At least four distinct varieties of N. tabacum were grown, viz.: (1) A large broad-leaf type; (2) a long narrow-leaf form; (3) a type resembling (2) but with broader leaves; (4) a type with very small leaves. Thus, prior to the settlement of Jamestown, the Span iards and Portuguese had developed an import ant trade in tobacco between Europe and the West Indies and South America. John Rolfe began the culture of tobacco at Jamestown in 1612 from seed brought from South America or the West Indies and in 1619 20,000 pounds were shipped to England. The growing of tobacco in Maryland began about 1631 and soon became an important enterprise. These two States have continued to grow tobacco in large quantities up to the present day. The Virginia colonists at first grew the crop on the bottom lands of the tide-water region. As the settlers moved further inland, however, it was found that the more elevated and somewhat heavier soils produced tobacco better suited to trade requirements. Overproduction of tobacco'soon became a serious menace to the welfare of the colonists and an inspection service was estab lished in order to prevent the export of dam aged or inferior leaf. Attempts were made also to limit the acreage grown but with in different success. It appears that the growers learned at a very early date the influence of the soil and the cultural and curing methods on the character of leaf tobacco produced. Thus, the selection of suitable soils, the proper spacing of the plants in. the field, use of certain methods of manuring and following definite practices of topping, harvesting and curing came to be recognized in the first few decades of practical culture as being of fundamental importance. In the main, present day cultural methods, therefore, differ from those of the early colonists in details rather than in fundamental principles. The exports of tobacco from Virginia had reached 18,000,000 pounds in 1700, and about 40,000,000 pounds in 1750 while at the outbreak of the Revolution the combined exports of Virginia and Maryland amounted to 100,000,000 pounds. Prior to the Revolutionary War the production of tobacco in the other colonies was not of much import ance, but during the past century there was an enormous expansion in total production in the United States. New centres of production were developed and the crop as a whole became dif ferentiated into a number of distinctive types. After the close of the Revolution pioneer set tlers from Virginia and Maryland carried the culture of tobacco into Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio. The tobacco produced in western Kentucky and Tennessee, however, found its way to market through New Orleans while the product of eastern Ohio was sent to Baltimore. Missouri at one time became a leading tobacco-producing State although in recent years the production has fallen off to a nominal figure. During the first quarter of the last century the culture of cigar leaf to bacco began to assume importance in the Con necticut Valley and by the middle of the century the cigar tobacco districts of the Miami Valley of Ohio, the Gadsden area in Florida and the New York areas had become established. Next came the development of the Lancaster, Pa., district and, beginning about 1870, the culture of cigar leaf developed very rapidly in southern Wisconsin. As tobacco culture in Virginia was pushed forward onto the gray lands of the south central border counties and into North Carolina a lighter and finer-textured product was obtained. About 1825 began the use of charcoal in curing which had the effect of further improving the quality of the light colored leaf and subsequently the charcoal was replaced by a system of flues for leading out of the barn the smoke from the fuel used in curing. In this manner began the development of the vast bright flue-cured tobacco industry. During the latter part of the century this in dustry spread into eastern North Carolina and South Carolina. Tobacco culture had been in troduced into the Blue Grass region of Kentucky at an early date but the discovery of the White Burley variety in Brown County, Ohio, in 1864 revolutionized the industry in central Ken tucky and southern Ohio and the Burley type goon came to be produced in enormous quan tities. The outstanding event of the past quar ter century in the industry is the development in the Connecticut Valley and in western Florida of the shade-grown cigar wrapper leaf industry, a very intensive and highly special ized agricultural enterprise. Turning to the introduction of tobacco into foreign countries, it appears that the plant was first grown in France in 1556 by Andre Thevet from seed taken back by him on his return from Brazil. The platit attracted little attention, however, till introduced and exploited at the royal court by Jean Nicot, Ambassador to Portugal, whose name became immortalized in the generic name of tobacco, Nicotiona. Tobacco also was first grown in Portugal and in Spain at about this time, and almost immediately was introduced into Belgium, the Netherlands and Rome. Upon his return to England from Virginia in 1585 Sir Richard Grenville introduced pipe smolcing as practised by the Indians. For a full half century after its introduction into Europe to bacco was used almost exclusively as a medici nal agent and it was generally believed to pos sess wonderful curative properties. During the first half of the 17th century however, indulgence in tobacco became very general in most of Europe although in some instances strenuous efforts were made by the authorities to prevent its use. Amsterdam and Rotterdam became at the outset the leading distributing centres for American-grown tobacco. The cul ture and the use of tobacco were introduced into India, Persia and other Asiatic countries early in the 17th century.
Commercial Types of Tobacco.—The dif ferentiation of leaf tobacco into types has ref erence primarily to the different uses of the leaf in manufacture. A further distinction is fre quently made as to the district or locality in which the product is grown. In the United States there are eight important commercial types of tobacco, viz.: (1) cigar leaf ; (2) dark fire-cured export; (3) White Burley; (4) bright flue-cured or yellow tobacco; (5) dark air cured manufacturing; (6) Maryland and east ern Ohio export; (7) Virginia sun-cured; (8) perique. The cigar leaf type is used almost exclusively in the domestic manufacture of cigars. There are three sub-types of cigar to bacco: (1) wrapper leaf used as the outer covering of the cigar; (2) binder leaf used for holding the cigar's shape; (3) filler leaf which tnakes up the body of the cigar. Wrapper
leaf is grown chiefly in the Connecticut and Housatonic valleys of New England and in* the Gadsden-Decatur district of Florida and Georgia. Binder leaf is produced mainly in Dane, Rock, Vernon and Crawford counties of Wisconsin and in the Big Flats district of New York. The leading centres for the pro duction of filler leaf are the Lancaster area of Pennsylvania, the Miami Valley district of Ohio and the Onondaga district of New York. The dark fire-cured type is exported to the extent of about 80 per cent of the total production, being unsuited for domestic manufacture except in making snuff and for limited use as a plug wrapper. This type is grown in some 20 counties of central Virginia, in the Clarksville and Hopkinsville, and the Paducah districts of western Kentucky and Tennessee and the Henderson or Stemming district of Kentucky. Great Britain is the heaviest purchaser of fire cured leaf and the other principal foreign pur chasers have been Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Belgium. This type of leaf is of heavy body, dark in color, rich in nicotine and possesses a distinctive creosotic or smoky smell and taste because of the combustion prod ucts absorbed from the smoke used in the proc ess of curing. The White Burley is distinctly a domestic manufacturing type, but little of it being exported. It burns well, is of light body. rather neutral in flavor and yields a large Pro portion of light colored leaf. Its one most important characteristic, however, is its remade able capacity for absorbing the liquid sweeten ing materials or sauces used in the manufacture of the sweetened type of plug chewing tobacco. For this purpose the Burley has no equal. It is also used very extensively in the manufacture of cut-plug smoking and fine-cut chewing to baccos and in the production of cigarettes. White Burley is grown chiefly on the rich lime stone soils of central and northern Kentucicy and in southern Ohio. Considerable quantities. also, are produced in a few counties of west ern West Virginia and southeastern Indiana. The bright flue-cured or yellow tobacco has come to be the world's most important type in point of quantity consumed. In domestic manufacture the chief uses of this type are in the production of granulated smolcing tobaccos, cigarettes and the flat type of plug chewing tobacco. It is our most important cigarette type. In recent years flue-cured leaf has been a very aggressive type in foreign markets and at the present time more than half the total production is eicported, the largest foreign buyers being England, China and Canada There are two subdivisions of the flue-cured producing district, namely, the Old Belt section, embracing the northern central counties of North Carolina and adjoining border counties of Virginia, all in the Piedmont region, and the New Belt section of eastern North Carolina and South C.arolina, lying in the Coastal Plain region. The most distinctive characteristic of typical flue-cured tobacco is its lemon or orange yellow color. In the region of Kentucicy and Tennessee lying between the Burley section to the east and the dark fire-cured section on the west there are two districts known as the One sucker and the Green River which produce large quantities of dark air-cured tobaccos used both for domestic manufacture and for export. The one-sucker tobacco is used for the domestic manufacture of twist chewing tobacco and for the so-called rehandling export trade with South Africa, the West Indies and Central and South American countries. The Green River tobacco is used for the manufacture of long-cut chew ing and for export to England. The Maryland and eastern Ohio tobaccos have been exported to Europe for centuries, France and The Netherlands being the chief purchasers. The Maryland leaf also is used to some extent in domestic manufacture. This tobacco is com paratively light in body and color, dry and chaffy and has good burning qualities but is rather characterless in aroma. In the eastern Ohio district the old piebald or spangled type has been largely replaced in recent years by White Burley. In a few counties in the vicinity of Richmond, Va., a dark type of leaf known as sun-cured is produced although in late years the old method of partially curing the leaf in direct sunlight has been largely abandoned in favor of air-curing. This to bacco is used in the manufacture of the flat type of chewing tobacco. Perique tobacco is grown only in Saint James Parish, La., and the total production is not large. This type deserves mention because of its distinctive aroma, due primarily to the unique method of curing employed by the growers. Perique is chiefly used in the preparation of fancy smok ing mixtures to which it adds aroma. To the above-named domestic types entering into com merce must be added at least three foreign types of special importance, namely, the Cuban, the Sumatra and Java and the so-called Turkish. In a small area of Cuba located in the province of Pinar del Rio in the vicinity of San Juan y Martinez is grown the world's finest cigar leaf, noted for its remarkable aroma. This district is known as the Vuelta de Abajo and the outlying tobacco-producing territory is designated as Semi-vuelta. Other leading Cuban districts are the Partidos of Habana province and the Remedios of Santa Clara prov ince. Porto Rico, the Bahia district of Brazil and portions of the Philippines also produce cigar tobacco of high merit though they do not equal the best Cuban. On the east coast of Sumatra and in portions of Java a very fine grade of cigar wrapper leaf is grown and sev eral million pounds of this product are imported into this country each year for the manufacture of lower and medium-priced cigars. Because of the thinness of leaf, fineness of texture and veins and general uniformity of the grades this tobacco has a great wrapping capacity per pound, In the portion of southern Macedonia around the port of Cavalla and other nearby towns and in the Smyrna, Trebizond and Sam soun districts of Asia Minor are grown the finest cigarette tobaccos in the world. The so called Turkish cigarettes are made from blends of these tobaccos. Egyptian cigarettes also are made from the Turkish types and tobacco is not grown in Egypt. The Macedonian, Smyrna and Sa,msoun tobaccos are imported into the United States in large quantities.