us disadvantage in selling, as
the purchaser generally values it at the price of the most
inferior in the sample.

"The process of curing unfired, or air-dried tobacco, is
similar to the above, except the firing; when so cured, it
is more difficult to condition, so as to make it keep; but
it generally sells quite as well. Planters should be very
careful to have their Tobacco in good dry condition when
they deliver it to the dealer or purchaser, as it is
all-important to him to receive it free from dampness or
moisture, which bruises it and injures its quality. We think
such management as directed above would raise the value of
Ohio tobacco as high as similar quality of Maryland."

[Illustration: Tobacco warehouse.]

As when first cultivated, the Ohio growers still select new land as
the best adapted for tobacco, though not as easy of cultivation. When
the tobacco growers are ready for preparing their "new ground" they
invite in their friends and neighbors, and the field is "grubbed" in a
short time. "Grubbing Day," with the young people, is an event of no
common interest; the farmers gather from the adjoining farms and with
mirth and muscle soon render the field fit for the "Indian herb." In
the evening, the planter's home is filled with the young people, bent
on having a right good time, and with "stripping the willow" and other
games, close the day if not the night in the most enjoyable manner.
Many of the country merchants take the tobacco of the growers when in
condition to handle, paying them (or at least a portion of it,) in
goods, or purchasing the tobacco as they do other merchandise. They
have large warehouses where they receive and pack the tobacco until
shipped to market. In the early Spring the growers take their tobacco
to the workhouses, where it is packed by the merchants who frequently
have a claim on the crop for advances made on the same.

Having given a description of the Connecticut, Virginia and Ohio
tobacco growers, we come now to the most extensive cultivators of
tobacco in America--the Kentuckians. With the exception of the
Virginians they are the oldest growers of the plant in the United
States,[65] and are confessedly among the most thorough cultivators of
the plant in the world. The soil of Kentucky is admirably adapted for
the great staple, and along the banks of the Green River may be seen
the largest tobacco fields in the worl