The morning journal-courier., 1908-05-09
ABOUT TOBACCO
The Different Kinds That Are Grown in the United
 States.
DIFFERENT USES FOR THEM
Connecticut Tobacco Highly Apprc. Ciatcd and Well
 Paid For.

Tobacco growing Is full of interest even to the man or woman who is concerned only because he or she smokes, It Is a really extraordinary crop, It can be grown almost all over the world, Yet 1t will be an essentially different plant in each country, It Is as sensitive to Its environment as If 1t were a vegetable chameleon. Every thing about It. It's texture, its color its flavor, depends on the soil 1t grows in
 Two totally different varieties of to- bacco can be produced within a few feet of each other. If streak of light, sandy soil runs close to heavier clay soil, q leaf suitable for wrapper comes from the first, while the second pro- duces the filler. Fashion steps in oc- casionally and makes or mars the for tunes of an entire region. The fashion of to-day Is to smoke cigar With a light wrapper and comparatively mild filler That Is why the Connecticut land close to the river has become so profitable It produces a very thin, silky, light-colored leaf. which makes . splendid wrapper, according to pres ent notions.
 Some years ago. when heavier ci gars were more in demand, the Con- necticut river bottoms were lying idle as waste land. There Is no indication now of falling off in the demand for the tobacco from that region, espe- cially since the growers have begun to raise Sumatra tobacco. This Is consid- ed to be the finest type of cigar with the exception of the Cuban wrapper, which is also grown there to a certain extent.
 According to theory a single tobac- co plant is supposed to produce the material for complete cigars The wrappers would come from the finest leaves on the plant, the binders from those of second grade and the filters from what would be left As matter of fact this isn't the method except in the southern States. Speaking general ly, Connecticut and Massachusetts produce a wrapper. with their second quality leaf for binder, Pennsylvania produces chiefly filler leaf though on some river lands wrappers are grown New Yorks crop is mainly wrapper and binder grade Ohio tobac- co, owing to the large percentage of clay in the soil, Is q filler. Wisconsin lands produce both wrappers and binders, though 1t Is known as binder State. The binder, by the way is really a low grade wrapper.
 The filler Is worth much less than the other grades, and according to the pleasing American habit of neglecting the small things, Is often SO badly cur ed that it has about as much real to- bacco flavor as If 1t were any other kind of dried leaves. AS long IS the filler forms the greater part of tho ci- gar it would seem to be worth the best of attention, unless, as dealers declare, many American smokers choose their cigars from appearance instead of fla vor.
 In Florida both Cuban and Sumatra tobaccos are grown In the old tobacco district in the northern part of the I variety in the center of the peninsula has transformed that region. In Ken lucky and Tennessee the conditions vary a good deal, so that in one dis trict dark, heavy varieties known as export tobacco, are raised, while In an other locality what is known as white burley is the chief crop.
 The introduction of this white burley variety has had remarkable effect on the tobacco growing of Virginia and Maryland. In these States, which for years were famous for their tobacco fields. much of the land formerly used for that purpose has been given over to other crops. The white burley yields so much better than the Virginia and Maryland tobacco that it has brought the price of the latter down to a point where 1t does not pay to raise it. The same is true of North Carolina. But these States produce large quan- titles of the bright yellow tobacco used for cigarettes, plug wrappers. filters and cutting, The typical bright tobacco land Is loose and sandy, containing very l little'clay As a rule the less clay and deeper the sand, the finer the tobacco. provided it keeps on growing without check from drouth. For this reason 1 the ideal soil is where the sand is from l IS to 22 inches deep, with bed of clay beneath to conserve the mois- ture As an evidence of the suscepti- bility of tobacco to the soil in which 1t grows, these sandy lands produce bright tobacco, while the very clay by which they are underlaid produces a heavy. dark grade
 There Is still another variety of to. bacco, known as Perique and famou, for its flavor and aroma. It is al rais ed on the Mississippi bottom lands
 chiefly in two parishes of Louisiana According to the government reports crop ever raised of this variety, il spite of the fact that lt brings a higl price and is not a difficult crop. A present 1t is raised and cured only D, the Arcadians, or 'Cajans, as they ar, called in Louisiana.
 True Perique is described as rich gummy, tough and dark, but of fin, fiber. The method of curing it is tn, most peculiar thing about 1t. After tn, leaves are pulled the midrib is remov ed and the leaves twisted into rolls O
 20 or 30 each. These are packed int, boxes holding about 50 pounds, ant
 when the boxes are nearly full tn, leaves are subjected to a pressure O