, 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 serio