Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-01
THE WHITE TOBACCO PLANT.
1t Appeared MysteriousIy and Brought a
Fortune.

of the United States. Most of it is
marketed in the city. About a dozen
long leaves are tied into what is called
a "hand," and these hands are COM
pressed in hogsheads varying from
600 to 1000 pounds in weight. Ten
years ago all this tobacco was of a
dark brown or black color. Now the
greater portion of it is bright yellow.
There has been a similar change in
color at Cincinnati and other import
ant markets. The dark-colored arti-
Gle sells at from 3 to cents pound.
The light from 10 to 90 cents pound.
The latter is sweet; the former is strong
and bitter. 1t is a curious story how
the tobacco crop of the United States
came to change its color.
Brown county, Ohio, lies opposite
Mason county, Kentucky, and has
long been famous for tobacco-growing.
Many years ago there resided in that
county al industrious and intelligent
German farmer, Capt August Colt
Capt. Colt raised tobacco. 1t all then
was dark and strong, and caused in
fammation in the mouth of those who
chewed it. The sweet tobacco was
brought from Cuba, and could not be
grown anywhere in the United States.
Its seed planted in our soil produced
tobacco peculiar to this country.
There was one kind here little better
than the other. 1t was of reddish
color, and was called red hurley. How
it got the name hurley no one now
knows.
In 1862 Capt. Colt had a field of to-
bacco just behind his house. One day
early in the autumn, when the plants
had attained height of a foot or more,
that she had seen very peculiar to-
bacco plant in the corner of the field.
1t was like none she had ever seen be-
fore. All others, when growing, were
green, but this was white. Capt. Colt
said he would look at it. Accompan-
led bv his wife he went to the field and
examined the peculiar plant. 1t was
indeed white. as she had said, and un-
like any other tobacco. Capt. Colt
gave his workmen orders to take care
of it and allow it to run to seed.
To raise tobacco necessitates two
processes of planting. The seed is
sown in a small bed just like aspara-
gus or lettuce. In short time tiny
plants, hundreds of them to every
square foot. grow up. These plants
are drawn out by the roots. Taken to
a field prepared for that purpose, they
are set, one in each, in little hillocks a
foot and half apart. One man
punches a hole in hillock with a
stick, another inserts the roots of the
plant aud presses the dirt around them.
This plant takes a second growth and
sends up stout stalk, with fifteen or
sixteen branching leaves, each of them
often two feet long and foot broad.
This is the tobacco for commerce and
use. Before it attains maturity the
farmer cuts off the top of the stalk. 1t
makes the leaves grow broader. If
the top is not cut off it shoots up to a
height of five or six feet, blossoms,
and produces a handful of seed. This
is called allowing plant to run to
seed"
Capt. Colt examined the white plant
many times while ii was growing to
maturity. In the autumn it blossom
ed just as any other tobacco would
when left alone, and after ripening
Capt. Colt carefully gathered the hand
full of seed 1T produced The plant
was cut and hung away by itself in the
barn to dry. When it had undergone
the latter process it turned to bright
yellow color and eontrasted remarka-
bly, in appearance with the other to-
bacco. Capt. Colt chewed piece. 1t
was sweet and left an unusually pleas
ant taste in his mouth, He called in
a number of his neigh bors, all old to-
bacco growers, to examine the plant
and see what they thought of it. They
agreed with him that it was far super
ior TO any other tobacco they had ever
seen. but they argued that the plant
was merely freak of nature. The
seed from it would produce tobacco of
the familiar dark color and strong
taste. The captain was inclined to
that belief. too. but he said he would
SOW the seed and see
The following spring Capt. Colt
sowed the seed from the white plant.
The little plants were carefully drawn
and reset. Then ne awaited with great
interest the result The plants grew
rapidly, and to his intense delight the
leaves were white. He had little
field of the white tobacco, and again
in the autumn he saved all the seed.
When the result of the captains ex-
periments was known everybody in
his vicinity wanted the seed. He re-
fused to part with any, but the next
spring he sold the young plants for So
a piece. The following autumn some
of the third crop, which was as bright
~, aolDY, .c-i,. 4 Lola fol
to market. and it sold for four or five
times as much as the common tobac-
co. Capt. Colt named it white bur-
lev"
The farmers in Mason county, Ken
lucky, experimental more eagerly with
the new tobacco than did their neigh
bors in Brown county, across the river.
They soonsproduced it in considerable
quantities. Most all of it was shipped
to the Louisville market, and white
hurley became famous. For years its
growth was confined to these two
counties. Farmers thought it was pc
culiar to the soil there and could not
be produced elsewhere. Thus the
quantity in the market did not amount
to more than the hundredth part of l
per cent of the total crop, and it was
regarded as rare and fancy brand,
such as rich man only could afford
to smoke or chew.
Several years ago farmers invarious
parts of Kentucky decided to get some
of the white hurley seed and try it. To
their great surprise and pleasure they
grew tobacco just as good as that pro.
duced in Mason county. The follow.
ing season a greater quantity wa;
grown. The increased supply did not
diminish the price. All the greater
| tobacco manufacturers of the country