The Production of Cigar-Leaf Tobacco in Pennsylvania is a USDA Farmers’ Bulletin from 1910 and revised in 1918, written by William Frear and E.K. Hibshman. It explores the cultivation and preparation of cigar leaf tobacco throughout the state. It notes that tobacco was first grown in Pennsylvania in 1689.
At the time of printing, “Pennsylvania ranks second in acreage and value of the tobacco crop among the cigar-tobacco States of the United States. Lancaster County produces two-thirds of the tobacco crop of the State. Most of the cigar leaf produced in Pennsylvania is comparatively dark and heavy and is used chiefly as filler…Pennsylvania Broadleaf is the chief variety, although considerable Pennsylvania Havana is also grown.”1
The book explores the soils and types of tobacco in different parts of the state, and discusses the methods used to grow the plant.
If you’re interested in these topics, this short bulletin will be of interest to you:
- The state of Pennsylvania
- Methods of growing and curing tobacco, and how those methods have changed over time
- The growth and subsequent decline of tobacco production in the United States
The Production of Cigar-Leaf Tobacco in Pennsylvania is in the public domain and can be read for free on Google Books.
- Frear and Hibshman, The Production of Cigar-Leaf Tobacco in Pennsylvania, 1918, Preface [↩]