The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-08

their stems, and in such bundles the
whole crop is carried to the market or
auctions, where it Is sold and the farm
er at once gets the cash for it. A thou
sand pounds to the acre would be q
very good yield"
GREATEST TOBACCO MARKET.
I shall not soon forget the auction
rooms at Danville, which I visited to-
day with Col. j. M. Neal, one Of the
oldest Of the tobacco buyers. There
are here eleven immense warehouses,
each Of which covers several acres, in
which thousands of pounds of tobacco
are sold at auction every day. The
sales during the tobacco e which
closed last month amounted to 4O,0O0,-
900 pounds, which brought more than
1900, 900 in cash. The warehouses are
under the control of the Danville Tobac-
co association, and everything is done
by rule. The tobacco, raised as Col.
Walker has described 1t, is brought in
by the farmers and laid in long rows
of piles, each about as big around as
a Washtub, upon he floor. Each mans
crop is separate, and each pile is mark
ed with a a which bears the name
of the owner. The warehouses are
lighted by many skylights and win
dows, and the lemon-colored tobacco
shines out in all it's beauty. A rich
tobacco aroma fills the room 1t Is not
like that of store tobacco, but sweeter
and purer. Walking about among the
piles are scores of tobacco buyers. They
are shrewd-looking men who have been
in the business for man. years, and
who in the dark could tell to a cent
h value Of tobacco by the smell and
feel. The sales go on from warehouse
to warehouse, each taking it's turn.
Now the a~uctioneer appears. He is a
hand foo f1TFaod ht1zzGo ry xyainn1 = ~
forty. He begins at one end Of the
room and walks down a row Of piles,
selling each lot as he goes. The crowd
fellow him. They pull out the punches
n smell n feel them. He talks
all the while in that high, rasping voice,
his jaws going like a corn-sheller and
making much the same sound. He has
to talk fast, for the rules are that he
must auction off IT'S lots every hour,
or almost three to the minute; still
some Of these lots are worth hundreds
of dollars, and each is the years work
Of at least one farmer. The bidders,
however, are accustomed to the work
and they speak quickly. After finish
ing one row the auctioneer starts down
another, and so on to the close, when
he takes another warehouse and talks
on. AS soon as a sale is made a book
keeper, who follows the auctioneer,
marks 1t down, and within two minutes
thereafter h farmer a get the cash
from the warehouse, which acts, as it
were, as a clearing house for the buy
erS. The prices Of tobacco so sold ang
all the way from 1 cent up to rs cents
a pound, and the best of judgment is
required in the bidding.
HAVE A CHEW.
Leaving the warehouse. I next WIS.,
tied a large tobacco factory where the
yellow leaf Is converted into the Doth
some plug The chewing Of tobacco,
so far from decreasing, seems to be
increasing yearly, and millions of
pounds Of plug and fine cut are sold
every year. st. Louis Ia today the
biggest plug factory in the world. but
plug tobacco of different grades is
made in many places, and the factors
tell me there is money in it. The fac
tory I visited is doing a good business,
and this seems to be the case with the
tobacco establishments of North Caro-
lima. Plug tObacco Is as different in
its qualities as coffee or tea. 1t is
made in different grades and sold at
different prices. The tobacco has to
go through many processes before it is
ready for chewing. First, it must be
Stemmed, or stripped; that is. the
stems must be pulled from the leaves.
This is don by negroes in a room at
a warm temperature, and the proba-
bility is that the perspiration of the
employees aids in the flavor of the plug.
The next process, however, removes
the evidence of any such odor. The
tobacco cheWer is not satisfied with
the pure leaf. His chew must be
sweetened and favored to taste. A
black liquid composed of l~icorice. SUI
gar, glycerine. salt and flavoring ex-
tracts is evenly sprayed on the tobac-
CO., as 1T is carried through an immense
copper cylinder. 1t is then taken to
colored men and women, boys and
girls. stand at tables and press the
leaves out into shape, and hen roll
them into bundles, a little larger than
the size Of the plugs which are to be
made from them. Here the bundles
are weighed as they are made. and are
carried off to be squeezed by hydraulic
pressure into the. plugs Of the cheWer.
SMOKING TOBACCO.
It was at Durham, N. c.. that I saw
the process OF making smoking tobacco.
/ went through rooms where the leaves
are cut into the bits composing the
granulated tobacco used for the pipe.
Parts of the factory were almost suf-
locating with their smell and dust, and
I sneezed again and again as 1 made
my way through them. The machines
which handle the tobacco make you
think Of those of an immense Touring
mill. The tobacco is raised by ele-
vators from n DOR TO another, and