TOBACCO. 173 



level lauds near Springfield, that are not overflowed. The 

 finest leaf tobacco, the most desired, the most sought for, is 

 produced on that quality of soil which I first named. But 

 tliere are other soils, good loams, that lie higher up, that pro- 

 duce good qualities of leaf by being properly fertilized. 



The great question with us is, how we shall get manure to 

 raise so much tobacco and to raise our other crops. It is ex- 

 ceedingly high, and we can hardly get enough for the general 

 purposes of the farm, if we raise much tobacco. My plan has 

 been to make all the manure that I possibly could make by 

 keeping cattle and housing the manure in barn cellars, as we 

 call them ; and by fixing all the ammonia that is liable to 

 float off, and saving that in the stables or in the barn-cellars, 

 where it is somewhat warm and does not freeze. The mode 

 of fixing tliat is simply tlie earth-closet system, which I have 

 practised for fifteen years, and which is now just coming into 

 vogue in houses. I make a practice of getting muck or light, 

 sandy loam, even clay loam, wherever I can get it, in the fall 

 of the year before the fall rains come on, I spend several days 

 in carting that material, sods and soil down, a foot or two in 

 depth, just as I can light upon it, sometimes in the highways, 

 sometimes in the field. This I cart back of my cow stable, 

 and make a pile six or eight feet in breadth, and it is so sus- 

 tained by joists that I can pile it up five feet deep. This is 

 sprinkled in back of the cows every day, after the stables are 

 cleansed, and liberally distributed there, so as to absorb all 

 the urine that passes down through. I have what is called in 

 England, " boarded floors," that is, a two-inch plank, running 

 lengthwise like a gutter, back of the cattle, three inches wide 

 with a space then of two inches. Most of the manure made 

 by the cattle goes down through. The urine runs off from 

 where the cows stand and runs down through. I formerly 

 had the floors all boarded in this way under the cattle, but 

 they never got used to it ; they were timid and would not lie 

 down upon it. I thought it would take off the flesh of the 

 cattle and therefore I have substituted lattice-work back of 

 the cattle. The stables are cleaned twice a day, and the drop- 

 pings mixed with this earth, and it deodorizes the whole 

 body of the manure. There is no effluvia comes up 



