Evening star., 1896-11-07

!ating and toothsome product so largely in
demand for rubbing with a chewed stick
against the teeth. 1t is packed in OK blad-
iers, In balls ranging in size from that of
your fist to that of your head, and sold by
the ource pound. There is a smoking
tobacco made IN Louisiana, about fifty
miles north of New Orleans, known as the
perlque tobacco, which is as black as your
hat and almost strong as aqua fortiS
This is the finest tobacco made, for it is
cured III its own juices, while other tobacco
is mixed with all sorts of sweetening, and
is suSared and salted and favored to taste.
The perique tobacco is sold chiefly in New
Orleans 1t is put up in rolls wrapped
round with cords and is said to grow
Sweeter as it grows older. 1t IS very ex-
pensive. and Is too strong for those who
are not accustomed to use it. Smoking to-
bacco is grown almost everywhere, but
there is great difference in the quality
and prices obtained. In the region where
| am now writing the finest of cigarette
tobacco is produced, and hundreds of mill
ions of the little white-papered health-de-
stroyers come from the soil of Virginia
and the two Carolinas- The tobacco is
mild, light and yellow, and it has a high
davor.
How Tobacco is Raised.
1 had an idea until came here that our
tobacco was raised On big plantations and
[ expected to find tobacco fields containing
hundreds of acres The fact is that the
most of the crop comes from garden patch
IS, and that the fields are small The farm
ars estimate the size of their crop not BY
The acre, but by the hill. There are about
i,en bills to the acre, and the man WHO
has n half million hills of tobacco is a
aabob. In the whole United States not
much more than half a million acres are
out in tobacco each year. The tobacco in
most cases is but one of number of crops
raised on farm. 1t is, however, like
wheat in the north or cotton further SOUTH
the money crop, ard the farmer depends
fnr h htC- .lx- oh, Ie
expensive crop, and requires almost con-
slant labor from planting in the early
spring until about August or September
when it is cured for the market. L met at
Durham, Colorel Walker an old tobacco
planter, and now the leading buyer for
)ne of the biggest tobacco firms of the
world, and asked him to tell me in simple
language the story of tobacco, from the
seed 10 the mouth of the consumer.
Said he: Tobacco is king among plants,
and II requires royal treatment The seed
8 not bigger than mustard seed, and the
danger is in using too much seed rather
than too little. I was talking not long ago
with a farmer outside the tobacco districts
about tobacco raising. He became inter-
ested and said: Well, would like to raise
L little tobacco, and / wish you would
send me about a bushel of seed for a trial
Why, bushel of tobacco seed would plant
the whole state of North Carolina One
ounce of tobacco seed contains 100000
seeds, and a single plant will produce seed
enough for ten acres of hills. The seeds
are so small that they have to be mixed
with ashes or dirt before planting, in order
not to sow them too thick"
Raised IN Hot Beds.
How are they planted said I. with a
l.ill?''
NO" replied the veteran tobacco raiser.
they are sown by hand in a plant bed or
hot bed, much like cabbage plants, and
when the little sprouts come UP they are
pulled out and transplanted in hills, like
cabbages or tomatoes. The making of the
plant bed is not easy. The ground Is COW
cred with wood and burned SO that the
earth is roasted, and all of the insects and
vegetable matter, seeds, ETC., cooked out of
it. 1t is manured heavily and after the
ieed is sown 1t Is covered over with thin
uloth. something like cheese cloth. to keep
n the heat, and to keep out the insects.
A plant bed twenty yards square will raise
enough plants for 100000 tobacco hills.
Even Worms Chew Tobacco.
After the plants are set OUT" Colonel
Walker continued, they have to be culti-