Editing Tobacco (section)

===Cultivation===
{{Main|Cultivation of tobacco}}
[[File:Patch of Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum ) in a field in Intercourse, Pennsylvania..jpg|thumb|upright|Tobacco plants growing in a field in [[Intercourse, Pennsylvania|Intercourse]], [[Pennsylvania]]]]

Tobacco is cultivated similarly to other agricultural products. [[Seed]]s were at first quickly scattered onto the soil. However, young plants came under increasing attack from [[flea beetle]]s (''Epitrix cucumeris'' or ''E. pubescens''), which caused destruction of half the tobacco crops in United States in 1876. By 1890, successful experiments were conducted that placed the plant in a frame covered by thin cotton fabric. Modern tobacco seeds are sown in [[cold frame]]s or hotbeds, as their [[germination]] is activated by light.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Garner |first1=W. W. |title=Tobacco Culture |journal=Farmers' Bulletin |date=February 27, 1914 |issue=571 |pages=3–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MX4JEAVPi4C&pg=RA21-PA1 |access-date=March 22, 2020 |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture}}</ref> In the United States, tobacco is often fertilized with the mineral [[apatite]], which partially starves the plant of [[Biological role of nitrogen|nitrogen]], to produce a more desired flavor.

After the plants are about {{convert| 8| inch|cm}}  tall, they are transplanted into the fields. Farmers used to have to wait for rainy weather to plant.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Yorktown |first1=Mailing Address: P. O. Box 210 |last2=Us |first2=VA 23690 Phone: 757 898-2410 Contact |title=Tobacco: Colonial Cultivation Methods - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/tobacco-colonial-cultivation-methods.htm |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref> A hole is created in the tilled earth with a tobacco peg, either a curved wooden tool or deer antler. After making two holes to the right and left, the planter would move forward two feet, select plants from his/her bag, and repeat. Various mechanical tobacco planters like Bemis, New Idea Setter, and New Holland [[Transplanter]] were invented in the late 19th and 20th centuries to automate the process: making the hole, watering it, guiding the plant in—all in one motion.<ref>{{cite book|last1=van Willigen|first1=John|last2=Eastwood|first2=Susan|title=Tobacco Culture: Farming Kentucky's Burley Belt|date=2015|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-4808-3|page=91|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JIkfBgAAQBAJ|access-date=February 2, 2018}}</ref>

Tobacco is cultivated annually, and can be [[harvest]]ed in several ways. In the oldest method, still used, the entire plant is harvested at once by cutting off the stalk at the ground with a tobacco knife; it is then speared onto sticks, four to six plants a stick, and hung in a curing barn. In the 19th century, bright tobacco began to be harvested by pulling individual leaves off the stalk as they ripened. The leaves ripen from the ground upwards, so a field of tobacco harvested in this manner entails the serial harvest of a number of "primings", beginning with the ''volado'' leaves near the ground, working to the ''seco'' leaves in the middle of the plant, and finishing with the potent ''[[ligero]]'' leaves at the top. Before harvesting, the crop must be ''topped'' when the pink flowers develop. Topping always refers to the removal of the tobacco flower before the leaves are systematically harvested. As the industrial revolution took hold, the harvesting wagons which were used to transport leaves were equipped with man-powered stringers, an apparatus that used twine to attach leaves to a pole. In modern times, large fields are harvested mechanically, although topping the flower and in some cases the plucking of immature leaves is still done by hand.

In the U.S., [[North Carolina]] and [[Kentucky]] are the leaders in tobacco production, followed by [[Tennessee]], [[Virginia]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[South Carolina]] and [[Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/|title=USDA/NASS QuickStats Ad-hoc Query Tool|website=quickstats.nass.usda.gov|date=2019|access-date=July 1, 2020}}</ref>