ear salt
water is equal in color and texture to any grown in the interior. But
generally the plant obtains its finest form and quality of
leaf--whether in the islands of the ocean, on the great prairies of
the west, amid the sands of Arabia, on the mountains of Syria, or
along the dykes of Holland--on lands bordering the largest rivers.
This is true of the tobacco lands of Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia,
Florida, Brazil, Venezuela, and Paraguay, as well as of those in the
islands of Cuba and St. Domingo, where the rivers flow to the southern
coast from the mountains which lie to the north. It must not be
imagined from this that tobacco can not be successfully cultivated at
a distance from valleys enriched by large and overflowing rivers. Some
of the finest tobacco grown in Connecticut is grown in counties some
distance from the river that gives name to our state.

When possible, select that kind of soil for the tobacco field that
will produce the color and texture of leaf desired. For Connecticut
seed leaf a light moist loam is the proper soil. The same field can be
used a number of seasons in succession; the result will be a much
finer leaf than will come from selecting a new field each year. The
early planters of tobacco in Virginia soon ruined their fields by
failing to manure them. In Maryland the soil best adapted for the
growth of tobacco is a light, friable soil, or what is commonly called
a sandy loam, not too flat, but of a rolling, undulating surface, and
not liable to overflow in excessive rains. New land is far better than
old.

A Missouri tobacco grower gives the following account of the selection
of soil for tobacco in that State:--

"Select upland, or black oak ridges and slopes, which
comprise a large area of the tobacco lands of our county,
and carefully clear off all the timber, and take out all the
roots we can conveniently, and break up the ground as
thoroughly as can be done by ploughing and harrowing until
all the tufts and dirt are perfectly pulverized."

In Cuba the planters select the red soil as the best for fine tobacco.
Some planters, however, prefer a soil mixed of 1/4 sand and 1/2 to
3/4 of decayed vegetable matter. In St. Domingo the soil is not
uniform. The planters select a deep black loam or tenacious clay, or
even loams mixed with sand. The most fertile places are on the banks
of the Yuna, from Laxay to Jaigua, in the vicinity of Mocha, on the
banks