The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-20
TOBACCO IN TEXAS
SHELTER QUITS HIS oovERr-
 MENT JOB.
He Will Devote His Time to the Cultivation of the Weed in the
 Vicinity of Nacogdo- ches.

krt SoAANesAOn VI Inp WcSO III Iuc
 Vicinity of Nacogdo- \
 ches.
 Nacogdoches. Tex. Sept. 1s-Mr. L. H. shelfer, tobacco expert of the United States Department of Agriculture. to-day announced that he had resigned bis posi- ton with the government and had re- tired to private life. his purpose being to engage in .-.e culture of high-grade Cuban leaf tobacco, which can be grown in the soil of East Texas in this vicinity. The announcement caused considerable surprise here, but at the same time. a great amount of satisfaction and con- graduation among che citizens of East Texas and particularly at Nacogdoches, where the United States government has established the largest curing warehouse in the Southern States and where all leaf tobaccos grown at government ex- perimental stations in the South will be brought for curing and testing.
 For the past year and half MT. Shell fer has been in East Texas conducting extensive experiments to prove the fa6t that the very highest grade of Cuban leaf tobacco can be grown In East Texas and his efforts in this direction met with such signal and unqualified success that the Southern Pacific Railroad. recogniz- ing the Industrial importance of the fact, took hold of the project and began a campaign of advertising which carried around the world and gave information of the valuable discovery made by the government tobacco experts.
 MT. Shelfer is the acknowledged to- bacco expert of the United States gov- ernment and 1t is taken as a matter of fv~.x hot hA ah sign his high position as national of- ficial to cast his lot with the latest in- dustrial discovery of the United States. It is said that offers of very hattering nature were held out to Mir. Shelfer to induce him to take his step and his ac- tion is taken as an evidence of his ex- treme confidence in the validity of the tests which he has just completed for the government and in the unlimited possi- biiities presented by the discovery that the finest leaf tobacco in the world can be grown in East Texas.
 MT. Shelter declines to discuss details of his plans for the future further than to say that his resignation takes effect at once and that he will immediately en- gage in the planting of large quantity of Cuban seed to be grown for next sea- sons harvest, which is expected to add materially to the quantity and most cer-' tainly to the quality of American grown tobaccos for 1904
 There is not the least doubt in the world" said Mir. Sheifer that the pros poets for raising a most magnificent quality of Cuban leaf tobacco in East Texas, are unlimited, particularly for those who proceed upon the lines of scientific and intelligent cultivation of the plant. The experiments which I have
 l.. AI-t- k@A pert for the United States government, have so strongly presented to me the ad- vantages and opportunities ahead that I deemed myself justified in resigning to become cultivator Of Texas tobacco. and may add that there is no doubt in my mind that Texas will shortly become rival even of Cuba and Sumatra for the growing of the highest types of cigar to- baccos. The government tests which were conducted here demonstrate that the soil and climate of East Texas are practical ly identical with those or the famous vueita Abajo district of Pinar del Rio, Cuba. The rich, chocolate. loamy soil is the same and. as in Cuba. the atmos- phere is affected by the Gulf clouds and the morning fogs and iews.s all of which combine to impart thav delicious armo- matic quality which so strongly charac- terizes the tobacco leaf of Pinar del
 
 Rio.
 Tt did not take me very long. after. came to Texas to become convinced that magnificent opportunities lay here in the cultivation of high grade tobaccos. Not only have you the soil and climate above referred to, but unusual facilities for handling and shipping. With extensive cultivation of this weed collateral indus tries will spring up and factories for AH. e.. .<Fz zN. abilities of the future and they will have very natural advantages from the fact that their timber is immediately at hand. The tobacco-growing district of East Texas also has the advantage of being within easy reach of a number of large manufacturing. chipping and exporting centers; being only 140 miles northeast of Houston. only PIT miles from Calves ton. just ninety miles from New Or leans, 169 miles from Dallas and 122 miles north of Beaumont, and from the latter place and the oil fields of Saratoga and Sour Lake can be obtained fuel oil to fur nish econoical power for all plants which may be established expressly for this to- bacco culture.
 It was on the 18th of fast June that the newspapers throughout the United States and In other countries apprised the world of the fact that the United States government had discovered that this high-grade tobacco could be grown in the soil of East Texas. but even be- fore that time, on May 9th, in fact, no less distinguished a man than the Sec- retary of the Department of Agriculture himself, Mir. Wilson, made a statement which was published in the newspapers at the time, that so far as the govern ment had proceeded the best of the to- bacco lands had been found in East Tex as. Secretary Wilson says: ''The soil we have is identical with that of Cuba and the other countries which grow the very best quality of the aromatic cigar to- bacco.'
 Much of the credit for making known tffe discovery made by the government is due to the Southern Pacific Railroad, the Texas and New Orleans branch of which runs directly through the East Texas tobacco fields from Beaumont to Dallas. The passenger department of that road immediately took up the mat ter and spent thousands of dollars in advertising and in the distribution of hundreds of thousands of pieces of lit- erature descriptive of the East Texas tobacco country and giving publicity to the statement made by the United States government experts, the purpose of the railroad, of course,' being to direct a htgh-class immigration to this country. along the lines of it's general policy of promoting the welfare and increasing the population of the territory in Louisiana