Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce Part 31

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Kentucky planter.]

His attachment for the horse has developed qualities of patience and thoroughness that are shown elsewhere than on the "course." Benefiting by years of training and study, the success that follows his efforts shows at once that such talents are not confined to a single field of operations. In many respects like the Virginia planter, they differ somewhat in their taste in all that pertains to the turf and the field. But we would not lose sight, among his many n.o.ble traits of character, of that love of his State that pre-eminently characterizes the Kentuckian. He is justly proud of her soil and of her sons, and whether in the halls of Congress or on the field of carnage and blood, fears not to maintain the honor and safety of the one and the other.

It is surprising to one acquainted with the growth of tobacco and the value of the Southern States for its production that so small an area of land is devoted to its culture in Georgia, Florida and Louisiana.

When owned by Spain, West Florida was noted for its tobacco, and produced large quant.i.ties which were exported to Spain and France. The soil of Florida is well adapted for tobacco, and the rich hummock lands produce an excellent quality for cigars, not unlike Havana leaf.

Its cultivation has been tried in various parts of the State, but the result has not warranted its cultivation to any great extent excepting in Gadsden County where the plant flourishes as well as in Cuba.

The seed used in Havana and the plant resembles it so closely that even Cuban planters cannot distinguish it from that grown on the island. The mode of cultivation is nearly the same, and the soil is said to produce a leaf of tobacco similar to that of the celebrated Vuelta de Albajo. Formerly the product was sent to New Orleans, and the leaf was p.r.o.nounced by some dealers to be bitter, but most of them considered it valuable. The planter selects the high lands or hummocks, the soil of which is light and rich for the tobacco field.

The plants are carefully drawn from the bed, and transplanted afterwards. The mode of culture is to plow between the rows and hoe the plants carefully.

A Florida tobacco field in appearance is not unlike a _vega_, or Cuba tobacco field; the same luxuriant growth of the forest may be seen on every hand, and the "queen of herbs" grows underneath or near the fragrant Orange and the stately Magnolia. The soil of Gadsden County is in some respects unlike that of the rest of the State in that there is an entire absence of limestone, which is found elsewhere all through Florida. The climate of the State is well adapted for the growth of tobacco, and is less changeable on the Gulf side than along the Atlantic coast.

Formerly larger crops were raised than now. Under the old _regime_ when on every plantation were a score or more of idle negro urchins, a large portion of the labor could be performed by them, such as worming, dropping the plants, and picking up the primings, while now the labor has to be paid for in money or its equivalent. At this time, the "wrapper leaf" was considered to be among the best for cigars, and brought high prices. In the days of slavery, tobacco was considered to be as profitable as the cotton crop, and good tobacco plantations were considered to be the most valuable in the State.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Florida tobacco plantation.]

This peculiar tobacco region is without doubt capable, with proper management, of producing a superior article for cigars, both wrappers and fillers, and when grown on "new ground" the staple is exceedingly fine. The leaf cures as rapidly, and is of as good color as in Cuba, and in a favorable season and when harvested fully ripe, is dest.i.tute of that bitter taste formerly ascribed to it. The plants grow large, and have that smooth, shiny appearance peculiar to Havana tobacco, the leaves growing erect, and frequently covered with "specks" or "white rust," one of the best evidences of a fine flavored and a good-burning tobacco. A Florida tobacco-grower gives the following account of the plant:

"The Gadsden 'wrapper-leaf' was always in high repute, and extensively used in the manufacture of cigars, being in size, firmness, and texture fully equal to the best Cuba, and far superior to the Connecticut seed-leaf. Where the variety known as the Cuba filler has been tried, it has succeeded finely in this county, possessing that delicate and peculiar aroma so highly prized in the Havana cigars. We need but the capital to make the most profitable crop that is grown. It is a fact, that of all the counties of the State, many of them abounding in the very finest soil, Gadsden is the only one that has succeeded in making the Cuba tobacco a staple market-crop. Prior to 1860 it rivaled in net returns the great staple cotton, and from present indications, it is about to resume its former status among the great agricultural products of the country."

"Whether this success is attributable to any peculiarity in the elements of the soil, I am not able to determine, but this fact is worthy of note, that, except immediately on the banks of the Apalachicola River, which forms the Western boundary of the County, there is an entire absence of the rotten limestone which so largely pervades the other sections of the State. For the planter of limited means, there is no crop so well suited to his condition as the Cuba tobacco. To produce a given result there is a less area of land required than is demanded for the production of any other field crop. The cultivation, harvesting, and preparation for market is simple, and the labor so light that it may be partic.i.p.ated in by every member of the family, male and female, over six years of age. The growth of the plant is so rapid, and its arrival at maturity so quick, that it never interferes with any of the provision crops, and rarely with a moderate cotton crop."

In Louisiana the tobacco plant flourishes well and grows as well and as luxuriantly as sugar cane. Even along the banks of the Mississippi the plants attain good size, and succeed as finely as in some of the other parishes in the interior of the State. The Perique and Louisiana tobacco are the princ.i.p.al varieties cultivated, and attain nearly the size of Connecticut seed leaf. In St. James parish the soil seems well adapted for Perique tobacco, and here it readily takes on that black hue that is one of the peculiar features of this singular variety. In Coddo parish tobacco is cultivated to some extent, but does not produce a leaf equal to that grown in St. James Parish. The tobacco grown in the Parishes of Bossier and Natchitoches is used chiefly by the growers of the parishes and is fitted for both smoking and snuff.

The Louisiana planters have adopted the method of the French in doing up their tobacco--twisting it in rolls, or as the French call them, "Carrots." The planters of St. James Parish annually put up from ten to fourteen thousand carrots of Perique, each carrot weighing about four pounds.

Mr. Perique, from whom the tobacco takes its name, made many improvements in the manner of preparing the tobacco for market, one of which consisted in taking up the twisted lumps (after remaining in press for six months), spreading them to fifteen or sixteen inches in length and having completed four pounds in weight, rolling it into a lump which retained its shape by means of a rope one-fourth inch in diameter, tightly twisted around it. The labor in pressing and twisting is entirely done by hand, and attended to with the most scrupulous care.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Louisiana tobacco plantation.]

The Creole planters sometimes raise two, and even three crops on the same field, two of them being the growths of suckers or shoots from the parent stock or stump. The growers of Perique tobacco have tested Havana seed, but can see but little difference between the product and that from Virginia or Kentucky tobacco seed, while the growth is much smaller. In color Louisiana tobacco is very dark, entirely different from any other variety grown in the Mississippi valley.

Some few years since tobacco culture was introduced into California, and the belief then entertained by those who planted the consoling weed, that the state would soon become as famous for raising tobacco as she now is for producing wheat and gold seem likely to be realized. The soil and climate of California are admirably adapted for tobacco. In the valleys the land is a deep alluvial loam, easily worked, producing bountiful crops of the finest leaf tobacco. The planters have experimented with several varieties, including Havana, Florida, Latakia, Hungarian, Mexican, Virginia, Connecticut, Standard and White leaf. Large crops are grown, especially of Florida tobacco, which, with careful culture, produces two thousand five hundred pounds of merchantable leaf to the acre. The planters get their Havana seed from Cuba, preferring to do so rather than to risk the seed from their own plants. At first they used home-grown seed and could not see any serious deterioration or change in the quality of the tobacco, but a singular change in the form of the leaf took place. That from home-grown seed grew longer, and the veins or ribs, which in Havana tobacco stand out at right angles from the leaf stalks took an acute angle, and thus became longer and made up a greater part of the leaf.

Of Florida tobacco the home-grown seed comes true.

Tobacco is now being tested in the several counties in the State and with every promise of success. Many of the ranches seem well adapted for the plant and the planters are confident by their new process of curing, of being able to produce an article equal to the best Havana brand. The plants attain a remarkable size, and grow up like many kinds of tropical vegetation, without much care being bestowed upon them, although the plants are regularly cultivated and hoed. The planters are not troubled with that foe of most tobacco fields, "the worm." They attribute this in part to the excellence of their soil and partly to the abundance of birds and yellow jackets. The planters do not always "top" the Havana and do very little "suckering." If the ground is rich, and free from weeds they let one of the suckers from that root grow, and thus become almost as large and heavy as the original plant. They believe that the soil is strong enough to bear the plants and suckers, and that they get a better leaf and finer quality without suckering.

In summer the roads are very dusty in California, and this dust is a disadvantage to the tobacco planter. On some of the plantations double rows of shade trees are planted along the main roads, and gravel is spread on the interior roads; and to protect the fields of tobacco from the high winds which sweep through the California valley, almonds and cottonwoods are planted for wind-breaks in the fields.

Some of the planters employ Chinese to cultivate the plants, who are very careful in hoeing and weeding the tobacco, living an apparently jolly life in shanties near the fields. A witty California correspondent of the _Tobacco Leaf_ writes concerning the early cultivation of tobacco in that State:

"We are doing a great many other things in California now besides raising grain, fruit, wine, wool, and gold. We are doing a lively business in tobacco. Fifteen years ago I was down East on one occasion when they were gathering the tobacco crop--which goes to New York, and, by a process equal to wine making, becomes Havana tobacco. It struck me that this country was admirably adapted to its cultivation, and I brought back some seed, which I gave to a friend living on the bank of the Sacramento River, instructing him to plant it as per direction given me. We sat down and calculated the immense fortune we would make raising tobacco, if the experiment was a success. A week later my friend, who was an impatient sort of a fellow, wrote me just a line--'No results.' I replied, and asked him if he expected a crop of tobacco in seven days. A few weeks later he wrote, 'Here she comes;' two weeks later, 'How big is the stuff to be?' two weeks later, 'Not room for tobacco and me too. Who shall quit?' I heard no more for a month and thought I would go up and see it. I did so, and the steamboat landed me at my friend's ranch. I could not see the house, and hallooed. I heard an answer from the depths, and then following a path, I found my friend swinging in a hammock in the shade of a grove of tobacco trees. I desire to maintain my reputation for truth and veracity, so necessary to a correspondent, so I won't say how big or how high those tobacco plants were; but my friend's hammock was slung from them--and he was no feather-weight--the leaves completely embowered the cottage. I congratulated him on the results--such a grove and such a shade--and moreover I said, 'You will be permanently rid of mosquitoes.' 'Will I!'

said he. 'Do you know that these gallinippers have learned to chew already, and the habit is spreading so that all the old he-fellows are coming down from Marysville to take a hand.' I inquired if my friend had cured any or smoked any.

He pointed to a Manyanita pipe split open on the ground, and said. 'Before it was real strong, some three weeks ago, I tried a leaf in that pipe. Observe the result--busted it the second whiff, and knocked me off the log I was sitting on.'

Such was the first experiment in tobacco raising in California. But now they have learned the trick. They have searched the State for the poorest and most barren soil, and, having found it are cultivating a splendid article of genuine Havana leaf tobacco, manufacturing cigars as good as you get one time in twenty even in Havana, making several brands of smoking tobacco, and, lastly, an article of Louisiana perique, ('peruke' proper,) that any old smoker would go into ecstasies over, fully equal, it is said to the genuine old-fashioned article, and that is saying a good deal. Now if we can supply the world with cigars and tobacco, we have got a dead sure thing for the future, even if gold gives out, grain fails and the pigs eat up all the fruit. Your people who have been paying fifteen cents apiece for genuine Havana cigars imported direct from--Connecticut, should rejoice and join in an earnest _hooray!_"

In Mexico the tobacco plantations exhibit a diversity of scenery not met with in other portions of America. The soil is well adapted for the crop, and on many of the plantations in the Gulf States the plant grows as finely as on any of the _vegas_ of Cuba. The Mexicans are among the best cultivators of the plant in the world, and, like the Turks, prefer its culture to that of any product grown. The plant is a strong, vigorous grower, and ripens early, emitting an odor like that of Havana tobacco. The climate is so favorable that from one to three crops can be grown on the same field in one year, and yield a bountiful harvest without seemingly impoverishing the soil.[66]

Transplanted in the summer or autumn, the plants grow through the winter months, and in spring are gathered and taken to the sheds.

Sartorius, in his work on Mexico, says of its culture on the plantation:--

[Footnote 66: Shepard says of the cultivation of tobacco by the Indians:--"The tobacco which is raised on the Tehuantepec isthmus is said, by good judges, to rival that of Cuba, and commands, in the capital, equal prices with the far-famed Havana. It is cultivated by the Indians, whose fields, or '_milpas_,' according to Indian custom, are situated at some distance from their villages, often in the depths of the forest. Upon these little patches they bestow whatever labor is consistent with dislike for exertion, leaving the rich soil to accomplish the balance."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mexican tobacco plantation.]

"Various kinds of tobacco are planted, mostly that with the short, dingy, yellow blossoms, which has a very large, strong leaf. But there is little doubt that the sorts would be more carefully selected, if the trade were not fettered by the monopoly. Most of the government planters enter into an arrangement with the small farmers and peasants who have to grow a certain number of plants, on conditions of handing over the harvest at a low figure--six to eight dollars per crop. These _aviados_ receive something in advance, and their chief profit consists in securing the sand leaf and the greater part of the after-harvest, which they sell to the contrabandists. It is indeed allowed to export whatever remains; but it is attended with so many annoyances from the authorities, that it is never attempted. The many ships which enter the Mexican harbor of the east coast with European manufactures, find no return freight except gold and silver, cochineal, vanilla, a few drugs and goat skins, all of which take up very little room in the ships (money is usually sent off in the English government steamers); consequently they must either proceed to Laguna to buy log-wood, or they must take in sugar, coffee, or tobacco, in a Cuban or Haytian port. As soon as tobacco becomes an export article, its cultivation must increase immensely in the Coast States, the Mexican being very partial to this branch of agriculture, which occupies him part of the year only."

Mayer also alludes as follows to the same subject:--

"A large portion of the tobacco sold in the republic is contraband; for the ridiculous and greedy restrictions and exactions with which a plant of such universal consumption is surrounded, necessarily disposes the people to violate laws which they feel were only made to impair their rights of production and trade under a const.i.tution professing to be free."

The government planters in the State of Vera Cruz have large, fine plantations, and the plants are carefully tended and cultivated as in all countries where tobacco is a government monopoly. On each plant a certain number of leaves are taken off, including the sand leaf, which is thrown away, and everything in the way of topping and suckering performed as carefully as on the tobacco farms in Cuba. The small farmers who raise only a few thousand plants are not as careful as the large planters, and are sometimes guilty of planting more than the number agreed upon, while the mountain pa.s.ses towards the table-land are carefully guarded to prevent smuggling of the crop, which is far more remunerative than selling to the government.

We will now take the reader to the primitive tobacco plantations of America about the middle of the Sixteenth Century. The plantations were not located in Cuba as many have supposed but what has been variously named Hispaniola, Hayti, and St. Domingo. It was in this island that the Spaniards first began the cultivation of tobacco and inaugurated (under the guise of Christianity) that career of monstrous cruelty, with which their insatiable appet.i.te for the burning of heretics and for the baiting of bulls so well accords. In 1509, Diego Columbus, the eldest son of the great discoverer, a.s.sumed in St.

Domingo, or as it was then called, Hispaniola, the vice-regal powers which had been intrusted to him. Diego as portrayed by the historian "was a man as n.o.ble as his father, and almost as gifted; and he had his father's fate. Like his father, he had to bear all that Spanish envy and Spanish malignity could inflict. In 1511, Diego Columbus sent Diego Velasquez to conquer Cuba." From historians Velasquez gets a better character than most of the _Conquistadores_, who in general were as ferocious as they were audacious and fortunate. No serious opposition was or could be offered. With the name of Velasquez the prosperity of Cuba is inseparably identified. As Governor of Cuba he was a vigorous colonizer and civilizer. He founded Havana, which he called the Key of the New World, and which is said to rank as the eighth place in the hierarchy of commercial cities. Havana, however had long been flourishing before the seat of Government had been transferred to it from Santiago. It was Velasquez who introduced slavery into Cuba; and it was during his vice-royalty and under his sanction that those memorable exploratory and conquering expeditions began, the most astonishing of which was that to Mexico, led by Cortez, the insubordinate lieutenant of Velasquez, whose death is said to have been hastened by the rebellious and ungrateful conduct of Cortez, and perhaps by the spectacle of such immense and rapid success. The agricultural, commercial, and general growth of the West India islands at this period would have been much more rapid if the Spaniards had not annihilated the native population, and if they had not been exposed to incessant piratical attacks. These were often of the most desolating kind. In 1688, the city of Puerto Principe was plundered and destroyed. From its strongly fortified position Havana set the buccaneers at defiance, and sometimes saved the whole island from ruin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: St. Domingo tobacco field, 1535.]

The exact period of the first cultivation of tobacco in St. Domingo is not known, but we find that as early as 1535 the negroes had habituated themselves to the use of it in the plantations of their master. Soon however its cultivation increased, and during the latter part of the Sixteenth Century the Spaniards shipped vast quant.i.ties to Europe, a very large amount of which found its way to England, where it brought fabulous prices. The Spaniards, by the application of the lash and other cruelties, extorted from the negroes an amount of labor never equaled by any other task masters in the world. Forcing these slaves to labor on the plantations from morning until night, with the fierce rays of a tropical sun shining full upon their uncovered backs, and goaded on to the performance of the severest toil, is it any wonder that the haughty cavaliers of Spain grew rich from their industry, and feasted on the products of the Indies.

Cultivated on the rich soil of this fertile island, the tobacco of St.

Domingo had no compet.i.tor, until the Spaniards began its culture a little later on the island of Trinidad, the product of which in time stood at the head of all the tobaccos of the Indies and of South America. The tobacco trade at this time was wholly controlled by the Spaniards, who, though successful in this direction, made but slow progress in colonization. Compared in the British colonies in the New World, the Spanish possessions were weak and incompetent, and for all their advantages in their great product, it was ultimately rivaled by the English Colonial tobacco. In the conquest of the New World, Spanish energy and enterprise seem to have exhausted themselves; and as Spain was declining, its colonies could not be expected rapidly to advance. The history of the Spanish conquest in America is a record of cruelty and of blood, while that of English colonization is marked by English rigor and enterprise, and is one of successful daring and ultimate triumph.

The West India plantations, however, were still worked, and for more than a century St. Domingo yielded a vast amount of tobacco, until the soil of Cuba was found to be better adapted for its production than any other of the West India islands, not excepting even the island of Trinidad.

Hazard, in his work on Cuba, describes the celebrated _vegas_ or tobacco plantations, of the island as follows:

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Cuban _vega_.]

"The best properties known as _vegas_, or tobacco farms, are comprised in a narrow area in the south-west part of the island, about twenty-seven leagues broad. Near the western extremity of the Island of Cuba, on the southern coast, is found one of the finest tobaccos in the world. Within a s.p.a.ce of seventy-three miles long and eighteen miles wide, grows the plant that stands as eminent among tobacco plants as the lordly Johannisberger among the wines of the Rhine.

Shut in on the north by mountains, and south-west by the ocean, Pinar del Rio being the princ.i.p.al point in the district. These _vegas_ are found generally on the margins of rivers, or in low, moist localities, their ordinary size being not more than a _coballeria_, which amounts to about thirty-three acres of our measurement. The half of this is also most frequently devoted to the raising of the vegetable known as the _platano_ (banana), which may be said to be the bread of the lower cla.s.ses. A few other small vegetables are raised. The usual buildings upon such places are a dwelling house, a drying-house, a few sheds for cattle, and perhaps a small _bohio_ (hut), or two, made in the rudest manner, for the shelter of the hands, who, upon some of the very largest places number twenty or thirty, though not always negroes--for this portion of the labor of the island seems to be performed by the lower cla.s.ses of whites. Some of the places that are large have a mayoral, as he is called, a man whose business it is to look after the negroes, and direct the agricultural labors; but, as a general thing, the planter, who is not always the owner of the property, but simply the lessee, lives upon, directs, and governs the place.

"Guided by the results of a long experience transmitted from his ancestors (says a Spanish author), the farmer knows, without being able to explain himself, the means of augmenting or diminishing the strength or the mildness of the tobacco. His right hand, as if guided by an instinct, foresees what buds it is necessary to take off in order to put a limit to the increase or height, and what amount of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g is necessary to give a chance to the proper quant.i.ty of leaves. But the princ.i.p.al care, and that which occupies him in his waking hours, is the extermination of the voracious insects that persecute the plant. One called _cachaga_ domesticates itself at the foot of the leaves; the _verde_, on the under side of the leaves; the _rosquilla_, in the heart of the plant; all of them doing more or less damage. The planter pa.s.ses entire nights, provided with lights, clearing the buds just opening, of these destructive insects. He has even to carry on a war with still worse enemies,--the _vivijagnas_, a species of large, native ants, that are to the tobacco what the locust is to the wheat.

This plague is so great, at times, that prayers and special adoration are offered up to San Marcial to intercede against the plague of ants.

"The plant, whose original name was _cohiba_, seems to have been cultivated first by Europeans on the island in the vicinity of Havana. The island of Cuba is without doubt well adapted for the cultivation of tobacco--the soil, climate, and improved methods of culture all tend to the production of a leaf tobacco as celebrated as it is valuable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Killing bugs by night.]

"Between the 'Lower Valley,' in the Nicotian, not the geographical, sense of these words, lie the so-called _Partidos_ which produce the tobacco that is sent to Europe as _Partido_ or _Cabanas_. The leaf often surpa.s.ses that of the 'Lower Valley' in size and fineness, as well as in the beauty of the color; but it is inferior in quality. The tobacco farmers though stalwart fellows are not fond of work, and too often waste their time at the tavern. Many of them from thriftlessness are plunged into debt; and scarcely is the harvest ended when they borrow money from the tobacco merchant on the following harvest, who thereby obtains the right to interfere, it may be despotically, with the management of the crop. Continual embarra.s.sments tempt the tobacco planters to be dishonest. To cheat their creditors, they often sell the best part of the crop in underhand fashion. Such of the tobacco farmers as wish to produce a great deal of tobacco, without regard to the excellence of the article, leave the plant to its natural growth, which is both scientifically and otherwise objectionable, for it is on a process of thinning and pruning a due diffusion of sap in the leaves depends, and consequently the quality of the tobacco."

The tobacco, after being baled, is sent to the Havana market. The bales of tobacco are carried on the backs of mules or horses to the city or to the nearest railway station.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Going to market.]

"In the long line or train of mules or horses, the head of one mule or horse is tied to the tail of the one before it.

On the back of the foremost sits the driver. The hindmost carries a bell, which enables the driver to know whether any of the animals have broken loose."

From the description given by Hazard of Cuba, its soil, climate, and other resources, it will readily be seen by all acquainted with the tobacco plant that this famous island is well adapted for the production of a tobacco that for fineness and delicacy of flavor is hardly rivaled. With the peculiar composition of the soil, and with a climate well adapted for the perfection of all kinds of tropical plants and fruits, it can hardly be imagined that any finer variety of tobacco can be grown than that produced in Cuba and the adjoining islands. Doubtless the climate of Cuba is nearly the same as when Columbus discovered the island, and wrote in such extravagant language its praise. The soil of Cuba is prolific, and the variety of tropical plants and fruits grown upon the island is quite remarkable.

Nowhere is this seen to a greater extent than in the varieties of tobacco cultivated. Although there are several kinds and qualities grown on the island, the mode of culture upon all the _vegas_ is nearly the same. These _vegas_ or tobacco farms greatly outnumber the coffee and sugar estates, but are much smaller, and require a less number of hands to work them. Hazard estimates the number at ten thousand, while they are constantly increasing as new fields are being tried and new modes of culture introduced. Russell says of tobacco culture in Cuba:--