Omaha daily bee., 1888-07-05

negro farmer riding into southern
town behind q half starved steer with n
load Of tobacco in his prairie schooner.
1t represents the. product OF a small
patch i'm favored part Of his farm,
but Il may bClng him $1,000 or more.
AT one OF THE sales. at Durham, the busy
little town in the center of the bright
yellow North Carolina tobacco bolt, or
the golden belt, as they call. it,'a gray.
haired old colored man stood watching
tho crowd of buyers as they bid against
each other on the pilcthat represented
his crop. As the amount rose higher
and higher, his eyes grew larger and
larger, his limbs shook and he changed
his quid of tobacco from side to side so
quickly that he did not. have time to
chew it. When 81 800 was reached he
could no longer contain himself,
but shouted: stop right there, gem
mems; dats enough! Dis niggah cant
stand 10 more. Never had so much
money in all my born days. And he
might well be surprised, for his old
steer had drawn it all to the sales ware
house at one load. These tobacco auc-
tions are lively spectaclcs. In one OF
the largest warehouses in Durham as
many as 1000 piles of tobacco are laid
out at one sale. The auctioneer steps
from pile TO pile as he sells, the buyers
following HIM. He never says word
about the quality of the leaf, but simply
rattles off the figures, never stopping
until the pile is knocked down. The
buyers know the quality as soon as
their eyes rest on it. Occasionally they
will run their hands into pile, select
Il bunch and feel of it, but usually pile
after pile is sold without n person touch
ing it. The bids run right along, each
bidder knowing Just what he is doing.
These bidders are the most expert men
in the business, and represent houses in
the surrounding section and distant
manufacturers and dealers. The New
York and foreign markets are repre-
sented at all the tobacco sales in Dur
ham, n. c., and Lynchburg aud Dan
vile, Va.
The North Carolina bright yellow to-
bacco industry has proved Il mine of
wealth to the planters. When Sher-
man S army stopped near Durham the
boys got some of the tobacco to smoke in
their pipes. They were so delighted
with it that when they reached their
homes they sent for moro. The to-
bacco thus got the best of advertising.
The crop is troublesome one to ham
die. There are three kinds of worms
that like to feed upon it, of these horn
worm likes the plant so we'll that il has
10 De plCkou OH by mana, ana tne nelu
hands go searching for it by lantern
light at night. Then the matter of cur
ing the leaf is a very delicate one. A
whole crop may be spoiled alto
gether or precipitated some grades
lower in the scale by a
little carelessness or unskillful
ness in regulating the heat. The bars
usually are seventeen and onehalf feet
square, just holding 450 sticks. The
heat is raised from the yellowing heat
| at the rate of five degrees every two
hours. When the heat reaches l35 de-
grees it Is kept there twelve hours.
1t is then raised five degrees every
hour and half until it gets to $50 de-
grees, which cures both stem and stock
in short time. Kentucky. with her
1Sl 100000 pounds of tobacco, equals
the next four highest states, leaving
out Virginia's 79,000,O00. Kentucky's
product equals those of Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina.
Maryland, Connecticut and Missouri,
which are the principal tobacco states,
although New York looms up with
respectable product of 6,4Sl ,43l, Massa-
chusetts 1869 ,456. Indiana S,S72, ,S42, and
Illinois 2,635 ,S25 pounds.