Tobacco

Tobacco was an important crop in West Virginia. It has been a widespread social habit and a major health problem. Although its economic importance as an agricultural crop dwindled over the course of the century, West Virginians’ rates of tobacco consumption remained among the highest in the country.

Varieties of Tobacco

Virtually all tobacco produced in the state is the burley type, including the Yellow Orinoco and Sweet Roanoke varieties, maturing at a height of four to six feet. Historically, the main tobacco counties were Mason, Putnam, Lincoln, Cabell, and Jackson, although some tobacco was grown in more than a dozen other counties. West Virginia had mostly small, part-time producers who grew tobacco for extra income. The larger tobacco growers in the western part of the state typically grow 15 to 20 acres.

Tobacco Crop

Tobacco is related to garden vegetables, flowers, weeds, and poisonous herbs such as potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, petunias, jimson wood, ground cherries, and nightshade. The family of plants is Solanaceae; the genus Nicotiana contains about 100 species, only two of which have been extensively cultivated. Nicotiana tabacam is used in cigarettes and tobacco and is the predominant type of crop tobacco.

Raising Tobacco

Raising tobacco is often a labor-intensive family enterprise, from the sowing of seed beds to transplanting, cultivating, harvesting, and stripping. In addition to weed elimination, plants must be inspected for tobacco worms and disease. Tobacco must be topped and suckered to promote root growth and larger leaves. During harvest in September the plants are cut and speared on poles and left in the field to wilt. Then the poles are hung upside down on tiered racks in open barns where the richly aromatic burley is air-cured for one to two months. Tobacco is readied for market by stripping and sorting the leaves and packing them into bales.

History Facts

In 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, tobacco helped finance the revolution by serving as collateral for loans the Americans borrowed from France!

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