The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-11-19
OUR CLIMATE SUITABLE FOB FILLER
TOBACCO"

Locate Station in North Carolina for Ex-
periments.
have read with enthusiastic ap-
prOval your editorial of yesterday
under the heading: ''Why Not North
Carolina?' in which you urge upon
the Hon. Secre tary of Agriculture at
Washington the desirability of
placing within this State one of the
proposed stations for the cultivation
of "fller Tobacco" such as ia grown
IN Cuba. It is timely, and it is to he
hoped will result in directing atten-
tion to this S'ate, since it possesses
II vast area, which, in my judgment,
(and 1 have given the subject much
thoughD, is entirely suitA BILE for this
purpose. Certain it is that if the
soil and climate of either Pennsyl.
vania or Ohio are in any degree suit
able, then this State must be far
superior, It has a much longer
growing season of uniformly warm
weather, better distr, button Of moist
ture and less f1uctuatiOn in tempera
sure during the growing period and
is much nearer the salt water than
either of the other States mentioned,
and in these things conforms more
closely to Cuba There can be h5tle
question of the ada liability of Ger
tain soils in our State to the produc
tion of the highly favored filters
"hioh have given such repu tatiOn TO
she Cuban weed. In faot, Il have
been searching all day for an article
read and filed some years ago, but
which 1 cannot fnd) an experiment
was tried in M bore O. unity, as my
recollection goes, some years ago,
AMI with remarkable success the
first year, from seed imported from
Cuba. But the second years crop
was not so good in flavor and there
was a tendency TO grow stalk and
sop at the expense Of flavor. This
was from the home grown seed.
That ex Jeriment was of value in
showing two things: that the TO-
bacoo with good high favor could be
grown in this State; and that the
seed must be imported fresh for
eAch years crop.
The methods of cultivation, fertili-
zatiOn and curing praoticed in Cuba
must be carefully studied and made
to conform to the soil and climate
obtaining in this State. To this end
your urging upon the authorities at
Washington the INSTABILITY of select
this State for ex xperimental purposes
is much TO the point. The experience
of Mr.. Fontaine in the good old
county of Person is not only encour
aging, but Is an actual demOnstra-
tlOn of the fact that these tobaocos
may be prOfitably grown here. The
area which seems best suited to the
production of these tropical tobaccos
is that large area crossing the State
from the Virginia line to the South
Carolina line, and lying just west of
the great trucking fi8lds now profit
Ably cultivated, and generally speak
ing embracing that territory lying
bet Heen the SeabOard Air Line and
the Atlantic Coast Line railways
Should the experiments prove sue
cessfu1, and know of no reason for
suppOsing that they will not, it would
be we'll to remember that this vast
territory would be adapted to the
production of this desirable and high
priced commodity, and that it would
bring to the agriculture of the State
an area as large and perhaps as profit
able as shat now devoted to the
trucking interest.
B-tween 1856 and 1850 the United
States Government set out a lot of
tea plants near Fayetteville as an
to see if they could be
made to grow in this State The
war put stop so the experiment,
but not to the growth of the tea
plants. Being neglected they grow
to be quite tall in the surrounding
bushes, and we have now in the
a sample of the tea made
from those plants in 1892, and which
brought 81 per pound on our mar
kets. The point is that the tea plant
lived for forty years in our climate
Recently the government is repeat
ing this experiment in South Caro-
lima. If successful there it can be
made equally so in the southeastern
part of this State.-T. z. Bruner,
State Board of Agriculture,
in Naurs and Ohsarvar !