Tobacco: Growing, Curing, & Manufacturing: A Handbook for Planters in All Parts of the World
Science
Tobacco: Growing, Curing, & Manufacturing: A Handbook for Planters in All Parts of the World
Tobacco; Tobacco industry
On the same subject, an Illinois grower observes, “for us in the West,
and for all the localities that have not an over-amount of heat,
experience has proved, that a dry, warm soil (loam or sandy loam), rich,
deep, and containing lime, is most suitable for tobacco. The more sandy,
to a certain degree, the soil is, the better will be the quality of the
tobacco; the nearer the soil is to clay, the poorer will be the crop
under similar circumstances, although the yield may yet be satisfactory.
Clayey soil will hardly produce tobacco suitable for cigars. Wet and
tough clay soils are under no circumstances suitable to tobacco.”
_Situation._—Land intended for tobacco-culture should have good
drainage, and be sheltered from high winds. In Holland, where
tobacco-cultivation is carried out to great perfection, each field is
surrounded by a hedge about 7 ft. high; the fields are divided into
small plots, which are again bordered by rows of plants that are able to
break the force of the wind, which would injure the leaves, and render
them of comparatively little value. To this circumstance must chiefly be
attributed the fact that Dutch growers succeed in getting as much as 50
per cent. of leaves of the first quality, whereas in most other
countries 25 per cent. is considered to be a very good outturn.
In the United States, several rows of pole beans, i. e. scarlet runners,
a few steps apart, are sometimes planted as a wind-screen.
_Manure._—In its natural state, the soil will rarely possess the
elements of plant food in such a form as is most conducive to the
production of a fine tobacco-leaf. Any deficiency must be supplied in
the shape of suitable manure. Schlösing found that a bad burning tobacco
was produced on a soil containing little potash, on unmanured soil, on
soil manured with flesh, humus, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride,
and potassium chloride. A good burning tobacco was produced on a soil
manured with potassium carbonate, saltpetre, and potassium sulphate.
More recent experiments carried out by other investigators tend to
corroborate these conclusions. It is generally assumed that a soil rich
in nitrogenous organic matter produces a strong tobacco that burns
badly.
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