The Culture of Cigar Leaf Tobacco in Texas is a 1912 booklet written by Otto Olson from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Cigar tobacco was grown in Texas starting in 1890, though experiments by the USDA in the first decade of the 1900s allowed for good cigar leaf tobacco to finally be grown in the state.1
Of cigar leaf tobacco production in 1912, Olson writes that a limited amount of wrapper leaf and a limited amount of filler leaf are grown in Texas. But it is not the quantity that is impressive – it’s the quality. “Of all domestic cigar filler tobaccos, the Texas product is undoubtedly among the very best, if not the best, especially when grown from straight Cuban seed.”1 Because of the costs involved, little tobacco was grown.
The filler tobacco grown in the state was of Cuban seed and was called ‘Texas Cuban.’2 The wrapper that was grown in Texas was Sumatran shade-grown or a Big Cuban hybrid, known as Texas Big Cuban.3
Olson covers the preparation, cultivation, planting, harvesting, curing, and sale of cigar tobacco in this booklet. He also reviews experiments conducted by the USDA to determine the best methods of producing good cigar leaf in Texas. Overall, there was not much profit in producing cigar tobacco in Texas even if the quality was good.
The Culture of Cigar Leaf Tobacco in Texas is in the public domain and can be read for free on Google Books.