The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-02
GOVERNMENT
 EXPERIMENTS
IN THE GROWING OF FToBACco
 TO BE MADE IN TEXAS.
Warehouse Will Be Erected at Nacog- doches and to It All Tobacco Grown at Experiment Stations in the South Will Be Taken
 for Curing-Agricultural
 Department in Charge.
New Orleans states.

Tobacco growers. sellers and consum- CTS will be interested in the announce mert. made for the first time, that the United States Department of Agricul- ture has authorized the establishment of a tobacco warehouse and curing plant at the little town of Nacogdoches, in East Texas, near the Louisiana line, and will make that place the central testing and curing station for all leaf tobaccos grown at all government experiment stations in the South. Nacogdoches will thus become the new center of tobacco interest for the world for. coupled with the announcement that the big central station would be established and opened
 August l. Is the official announcement of the government tobacco experts that af- | ter tests and curing extending over a period of a year and half, it has been definitely discovered that the peculiar soil of East Texas in the Nacogdoches
 district will grow a quality of cigar leaf tobacco equal, if not superior, to that grown in the famous Vuelto Abaja >tQ-
 bacco district Of Pinar del Rio in Cuba, the finest and most costly cigar tobacco in the world. 4A l- Information concerning tho central curing warehouse and the discovered rec markable equality of the East Texas leaf comes on no less authority than Col. B. F. B. Morse. passenger traffic manager of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and l.. H. Shelter. expert of the United States Department of Agriculture on filler to- bacco, who has had charge of the tests recently concluded at Nacogdoches., Ex- pert Shelter is authority for the state ment that the aromatic qualities of the Texas leaf is as pronounced as the other chief characteristics of tho plant, all of which are singularly analogous to the
 high type of Cuban leaf grown in Pinar del Rio. For nearly a year and a half MT. Shel- fer has been at Nacogdoches. having been sent there by the Department of Agriculture. The remarkable soil of East
 Texas has long been suspected of har- boring peculiarities which might be adapted to unusual practical use, ana members of the United States Soil Sur vey were sent there to examine and re-
 port. This report was of a nature so sur prising and portentous that Dr. Milton Whitney Chief of the Bureau of Soils and Tobacco Plants. by direction of Sec retary Wilson, detailed MT. Shelter and his assistants to go to East Texas and make a careful and practical culture of the plant in the particular soil selected. which so closely resembles the soil of the
 famous Abaja district. The test plants
 were set out by MT. Shelter from April 10 to June 1 and the process of curing be- 
 announced that the pure and high grade Cuban leaf tobacco can be grown in the soil of East Texas and prove up in every
 particular the equal of the Cuban and
 Sumatra leaf.
 The Texas plant bears a striking re- semblance to its Cuban relative. It is
 not a very heavy or vigorous, rank or overgrown plant, but short coupled and ranging from ten to fourteen leaves to s~ .Ev ofz md hu the fuzzy. velvety appearance of the cu- ban type.
 The Government experts reported that several conditions were responsible for the adaptability of the Texas soil to grow Cuban tobacco. First the soil con dition is extraordinary. being a heavy rich red or chocolate loamy soil. under laid by a stiff red clay, which in many places grades imperceptibly into weather ed green sand mari, which immediately underlies all true areas of the chocolate or red land The wonderfully favorable climate is another peculiarly appropriate condition, incident to tho Gulf clouds,
 morning fogs and dews, the same condi-. tions which are thought to influence the delightful aroma of the Cuban tobacco. Then, most significant of all. is the striking resemblance of the Texas to the Cuban plant, even though the former be grown unueT tle CTuutSt uAStupuS
 In the report of the Government ex-
 perts the following extract will give correct impression of the importance which they attached to their discoveries,
 saying:
 I've have found. since our investiga-
 tions in East Texas, a type of soil which
 will produce a filler leaf containing the aromatic qualities so necessary to the filler leaf This leaf, grown on this par
 ticular so!l has been submitted to ex- perts in New York city, who pronounce 1t equal to the average leaf imported from the island of Cuba. We also know that
 the soil and climatic conditions of East
 Texas are similar to the famous tobacco district of Cuba.
 With regard to wrapper tobacco. we find that there are other soils in East
 Texas far superior to the tobacco-grow- ing districts of Florida- Connecticut and