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but never exposed to the rays of the sun. A sealed room is usually preferred for the purpose, and the heat generated is at times so great as to be quite uncomfortable. The sweating process is to tobacco what fermentation is to wine; it ripens and prepares it for use, perfecting its color and improving its flavor. The acrid, or pungent, taste is subdued, while the burning qualities are increased and it also gives a shiny, oily surface, which is called "satin face. All tobacco does not go through this process equally well. Some of it comes out dead and lifeless in appearance and lacking in texture and elasticity. The loss in weight is also quite consid erable, often amounting to 10 or 15 per cent.

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CHAPTER XX.

CIGAR-LEAF TOBACCO AT THE WEST AND SOUTH.

During the last few years of agricultural depression, many special crops, heretofore confined to limited regions, have been experimented with in other sections. Where these experiments have proven successful, such crops have been largely grown. Not many years ago, the broom corn supplies of the United States came largely from the Connecticut valley, then the crop emigrated to the Mohawk valley, but now it is mainly grown in Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska. Hops were formerly largely grown in New England, but were superseded by hops produced in Central New York, yet the remarkable success of hop culture on the Pacific coast has caused such overproduction and low prices. that it is a question whether the New York State hop industry will be able to maintain itself.

Whether a like state of affairs is destined to come about in the cigar-leaf tobacco industry remains to be seen. It is true that for many years this industry has been confined to limited areas in New England, Central New York and Eastern Pennsylvania, but it has long been a feature of Southern Ohio agriculture and, more recently, in Wisconsin. During the past six years, cigarleaf tobacco has been experimented with in many other sections of the United States, and in some of these cases with such attractive results as to indicate that the industry is destined to have a large development in those regions. Promising results have been obtained in certain parts of Nebraska, especially at Schuyler, in

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FIG. 123. GROWING SUMATRAN SEEDLEAF TOBACCO IN FLORIDA.

several localities of Colorado, and to a more limited extent in Washington, Oregon and California. In the latter State, cigar-leaf tobacco culture is now receiving the close attention of practical and scientific men, and should their work prove successful in obtaining leaf of good quality, its culture will doubtless be developed on the large scale characteristic of California enterprise.

In Texas, quite a number of crops of fine tobacco have been raised during the past three or four years, more especially in the southeastern part of the State, particularly in Montgomery, Victoria and Calhoun counties, the latter adjoining the coast between Aransas Bay and Matagorda Bay, Victoria adjoining it to the west. It is stated that one farmer, in Montgomery county, sold 8,000 pounds of cigar leaf grown, in 1894, on nine acres of "gray hickory" land, and that he got 40 cents per pound for the better grades for cigar wrappers, and a satisfactory price for the lower grades for fillers. Tobacco grown in Calhoun county has sold as high as 50 cents per pound. It is claimed for selections of the leaf grown in that section, that it is equal to the best tobacco grown on the Island of Cuba, for either fillers or wrappers. Well-informed Texas growers express a confidence that they will be able to successfully compete with tobacco grown in any part of the world.

The greatest interest and largest development of late years, however, of the industry in the so-called "new sections," has been in Florida and the adjoining counties of Southern Georgia. Forty years ago, much of this area produced a leaf which was considered desirable for cigars then in use, though most of the Florida crop, before the war, was exported to Bremen and Amsterdam, and was popular for its light color and mild flavor. But the industry languished until the tariff agitation of 1889 directed attention to tests that had been conducted privately in Gadsden county, and

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