Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1891-04-16
Tho Importance Of Fire Curing.

We had the pleasure of long and salts
factory talk last week with Mr.. S. ID. Roll
Inns, af p. G.. county, whose very successful
experience in the growth and flue-curing
of the Yellow Orinoko variety of tobacco
on his farm near Washington, has been
heretofore commented on by The Times.
Mr.. Rollins is a native of North Corolina
and is yet quite young man. He was
raised in the tobacco growing region of that
State, and has been familiar with the fire
curing process from his early boyhood.
Mr.. RolliGs is plain and sensible man
and talks in q straightforward, practical
manner. He says the soil of Southern
Maryland is much better and more gen.
orally adopted to the growth of fine to-
bacco than that of North Carolina, where
the soil consists for the most part of light
clay and is only here and there loamy
enough to make tobacco. This opinion, he
says, is shared by his uncle, Major Rollins,
of North Carolina, who has had very ex.
tensiye experience in the growth of tobacco
in that State, and who has made careful ex-
animation of our Maryland soil.
This fact, if it is fact, land the disinter-
ested testimony of these two fair-minded,
practical gentlemen is entitled TO much
weight in its favor is one of vital impor-
lance TO our people. If Southern Mary
land can successfully compete with the to-
bacco growing districts of North Carolina
and Virginia in the production of fine
grade of tobacco suited to the domestic
manufacturer an consumption, then. when
ever this fact is demonstrated, the value Of
every acre of land capable of such produc-
ton is necessarily and Immediately en-
HANGED many times in value. Southern
Maryland lands would no longer be
a drug upon the market, but every avail
able acre would be promptly taken up by
thrifty settler. A sure enough "boom"
would strike US promptly and with force
as soon as such potentially in our soil was
made known. Think then, of the culpa-
bility and improvidence of our people in
"lying supinely on their backs" and making
no effort to demonstrate the important
quality of our soil.
Mr.. Rollins claims, and, We believe,
proves that he has demonstrated it. He
says that the dealers at Lynchburg, where
he sold the product of his Maryland farm,
assured him that in both texture and
flavor it was superior to very much Of the
tobacco grown IN Virginia and North
Carolina. He says that our "broadleaf'
and other ordinary varieties would prob
ably be injured rather than benefited by
the flue curing process; but that there is no
doubt at all that the Orinoko varieties,
grown here and flue cured, will be equal
in every respect, if not superior to the to.
bacco grown in North Carolina and Vir-
ginla.
There is no doubt at all that if we can
grow and cure tobacco suitable for domes-
tic use, that it can be promptly sold in Bal
tlmore for an average price $25 to $50
per hundred. The firms Of Gail & AK and
Marourg Bros, of that city, manufacturer
annually more tobacco than is grown in
the whole of Maryland. This tobacco
they obtain from the Lynchburg market
at about the figures above indicated; the
psesent Maryland product being entirely
ursuited TO their purposes.
Mr.. Rollins says that the cost of log
barn suited for fire curing is about $50.
including the brick furnace and the fines
for the firing process. A barn full of tn
bacco is cured in about 4S hours and NAV
then be packed down on the stick in one
ofour present style of barns and covered
with straw and thus be kept gin order" for
stripping for year if desired. 1t is mani.
fest, therefore, that the experiment will
cost but little, and if our people do not
generally take steps to prove the capacity
of our soil in this respect they will Ger.
tainlY deserve all of the "hard times"
which may be visited upon them in the
future.-Port Tobacco Times.
The Weems Line are contemplating the
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