ESSAY ON THE CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF 



TOBACCO. 



By L. J. Bradford, of Augusta, Ky. 



The success of a growing crop of tobacco depending much upon 

 early planting, the selection of such situations for plant beds as 

 will insure a proper exposure to the sun, is all-important. The 

 eastern or southern slopes of hills, near their base, afford the best 

 locations, the beds so situated being free from sobbing, and the 

 warmth of the sun greater than upon flat surface. Regard should 

 also be had to the character of the soil. It should be suflSciently 

 close to render it retentive of moisture, and yet contain sand en- 

 ough to give it quickness ; made earths and puffy soils are unfit, 

 being both too arid and liable to heave. Beds prepared in the 

 earlj"- part of the season require more burning than those at a later 

 period. There is but little danger of burning too hard, however, 

 at any time, as the plants generally succeed best upon the beds 

 most thoroughly burned. After the beds are thus burnt and 

 cooled off, they are dug up with a common sprouting hoe to a 

 depth suflScieut to afford the plant a loose soil in which to extend 

 its roots. Care should be taken to leave the surface soil a^ much 

 on top, in the preparation of the bed, as possible, as the young 

 plants will take a quicker and better growth. After the bed is 

 well pulverized by hoeing and raking, the seed, mixed with dry 

 ashes, is to be sowed as evenly as possible over the surface, at the 

 ratio of a common table-spoonful to every eighty square yards 

 (cubic measure), the bed lightl}' raked over or trodden evenly with 

 the feet and well covered with brush, on which there should be no 

 leaves, and protected from the intrusion of stock. So soon as the 

 young plants attain the size of a dollar, the brush may be re- 

 moved; if the weather is dry the brush may be suffered to remain 

 to advantage, and when removed taken off in the evening; with 



