Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-03-29
A Big TOBACCO CROP.
ACREAGE IN VIRGINIA THIS YEAR
WILL BE INCREASED.
RAISING PICKLES MAY REDUCE 1T.
Farmers I'm Several Counties Are
Contemplating CuItivating Cucum-
bers Quite Observation-Disclosures Pro-
FITS Possible from Their Culture.

The tobacco crop In Virginia last year
was about the average in size, perhaps,
but that raised this year will be very
much larger.
gentleman OF this city who travels
ever the tobacco counties OF Eastern Vir-
gnia at short intervals told a Dispatch
reporter that he thought the acreage in
this section OF the State would be pro-
badly ono third larger than last year. A
buyer who frequently visits the Lynch
burg market said 1t was the impression
among tobacco men in that city that the
crop raised In the mountains, and the
Valley would be very much greater this
year than usual
BETTER PRICES THE CAUSE.
The increased acreage is the result OF
the greatly increased price which tobacco
of all grades has been bringing this year.
This in turn, resulted from the shortage
OF the western crop notably in Missouri,
and Kentucky drought and frost getting
in most effective work.
Tobacco has not In a long while sold
so well as IL has done this year in all
the Virginia markets. in many instances
for two and three times the sums 1t
would have brought last year. IT has
been much more pleasant TO be about the
warehouses this season than in a long
while. Nothing can be much more pa
thetic than 70 see the farmer, who has
worked days and parts of many nights TO
raise a crop of tobacco, receive for Ii a
price which scarcely pays the cost of
production.
a SURPRISED FARMER.
But this year It has been different. and
In many cases tobacco has brought twice
and three times as much money as the
| farmer expected TO receive. A Caroline
county farmer sold In Richmond last
week a lot of tobacco. Of very poor quail
ity. for 1926 per hundred pounds. He
declared afterwards that he did not ex-
| pect to receive more than 20 cents a hun
| dred. and would have been satisfied with
that price. He had become used to the
| prices prevailing i'm recent years.
An Appomattox-county man. discussing
the prospects Of increased tobacco acre
age last night, said: 81 have no doubt
the good prices Of this year will cause
many farmers 10 put out bigger crops
this spring, but IL is not going to hurt
ppomattox-county men much. The to-
bacco which we raise is different from
that raised almost anywhere else. and
always brings good prices, whether the
supply be great or small. We are not
uneasy about the prices we will get for
cur tobacco"
WILL RAISE PICKLES.
1t seems probable that the acreage Of
tobacco will be somewhat lessened,
owing TO the farmers engaging in raising
another and hitherto practically untried
crop in Virginia.
Cucumbers.
A number Of tobacco-raisers who have
brought their crops to Richmond have in
formed their commission merchants that
they will reduce the crop next year. in
order to raise cucumbers, or. as they
generally term 1t. Ito grow pickles"
A Hanover farmer told d Dispatch
reporter that he last year planted an acre
and a half of land in cucumbers, and
from II realized S175. He said It does not
require near so much labor to raise GU
cumbers as tobacco, and that the profits
are much greater.
The seed is planted in ridges. which are
thrown up six feet apart, the vines being
about half that distance apart in the row
He saws they do not require much culti-
walton. the planting being done about the
fifteenth Of May, and the last cultivation
given the vines about the first of July
when the picking of the pickles begins.
THE PRICE AND YIELD.
The cucumbers may be picked when
they are an inch In length. but the manu-
facturers do not care TO purchase them
after they have reached the length of six
inches. The price paid is from ca cents
TO 90 cents per thousand. II is said that
10000 may be raised from an acre Of good
land The manufacturers furnish the
barrels. and the salt with which to make
the brine in which the pickles are pack
ed for shipment.
Caroline. Hanover, Stafford. and Essex
farmers are said TO be contemplating go
ing into raising pickles quite extensively.
Those in Stafford have been cultivating
cucumbers for several years for the
factory In Fredericksburg, while those in
Hanover and Caroline sell them to a
factory in this city. An extensive fac
tory is being erected at Tappahannock'
in Essex county.