Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/372

TOBACCO. confined to the wealthy. It was smoked in very small pipes and the smoke was expelled, not from the mouth, but through the nostrils. Tobacco was at first recommended for medicinal virtues, but soon became an article of luxury. The Popes Urban VIII. and Innocent XI. fulminated against it the thunders of the Church; the Sultans of Turkey declared smoking a crime. Sultan Amurath IV. decreeing its punishment by the most cruel kinds of death; and King James I. of England issued a Counterblaste to Tobacco, in which he described its use as “a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fumes thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.” Although the habit did not become prevalent in the East till the seventeenth century, the Turks and Persians are now the greatest smokers in the world. In India all classes and both sexes smoke; in China the practice is universal. In America the culture of tobacco began in Virginia with the earliest settlement of the colony. It is recorded that in 1615 the gardens, fields, and even the streets of Jamestown were planted with tobacco, which immediately became, not only the staple crop, but the principal currency of the colony. In 1619 “ninety agreeable persons, young and incorrupt,” and in 1621 “sixty more maids, of virtuous education, young and handsome,” were sent out from London on a marriage speculation. The first lot of these ladies was bought by the colonists for 120 pounds of tobacco each; the second lot brought 150 pounds each. The culture of tobacco was introduced into the Dutch colony of New York in 1646, though it never gained the same prominence there as farther south. Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, and later Kentucky, made it the leading crop almost from their first settlement. It long constituted the most valuable export of the colonies. From 1744 to 1776 the exports of the crop averaged 40,000,000 pounds a year. None of the cotton States now produce much tobacco, but one county in Florida, Gadsden, has long been celebrated for the production of Cuban tobacco, which always brings a high price. As a commercial crop tobacco is confined to rather limited areas in a few States. In the production of wrapper leaf for cigars Florida and Connecticut take the lead. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin produce a great deal of filler leaf for cigars. Other classes of tobacco are grown extensively in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri in the order named. The United States produces more tobacco than any other country in the world, and exports more than one-third of the product, chiefly to Germany, England, France, Italy, Austria, and Holland, in the order named. The value of the tobacco exported in 1850 was $6,417,251, in 1899 $25,467,218. The amount received by the United States Government from the internal revenue tax on tobacco products is a large one. In 1890 it amounted to $33,949,997. The value of tobacco imported in 1899 was $9,900,253, at an average price per pound of 70.2 cents.

The product of tobacco in Europe is nearly equal to the average production of the United States. Austria-Hungary produces about one-third of it, Russia one-tenth, Germany nearly as much, France about 35,000,000 pounds, and

the other countries a small quantity. Europe can easily produce all the tobacco required, but American tobacco is largely imported, because it is cheap and is considered valuable for mixing with and fortifying European leaf.

In America tobacco is divided commercially into four classes: (1) cigar; (2) cigarette; (3) manufacturing (chewing, smoking, and snuff); (4) export.

The variety of tobacco planted depends upon soil, climate, and market demands. The different types of tobacco are grown upon a wide range of soils differing mainly in their physical characters. Wet soils composed largely of clay produce large heavy plants that cure to a dark brown or red. Light sandy soils produce plants having a light thin leaf curing to a bright red, mahogany, or fine yellow. The influence of soil, climate, and manures on the quality of the produce is almost beyond what is known in any other cultivated plant. In the more northern regions the seed is sown in a hot-bed and protected from frost by cheese cloth. The young plants are very tender and require frequent watering with weak liquid manure. They will be ready for transplanting in five or six weeks. For cigar tobacco the plants are grown rather close, 14 inches in Florida giving leaves of desirable size, quality, and appearance. For manufacturing tobacco the distance should be greater. Cultivation should be frequent and shallow and should cease when the plants begin to button. Where the production of seed is not desired the plants are topped to prevent flowering, that their whole strength may be directed to the leaves except in the case of that grown for cigar wrappers when a thin leaf is the more valued. Fertilizers affect the quality of tobacco more than the yield. Barnyard manure produces a rank growth but poor quality. Potash is the most important element to be supplied in growing tobacco, and the best forms are the carbonate and the sulphate. Nitrogen is best supplied in cottonseed meal, bone meal, and dried blood.

When the leaves begin to turn yellow the plants are ready to harvest. This is usually done by cutting down the stalk near the ground. In the better grades of cigar tobacco the leaves are primed off, beginning with the lower as they ripen, a process requiring more labor, but giving a more uniform and valuable product. The time generally chosen for cutting is in mid-day, or when the sun is powerful. The cutting is done by hand, and only such plants are chosen as are ready. If the plants are very large, the stalk is often split down, to facilitate the drying. They are then removed from the field to the tobacco-house, around which are erected light scaffolds, from which the plants are suspended without touching each other. After drying the leaves are removed from the stalks and tied up in bundles called hands. The losses in curing are about 85 per cent. of weight at cutting. After curing tobacco goes through the process of fermentation or ageing. This consists primarily of a reduction in the per cent. of nicotine and the development of aroma. The action is caused by unorganized ferments or enzymes inherent in the leaf and may extend through a period of a few weeks or of two years, depending upon the method of handling. In the slow fermentation the tobacco is packed in cases and stored in