The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-08
In THE TOBACCO LANDS
A VISIT TO THE WORLDS BIGGEST
LOOSE TOBACCO MARKET.
Tobacco Auctions. snun Factories and
snun Dippers-How Plug
and Cigarettes Are Made.

way South TO take a bird's-eye view OF the
Industrial situation OF the country. i pro-
pose to visit the chief centers of the United
States and to give the facts as / find them.
Notwithstanding the present hard times,
we are said to be the wealthiest nation ON
the globe. / want to show where a great
p3rt Of our wealth comes from and how
we get il. My first travels have been in the
great tobacco belts of Virginia and North
Carolina. This region is filed with tobacco
plantations. You see the square log cabins.
known as tobacco barns. on every farm.
and the farmers are bringing i'm their crops
in wagons to the great auction markets
here. The tobacco raised here is some OF
the best in the world, and buyers from diff
ferent countries of Europe are stationed
here the year round. The Danville loose
tobacco market is the biggest Of the kind
in the world. and there is no market like 10
under the sun.
Before / describe IL. let me give you some
idea of what tobacco means to the United
States. 1t is one OF our great money crops,
and it brings us millions of dollars In gold
from Europe every year. 1t amounts at
times to almost as much as the product OF
our gold mines. In 1898 IL sold for more
than s39, 100000 and in 1894 about $27. 00O,-
600. OF this last amount S2s. 0O0, 900 was
sold TO Europe. Asia, Africa and South
America, and the most OF it was composed
of tobacco leaves packed up for shipment
almost as they came from the farmer. Our
tobacco crop comes from nearly every State
and Territory of the Union. and it is OF a
dozen or more different kinds. Some is
especially fitted for export. some for plug,
some for fine cut, some for the different
varieties of smoking and some for snuff. I
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factory, which makes large quantities
Of snuff for the snuff clippers of the
South. The tobacco is half rotted and
mixed with other ingredients before it
is ground into the titillating and tooth
some product so largely in demand for
rubbing with a chewed stick against
the teeth. 1t is packed i'm OK blad-
ders, in balls ranging in size from that Of
your fist to that of your head. and sold by
the ounce or pound. There is a smoking
tobacco made in Louisiana, about fifty
miles north of New Orleans, know as the
perique tobacco, which is as black as your
hat and almost as strong as aqua FORTS.
This is the finest tobacco made, for 1t is
cured in its own juices, while other tobacco
is mixed with all sorts of sweetening and
is sugared and sailed 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 ii. Smoking to-
bacco is grown almost everywhere. but
there is a great difference in the quality
and prices obtained. In the region where
1 am now writing the finest OF cigarette
tobacco is produced, and hundreds Of mill
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stroyers come from the soil OF Virginia
and the two Carolinas. The tobacco is
mild, light and yellow. and it has a high
flavor.
HOW TOBACCO IS RAISED.
I had an idea until / came here that our
tobacco was raised on big plantations, and
L expected to find tobacco fields containing
hundreds Of acres. The fact is that the
most of the crop comes from garden patch
es, and that the fields are small. The farm
ers estimate the size OF their crop not by
the acre. but by the hill. There are about
1900 hills to the acre, and the man who
has a half million hills OF tobacco is a
nabob. In the whole United States not
much more than half a. million acres are
put in tobacco each year. The tobacco IN
most cases Is but one OF a number OF crops
raised on a farm. 1t is. however, like
wheat in the North or cotton further south,
the money crop, and the farmer depen6s
upon il for his ready cash. 1t is a very
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. / met at
Durham Colonel Walker, an old tobacco
planter, and now the leading buyer for
one Of the biggest tobacco firms Of the
xr,-~rl -,.I ..l~1I L.. a. an - Il 49,
language the story of tobacco. from the
seed to the mouth Of the consumer.
Said he: Tobacco is a king among plants
and 1t requires royal treatment. The seed
is not bigger than mustard seed, and the
danger is in using too much seed rather
than too little. 1 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
a little tobacco, and / wish you would
send me about a bushel Of seed Tor a trial.
Why. a bushel of tobacco seed would plant
the whole State of North Carolina. One
ounce Of tobacco seed contains $4,000
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"
How are they planted" said I with q
drill?"
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
1t. 1t is anured heavily and after the
seed is sown 1t is covered over with thin
cloth, something like cheese cloth, to keep
i'm the heat. and to keep out the insects.
A plant bed twenty yards square will raise
enough plants for 10G, 900 tobacco hills.
EVEN WORMS CHEW TOBACCO.
After the plants are set out" Colonel
Walker continued, they have 10 be cult
waited and watched. They are hilled up
like potatoes. and the weeds are kept down.
The plants grow TO a height OF three of
four feet The leaves branch out In all
directions, and where each leaf joins Sha
stalk suckers sprout out. These have to
be pulled off again and again that all OF
the strength of the plant may go into the
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