El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-09-22


had 1900 acres in tobacco and she
received therefrom more than $1,000
600
Nearly all Of the southern states
produce more or less tobacco, and
some make special kinds that are
found nowhere else There is little
district in Louisiana, not far from
New Orleans. which grows a tobacco
which is as black as your hat and as
strong as fresh I've. This Is known
as perioue tobacco. It is cured In its
own Juice and is said to be sold IN
rolls wrapped around with cords, ana
is said to grow sWeeter as u becomes
older. 1t is too strong for those not
accustomed 10 use il.
The tobacco of North Caroline and
Virginia makes good cigarets- and
billions of the little white papered
health destroyers come from the soil
near where I am writing This tobacco
is mild. light and yellow, and IL has
a fine flavor. I went through a cigareJ
factory here, which Is one or the
largest Of the United States, the
product Of which amounts 10 some
billions d year The manager tells
me that the demand for cigarets IS
greater than can be supplied and that
this factory made 3 half billion more
cigarets in January of this year than
il did in the same month of last year
There is a company at Durham, n e.
that is now ma king 9.000,000 CiEarets
a day. and the total number annually
manufactured by US is equal TO 20
for every man. woman and child in
the country.
How CfEarets Are Made.
In making cigarets the tobacco is
prepared by machinery and grounu
and favored to taste. 1t is fed from
the machines onto streams Of thin
tissue paper. the tobacco being rolled
and pasted by the machines and cut
by them into Cigarets- In fact almost
everything Is done by machinery, and
he-tobacco is hardly handled by man
from the time il enters the factory
until it goes out in special cars for
export all over the country. The ma
chimes work as though they had
brains. There is one which counts
the cigsrets, as II puts them into
boxes Of twenty so that they just fill
package Of a certain shape. The
machine first lays two rows Of seven
ciEsrets and then one row Of six It
never makes a mistake These ma
chimes are almost human in their
manipulations- They have steel hands
boxes and bags Of tin or cloth per-
forming hundreds Of opera tons.
which end in the completed products
OF manufactured tobaccos OF various
kinds
There is one firm at Durham. \. c.,
pounds Of Eranulsted smoking tobac-
co. and there is a factory here that
makes 100000 packages Of such to-
bscco per day The Durham factory
puts its tobacco in little cotton sacks,
and il is now turning out 100000
such sacks every - hours There is a
company in Richmond that is now
making more than million cigars
every day. 1t has also an output OF
cigarets that runs into the billions
year
The town Of Reidsville. n C.. manu-
features $4,000 600 worth OF plug to
bacco a year The factory there be
LONGS TO the American Tobacco com
pany. and II is the largest plug plant
Of that combination Il pays almost
half million dollars per annum for
revenue stamps
In coming to this tobacco belt Of
the south 7 expected TO find some
large plantations. The fact is that the
most Of the tobacco crop comes from
garden patches, and the farmers estl-
mate the size OF their crops. not by
the acre, but by the hill There are
about 1000 hills TO the acre, and a
man who has a half million hills is
nabob. If all the tobacco fields OF
the United states were put into one
block. the field would be only about
twice the size OF Rhode Island. its
area being a little more than 100000
square miles. II all the tobacco
farmers we're gathered together they
would number something like 500, 0OO-
In most cases tobacco Is but one
Of a number OF crops raised on a
farm. II Is costly to raise and It re
quires almost constant labor from its
planting in early spring until along
about August or September. when II
is cured and ready for market I
met here an old planter, who Is the
leading buyer for one of the large
~nhnnnn and zgEnm him 70
tell me in simple language the story
Of tobacco from the seed TO the
mouth OF the consumer. said he
Requires Good Treatment.
Tobacco is a king among plants,
and n requires royal treatment. It
has to have just the right climate
and just the right soil. and II must
be nursed and cared for from the
time it is planted until II goes to
the market was talking not long
ago with man in the city who had
bought a farm. He became IN
terested in my story Of tobacco and
its profits. and said: 7 would like
to raise a little tobacco myself. and
/ wish You would send ne about a
bushel Of seed for a trial Why,
man. I replied, a bushel OF tobacco
seed would plant the whole state Of
North Carolina" One ounce Of the
seed contains $4,000 grains. and
single plant Will produce enough
seed for ten acres Of hills. The
seeds are esch about as big as the
point Of a pin They have TO be
mixed with ashes Or dirt before
planting. in order not to SOW them
too thick"
How are they planted asked.
No" was the reply. They are
sown by hand in a plant bed. much
like cabbage seed. and when the
sprouts come up they are trans
planted in hills like cabbaEes or to
matoes- The making o. the plant
bed is not easy The ground is COW
cred with wood and burned 50 that
the earth is roasted and the insects.
seeds and other vegetable matter
cooked out Of it. tt is MANFRED
heavily and after the seed is sown
a cover OF cheesecloth is stretched
over IL 70 keep in the heat and keep
out the insects A plant bed 20 yards
square will raise enough plants for
100000 hills
After the plants are set out" the
tobacco farmer continued. they have
to he cultivated. They are hilled Up
like potatoes and the weeds are cut
down. They grow to a height OF
three or four feet and the leaves
branch out on all sides. Where they
branch suckers sprout out These
have TO be pulled Off again and
gain, so that all the siren 9Th OF the
plant may 90 into the leaf and Tor
the same reason the top rs cut OF
that the plant may not 20 TO seed
Must Watch For Enemy.
while the croD is growing every
plant has 10 be examined night and
morning TO keen off the insects and
worms. The worst pest is the horn
or tobacco worm. This comes from
a moth which can lay thousand
eggs in 2 night The eggs hatch
within q Few hours into worms the
thickness Of 4 horse hair. They be-
gin TO eat the tobacco plant and
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