard work. It will hardly be done well without the presence of the farmer to attend to it. The time to make a bed is from the 15th of October to the first of April. The best beds are made in the Fall, for the reason that the ground is then very dry and therefore more easily burned, and besides there is more time for the ashes to rot before the hot weather. A bed turned in the Fall will hold moisture better than burned later. It takes less wood to burn well. The plants are more vigorous and tougher. The soil should be rich and light and never tilled before. The location should be as much exposed to the sun as possible. It is best for a bed to be surrounded by timber. The bugs are not so apt to find it. Low rich valleys will generally do better than ridges, though any good rich new ground will make good plants if well burned and prepared. The ground should be raked very clean of leaves before packing on the brush and wood. The fire must have a fair chance at the ground. The brush should be packed on straight and close, at least enough wood mixed with it to make it lie close. If the brush is green, endeavor to mix what dry stuff there is thorough, so the fire will burn through without trouble. It is very important that the fire should be as hot as possible while it is burning. The bed should not be rained upon after it is set before it is burned, as it will be doubtful whether the ground beneath the brush will get dry well.

"The ground should always be as dry as possible when it is burned. The bed should be set on fire in several places at once so as to have a very great heat on it at once. If the ground is well burned it will be a little crusty and whitish, and will pulverize beautifully. As soon as the ground is cool enough it may be loosened up and pulverized. This should be done well, and may be done with a good sharp harrow and then followed with hoes and grubbing hoes. Aim to keep the ashes and rich soil on the surface, and for this reason a bed is sometimes damaged by a too deep working. Rake carefully, getting off all the roots and trash. The bed should be drained by a little ditch around it on the upper side. If it is very early in the Fall, the seed should not be sown until the danger of very warm days has passed. After the last of November the sowing should be as soon as the bed is prepared. A little less than a heaping tablespoonful to ten steps square is about the quantity of seed. Cover the seed very lightly with the rake or tramping the ground with the feet. Cover the bed with a good layer of straight brush, not enough to keep the light rains from the bed, but at the same time enough to keep the ground in a moist condition even in hot weather. Make a low close brush fence around the bed to keep the leaves from being blown upon it. Re-sow whenever the plants are well up, so as to have two chances. Take off the brush cover when the plants are big enough to shade the ground themselves. If the plants are rather thin on the bed, do not uncover until you go there to draw the plants. If there is any danger of a scarcity of plants, always put the trash back after drawing."

In Cuba the

"SEMILLEROS"

or planting beds as a rule, lie higher than the rest of the farm. On the large vegas or tobacco plantations, numbers of planting beds are made under the supervision of the mayoral. Siecke gives the following account of making the beds or semilleros:

"On the island of Cuba any field selected for the cultivation of tobacco is divided into long beds (Canteras) twenty-five to twenty-eight feet long, and nineteen to twenty inches wide. The soil is then manured with a mixture of two parts of well rotten dung and one part of either sand or fine sandy earth. During the months of August, September, and even October, the beds are watered, and the seeds mingled with the nine-fold quantity of fine sand, are sown broad cast or through a fine sieve, and immediately after covered with a mixture of dung and triturated or molaxated earth, in such a manner that this mixture forms a covering layer of about 1-32 inches.

"The utmost care is taken to protect the seeds against the stifling heat of sunrays as well as heavy showers. To this end forked sticks about three inches high, are placed around the tobacco beds, opposite one another, and into these forks thin twigs are laid, which are covered with palm-leaves in such a way as to form a slight roof."



In Syria the tobacco seed is sown in ground free from stones, well manured with goats dung, and strewn over with prickly bushes to protect the young plants from birds. The plants are watered daily till they reach the height of eight or ten inches, when they are transplanted. In Persia where the celebrated Shiraz tobacco is cultivated, the seed is planted in a dark soil slightly manured; the ground is covered with light thorny bushes to keep it warm, and these are removed when the plants are a few inches high. The ground is regularly watered if required, and when the plants are six to eight inches high are transplanted. In Turkey "the tobacco seed is sown early in the spring, in small beds carefully prepared for the early growth of the young plants. In a few weeks the plants appear thick; then begins the occupation of the farmer's wife, and their numerous children, whose little fingers are engaged day by day in thinning the beds, care being taken to leave the most healthy looking plants. The husband is engaged either in carrying water from the nearest well by the aid of his mule, or in preparing the land for the reception of the plants. The beds are well watered before sunrise and after sundown."

"The Hungarian peasantry always make their tobacco beds against the south ends of their houses. These beds are enclosed by hurdles two feet high, at the bottom of which stones are laid, and on the outside of these, thorns are thickly placed, to exclude the moles. They fill this enclosure to the height of eighteen inches with fresh, coarse manure, which they press closely by beating as they throw it on; covering with finely pulverized earth mixed with dung of the preceding year that had become soil. They do not regulate their time of sowing either by the moon, month, the season, but by the holy week of the passing year; it is on Good Friday that all of their beds are sown, and although this day may vary nearly one month in different years, they are faithful to their thermometer—their piety not permitting them to know any other. To the mysterious influence of the day, without regard to the season, they ascribe their success and they generally succeed." Bickinson gives an account of the manner of making the plant bed in the East Indian Archipelago. He says: "Not far from us is a hut inhabited by two natives, who are engaged in cultivating tobacco. Their ladangs, or gardens, are merely places of an acre or less, where the thick forest has been partially destroyed by fire, and the seed is sown in the regular spaces between the stumps."

After making the plant bed and tending through the weeding season, the next step to be taken is the

CHOICE OF GROUND

for the tobacco fields. Tobacco, unlike any other plant, readily adapts itself to soil and climate. The effect produced upon the plant may be seen in comparing the tobacco of Holland and France, the one raised upon low, damp ground, the other on a sandy loam. The early growers of the plant in Virginia, were very particular in the selection of soil for the plant. The lands which they found best adapted were the light red, or chocolate-colored mountain lands, the light black mountain soil in the coves of the mountains, and the richest low grounds.

Tatham says: "The condition of soil of which the planters make choice, is that in which nature presents it when it is first disrobed of the woods with which it is naturally clothed throughout every part of the country; hence in the parts where this culture prevails, this is termed new ground, which may be there considered as synonymous with tobacco ground. Thus the planter is continually cutting down new ground, and every successive spring presents an additional field, or opening of tobacco (for it is not necessary to put much fence round that kind of crop); and to procure this new ground you will observe him clearing the woods from the sides of the steepest hills, which afford a suitable soil; for a Virginian never thinks of reinstating or manuring his land with economy until he can find no more new land to exhaust, or wear out as he calls it; and, besides, the tobacco which is produced from manured or cow-penned land, is only considered, in ordinary, to be a crop of second quality. It will hence be perceived, (and more particularly when it is known that the earth must be continually worked to make a good crop of tobacco, without even regarding the heat of the sun, or the torrent of sudden showers,) that, however lucrative this kind of culture may be in respect to the intermediate profits, there is a considerable drawback in the waste of soil."[72]

[Footnote 72: Liancourt in his Travels in North America, says of tobacco culture in Virginia: "The nature of the country beyond the James River is much more variegated than on this side. At present they are preparing the lands for the planting of tobacco. After having worked the land it is thrown into small hillocks. * * * The cultivation of tobacco, which has been very much neglected during several years, is more followed this year on account of the high price it bears in Europe; but the soil has been so long worked with this exhausting produce, and is so badly manured (for manure is absolutely necessary for tobacco when the soil is not newly broken up), that it is not capable of producing good crops."]

In the Connecticut valley where tobacco is grown for wrapping purposes, the selection of soil will depend upon the color of leaf in demand (as the soil as well as the fertilizers determine in a measure the color and texture of the tobacco). If the grower wishes to obtain dark colored tobacco then the soil selected should be a dark loam; on the other hand, if a light colored wrapper is desired he selects a light loam, and with the application of proper fertilizers the proper color will be obtained.

The tobacco plant flourishes well either on high or low ground, providing the soil be dry and free from stones, which are a source of annoyance during the cultivation of the plants and especially in harvesting. When grown on very low ground the plants should be "set" early, so as to harvest before early frosts. The plant may be cultivated on such soil in almost any part of the valley excepting only near the sound, or other body of salt water, the effect produced by planting tobacco too near the sea, more especially in Connecticut, being injurious to the leaf, which is apt to be thick and unfit for a cigar wrapper. In some countries, however, the leaf grown near salt water is equal in color and texture to any grown in the interior. But generally the plant obtains its finest form and quality of leaf—whether in the islands of the ocean, on the great prairies of the west, amid the sands of Arabia, on the mountains of Syria, or along the dykes of Holland—on lands bordering the largest rivers. This is true of the tobacco lands of Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia, Florida, Brazil, Venezuela, and Paraguay, as well as of those in the islands of Cuba and St. Domingo, where the rivers flow to the southern coast from the mountains which lie to the north. It must not be imagined from this that tobacco can not be successfully cultivated at a distance from valleys enriched by large and overflowing rivers. Some of the finest tobacco grown in Connecticut is grown in counties some distance from the river that gives name to our state.

When possible, select that kind of soil for the tobacco field that will produce the color and texture of leaf desired. For Connecticut seed leaf a light moist loam is the proper soil. The same field can be used a number of seasons in succession; the result will be a much finer leaf than will come from selecting a new field each year. The early planters of tobacco in Virginia soon ruined their fields by failing to manure them. In Maryland the soil best adapted for the growth of tobacco is a light, friable soil, or what is commonly called a sandy loam, not too flat, but of a rolling, undulating surface, and not liable to overflow in excessive rains. New land is far better than old.

A Missouri tobacco grower gives the following account of the selection of soil for tobacco in that State:—

"Select upland, or black oak ridges and slopes, which comprise a large area of the tobacco lands of our county, and carefully clear off all the timber, and take out all the roots we can conveniently, and break up the ground as thoroughly as can be done by ploughing and harrowing until all the tufts and dirt are perfectly pulverized."

In Cuba the planters select the red soil as the best for fine tobacco. Some planters, however, prefer a soil mixed of 1/4 sand and 1/2 to 3/4 of decayed vegetable matter. In St. Domingo the soil is not uniform. The planters select a deep black loam or tenacious clay, or even loams mixed with sand. The most fertile places are on the banks of the Yuna, from Laxay to Jaigua, in the vicinity of Mocha, on the banks of the Camoo, and around La Vega. Around Santiago, clay and sand predominate, and the soil can not be highly praised. Most of the tobacco grown in the island is raised in the valley of the Vega.

Cussree, in treating of this subject, says:—

"The quality of tobacco depends as much upon the nature of the soil as of the climate. The plant requires peculiarities of soil to develop certain of its qualities. And these peculiarities are such that art cannot furnish the conditions to produce them where they are naturally wanting. The sugar-cane grows chiefly on soils derived from calcareous formations; but few or none of these are fitted for tobacco, which is cultivated only on sandy loams. Both the Cuban and American planters concur in asserting that a large quantity of silicious matters in soils is essential for the growth of good tobacco.

"As already noticed, the rich clay loams on the banks of the James River, in Virginia, do not grow good tobacco; while the less fertile silicious soils in the county of Louisa produce it much superior in quality. Small patches of tobacco are everywhere seen growing over the sugar producing districts of Cuba; but I saw no tobacco plantations in the calcareous regions over which I traveled. The soils rest upon the primary formation. Even in the tobacco districts the planters know the spots in the different fields that produce the various qualities of leaf."

In

PREPARING THE SOIL

for the reception and growth of the plants, the fertilizing as well as the plowing of the fields should be performed in the most thorough manner. The first is essential for a large and vigorous growth, while the latter renders the cultivation of the plants much easier. The careful preparation of soil is so intimately connected with all that pertains to the plant, that it should be done well in order that the best results may follow. Tobacco of good body, color, and texture, cannot be grown on land devoid of fertility. The field selected for tobacco, if heavy sward, should be plowed early in the spring or the fall before, and later in the season if the turf is well rotted. After spreading on the manure, the field may be plowed again and harrowed frequently until all the lumps are made fine, and the surface mellow.

In the use of fertilizers select, if a light colored leaf is desired, either horse manure or tobacco stems. In the Connecticut valley nearly all kinds of Domestic, Commercial, and Special fertilizers are used. Of domestic fertilizers, horse manure is considered the best, as it produces the finest and lightest colored leaf of any known fertilizer. Of commercial fertilizers, Peruvian guano is doubtless one of the best—imparting both color and fineness to the leaf. Of special manures, tobacco stems are perhaps the best, at least the most frequently used. Of the other special fertilizers, such as cotton seed meal, castor pomace, ground bone, damaged grain, tobacco waste and saltpetre waste, much may be said both in praise and dispraise. Cotton seed meal, when used with domestic manure is an excellent and powerful manure.

If domestic manures are applied, use about twelve cords to the acre, composting before plowing under. As soon as spread, plow the field and see that all of the manure is covered. If tobacco stems are used, plow in from three to five tons to the acre, all of them at once, or a part in the fall and the remainder in the spring. If Peruvian guano is applied, sow on about three hundred pounds to the acre in connection with the domestic manure. Fish guano should be composted before sowing, either with loam or manure, and when used on light soil is a very good fertilizer, producing a light, thin leaf. After the tobacco field is harrowed it is ready for the ridger, which makes the hills and gathers together all of the loose manure on the surface, and collects it in the ridges. Where a ridger is not used, work off the rows from three and one half to four feet apart, or even wider than this. In the Connecticut valley the field is marked and hilled so as to give about 6000 hills to the acre. This will be a sufficient number if the growth is likely to be large. Where a ridger is used, manure can not be dropped in the hill and in many respects it is well not to do so, as the plants are liable to be blown over during a storm—not standing as firmly in the hills as plants when no manure is used in the hills. If the hills are to be made with the hoe, avoid all stones, bits of turf and grass in making them, and select only the fresh earth—gently patting the top of the hill with the hoe. New made hills are better than old, but it will make but little difference unless the soil is very dry at the time of transplanting.



The following description of the manner of preparing the tobacco field in Virginia by the old planters is quite interesting, and gives some idea of the amount of labor to be performed on the tobacco plantation:—