Ohio Tobacco Field.
With a degree of pride peculiar to all tobacco growers, (when any new variety has originated,) they point with no little egotism to their fields of "white tobacco," and ask their fellow-growers of New England to rival this "great plant." So successful have they been of late with cutting leaf, that their fields yield them returns not inferior to many of the choicest tobacco farms on the Connecticut River. The Ohio growers have one advantage over earlier growers of the plant—their land has not been cultivated as long as the famous tobacco lands of the Connecticut valley, and does not require that thorough fertilizing which is so necessary in New England. Still the tobacco field cannot be too thoroughly prepared for the growth of tobacco, whether in the tropics or in the more temperate regions.
In the curing of tobacco, the Ohio growers have but few equals, and no superiors. At first, the complaint made by the buyers of Ohio tobacco was, that "Ohio tobacco has the appearance of being too hard fired, indeed so much so as to have the flavor of being baked." The early culture of tobacco in the State attracted the attention of tobacco buyers, especially those who had dealt largely in Maryland leaf, and so much so, that one large firm issued a circular and sent to all the prominent growers in the tobacco growing section giving instructions in regard to its cultivation and management. We copy from one lying before us, and dated 1842. It reads as follows:
"As tobacco is every year becoming a more prominent article in your State, we deem it of so much importance that we have had this circular printed on the subject of its Cultivation and Management, and take the liberty to address it to you. New ground produces the finest and highest priced tobacco. The plants should be set about 2 feet 9 inches or three feet apart, which will give them sufficient air and sun to ripen, and give the leaf a good body. It should be topped as soon as it buttons, kept clear of suckers, and cut as soon as it is ripe—if favorable weather, it will be fit for the house in 15 to twenty days after it is topped.
"When cut, let it remain until sufficiently lank to handle without breaking; but it should be housed before it is sun-killed, or much deadened, to prevent which, put it up in small heaps, say as much as a man can carry, with the heads to the sun, as soon as cut, and even then the top plants may be too much deadened, unless soon removed to the house. If sun-killed, it will not cure fine. The Maryland system is to fire without flues, and when the precaution is taken to lay planks or boards directly over the fire, accidents seldom occur.
"Slow fires are kept up for the first four or five days after the house is filled, so as to give it a moderate heat throughout, until the Tobacco is generally yellow, then the fires are raised or increased so as to kill the leaf and stem in forty-eight hours or less. When cured on the stock, as is done in Maryland, it can be better assorted, or the different qualities more readily separated than when stripped in the field and cured in the leaf. When stripping and tying up in bundles, it should be assorted according to the following classifications: 1st, Fine Yellow; 2d, Yellow; 3d, Spangled; 4th, Fine Red; 5th, Good Red; 6th, Brown and Common. It is often put up as if there were but two or three qualities, hence there is a great mixture of the several sorts, which is a very serious disadvantage in selling, as the purchaser generally values it at the price of the most inferior in the sample.
"The process of curing unfired, or air-dried tobacco, is similar to the above, except the firing; when so cured, it is more difficult to condition, so as to make it keep; but it generally sells quite as well. Planters should be very careful to have their Tobacco in good dry condition when they deliver it to the dealer or purchaser, as it is all-important to him to receive it free from dampness or moisture, which bruises it and injures its quality. We think such management as directed above would raise the value of Ohio tobacco as high as similar quality of Maryland."
