Year: 1874




great deal of practical experience in
the cultivation, curing, handling and
inspecting of tobacco in Virginia and
Kentucky, many years ago, have
naturally given particular attention
to the many articles in the journals of
our city in regard to the effort now
being made to grow and cure tobacco
on the Agricultural Grounds near the
city. The articles referred to indicate
that editors are fearless writers-will
write anyhow, even in danger of lay
ing themselves open to suspicion
that they do not always understand
their subject thoroughly.


1t will be readily admitted by the
best informed upon tobacco culture
that ignorance upon that subject is
not at all censurable but a persistent
public exhibition of ignorance upon
any subject is we'll calculated to Gre
ate an anxiety either for the sanity of
the writer or the honesty of his pur-
pose. According to newspaper ac-
counts, those who have not seen for
themselves would suppose everything
pertaining to the company's interest
in their tobacco was intelli-
gently carried ON and would neces-
sarily bring around complete success.
But, anyone of experience in the
management and proper manipula-
tion. of tobacco, is utterly astounded
and bewildered when he witnesses the
mode of operations adopted by the
tobacco company, and is told that
such will lead to success. A more
fragrant disregard for all the laws gov
erning the principles involved in the
proper coloring and curing of tobacco,
could scarcely be practiced were it
under the control. of native of the
Frigid Zone who had never seen the
fragrant weed grow. This is said in
all kindness to the manager, or the
company, for do not have the pleas
ure of knowing any one connected
with the business, and do not mean
to say that they will not succeed; but
do mean to assert that the process of
coloring and curing, as see it adopted
at the fair grounds, never succeeded
in any other country. The process,
however, is not unknown to old to-
bacco-growers throughout the entire
tobacco-producing belt of the Atlantic
States. The same may be observed
as the practice and mode adopted by
all amateurs. People living on the
borders of the tobacco belt gener-
ally groaO some tobacco, and in
some seasons the groaOing is
success, but they do not
make a pound of tobacco that will be
To Tn,
such people are induced to move into
the midst of the tobacco-growing re-
gion in order to engage successfully in
the business, when, for want of proper
information and neglect of observa-
bly, lost. They soon learn that grow
as growing q corn-stalk or pumpkin
vine. But to produce an article ac-
ceptable to the manufacturer is quite
another thing. They find their 're-
turnsn all marked TX, lugs," "bulrs
eye," ETC., not even making a second
rate article; while, on soil not so we'll
adapted to it's growth, neighbor
"Chawer," from inferior looking
tobacco while growing, receives
returns for first-rate ga No. l bright"
and gets the top price of the market.
Then the new beginner compares notes
with his neighbor "Chawer" in re-
gard to handling, from priming to
topping, cutting, coloring, housing,
curing, stripping, bundling, drying,
casing, bulking and prizing, and he
finds that there was not nicotine
enough in the two-thousand-p pound
hogsEead which he sent to market to
make kitten sneeze, or for any other
purpose. Consequently he was not
entitled to any return for tobacco.
Having sent shadow on rotten stems,
his returns are for stems, and nothing
more.


1t has been repeatedly stated in the
newspapers that the great obstacle in
the way of success was the difficulty
in curing. If the mode of curing, or
attempt, is always the same all
over the State as that at the
Agricultural Grounds, then it will
always be failure, and would be
failure in any portion of the globe
where tobacco is known to grow. All
the tobacco now cut and hung at the
Agricultural Grounds is past redemp.
tiOn and that to be cut must inevitably
go the same way iftreated in the same
manner, and all is lost to the COM
pany and to the locality as an expert
ment. This loss is not on account of
soil or climate, but is attributable al
together to ignorance or wilfulness.
| am not so uncharitable as to enter
tain even a suspicion that it is the
latter; the bungling in pruning, top
ping, cutting and hanging all testify
that it is the former. The condition
and position of the tobacco tells the
whole story to any old successful to-
bacco culturist. No attempt has been
made to color and cure; everything is
left to chance, and she is not without
her fetters.


1t is perfectly safe to say that there
is no better climate in the world in
which to cure tobacco than California.
In our climate tobacco can be cured
up any desired color, from bright
piebald to the deepest, richest brown,
and all, too, without any patent.
Kulp's patent (?l will never be sold to
any but amateur tobacco growers.
Every experienced, successful tobacco
grower will tell you that the initial
steps necessary to a proper curing are
instituted long before the knife is ap-
piled to the stalk; indeed, long before
the stalk is ready for the knife. The
manner of cutting is an important
operation, and no one should be allowed
to cut single plant who does not un-
derstand it or who will not do it under
instructions. This may appear strange,
but the very manner of cutting carries
it's influence into the curing, which
any intelligent man will readily see
and understand when explained by
in