Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1881 — Tobacco Production in the United States. [ARTICLE]

Tobacco Production in the United States.

The report of J. R. Dodge, special agent for the collection of statistics of agriculture, showing the tobacco product of the United States for the census years 1880 and 1870, has been issued from the Census Office in Washington. The comparative statement presented in the report shows an increase in production of 80 per cent, during the decade, the product in 1880 being placed at 473,107,573 pounds, ana that of 1870 at 262,735,341. This apparent increase, Mr. Dodge says, exaggerates the real advance in tobacco cultivation, as the preceding census crop was a small one, and the fear of taxation may have operated to prevent a full census of the tobacco in 1870. The crop reported in 1880 was one of good production, and not in excess of present requirements of home consumption and exportation. Fifteen States produce nowj as in 1870, more than 99 per cent, of the tobacco of the United States, though it is reported in twenty-two other States and Territories. Of these only Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Massachusetts produce less than in 1870. Kentucky occupies the first position, producing 36 per cent, of the total product of the country. Virginia holds the second place, Pennsylvania has advanced from the twelfth to the third, Wisconsin from the fifteenth to the tenth, and North Carolina, Connecticut and New York have each gained one point in thu rank of the tobacco States. Those that have retrograded, relative to production, are Massachusetts, Maryland, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee. The average yield per acre is shown to be 731 pounds, varying from 1,599 pounds in Massachusetts to 471 pounds in North Carolina. This variation in the rate of yield, the report states, is due, in a differing degree, to the use and neglect of fertilizers, habit of growth of the different varieties and vicissitudes of the seasons. The following table shows the total product in pounds and the yield per acre, in 1880, in the fifteen leading tobacco-growing States : Pounds. Per acre. Kentucky 171,421,134 706 Virginia ; 80,099,838 573 Pennsylvania 36,957,772 1,340 Ohio 34,725,405 10!) Tennessee.. 29,365,052 707 North Carolina 26,986,448 471 Maryland 26,082,147 683 Connecticut 14,044,6>2 1,629 Missouri 11,994,077 773 Wisconsin 10,878,463 1,234 Indiana 8,872,842 742 New York 6,555,351 1,327 Massachusetts 5,369,436 1,549 Illinois 3,936,700 699 West Virginia 2.296,136 564