Total production. Amount produced by the different States.
Varieties raised. Description of the different varieties.
PRODUCTION OF TOBACCO LEAF IN THE UNITED STATES
The amount of tobacco leaf raised annually in the United States varies from 700 million lbs. to 1,000 million lbs. Thus, according to the Government Statistical Reports, the production in 1909 was 1,055,764,806 lbs., being an unusually high figure. The production in 1913 was 953,734,000 lbs. and in 1914, 1,034,679,000 lbs. The average crop may be taken as about 800 million lbs., about half of which is exported as leaf, and the other half manufactured in the U. S. into cigars, smoking and chewing tobaccos, etc., and consumed in the U. S. To produce this immense crop over one million acres of rich, fertile land is under culture, the actual government figures for 1913 being 1,216,000 acres, and for 1914, 1,224,000, and the value of the raw crop is from 80 to 100 million dollars, which works out to an average value of from 10 to 12 cents per lb. The cost of producing the best grades of cigar leaf in the Eastern States is from 8 to 10 cents per lb.; in Wisconsin from 5 to 10 cents. The price paid to the growers is from 5 to 15 cents, except for the highest grades (cigar wrapper leaf) for which special prices, up to 40 or 50 cents, may be paid. Smoking and chewing leaf of average grade fetches from 6 to 7 cents per lb.
From these figures it will be seen that the agricultural industry of tobacco growing is a most important one, and it is constantly increasing both in the quantity produced and in value. About 45 of the states in the Union are engaged in tobacco culture, the principal states and the quantities produced being as follows (for 1914):
| Kentucky | 364 | million | lbs. | |
| North Carolina | 172 | " | " | |
| Virginia | 114 | " | " | |
| Tennessee | 63 | " | " | |
| Ohio | 78 | " | " | |
| Wisconsin | 54 | " | " | |
| Pennsylvania | 48 | " | " | |
| Connecticut | 35 | " | " | |
| South Carolina | 36 | " | " | |
| Maryland | 17 | " | " | |
| Indiana | 12 | " | " | |
| Massachusetts | 11 | " | " | |
| Other states | 30 | " | " | |
| Total | 1034 | " | " |
Virginia was, until recently, the premier tobacco state. Tobacco was first raised in Virginia about 1619 when the quantity produced was about 20,000 lbs. By 1753 the records show that over 50 million lbs. were raised annually, all of which was exported. At this time and until about the period of the Civil War, Europe was dependant more than now on America for her tobacco supply, as at present a considerable part of her needs is supplied by her own production. Tobacco was not grown in Kentucky till about 1785 and a little later in Tennessee and Ohio. The cigar leaf industry of the New England States did not come into activity till about 1830. Cigar leaf was raised in Florida about the same time but was discontinued and was not resumed till fifty years later.
Virginia, Maryland and Tennessee have shown a declining annual production since the Civil War. Thus Virginia in 1860 produced nearly 30 per cent of the total U. S. crop, whereas at present it produces about 12 per cent only. The causes which have contributed to the decline in tobacco culture in the Southern States are the loss of slave labor as well as the loss of capital during the war; more particularly it is due to the impoverishing of the soil without adequate fertilization. Thus with superior fertilization and intensive methods, Massachusetts and Connecticut give 1,750 lbs. to the acre, as against 870 and 580 lbs. for Kentucky and Tennessee. In Massachusetts and Connecticut the cost for fertilizer per farm is $227 as against $17 and $4 respectively in Tennessee and Kentucky. Moreover, the Northern farms are smaller than the Southern.
Varieties of Tobacco raised