178 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



then on the other, and if the shoots have not begun to branch 

 very much, it makes no difference ; he tops where he thinks 

 the plant ought to bo topped. Occasionally there will be a 

 plant that v/ill not be up high enough to top, and that he lets 

 remain, and when it gets a proper height, as we go through 

 the field to kill the large green worms that infest the plants, 

 we top the balance, or go through on purpose, if the ground 

 is not infested with worms. 



The plant after that requires little care until it reaches the 

 point for cutting. When it reaches a certain stage, (and we 

 generally detect that stage by going into the field, say at eleven 

 o'clock in the day, and bending a leaf betv/ixt the thumb and 

 finger,) if it makes a snapping noise and cracks open it is 

 ripe ; if, on the other hand, it bends very much like a piece of 

 India rubber, and only makes a crease, like drawing the back 

 of a knife across a leaf, it is not ready to be cut. Some 

 plants may be a little earlier than others, of course, if they 

 are more forward ; but in a piece evenly cultivated, and pretty 

 well prepared, well set with good plants, and all growing from 

 the first, the piece will be very even in its time of ripening, 

 so that it may be all cut at once. If we should leave a few 

 plants in a row they would not grow enough better to pay for 

 the trouble of cutting them separately. 



We cut differently from what we used to. We used to cut 

 in the morning after the dew was off, sometimes with a hatchet, 

 sometimes with a saw. A saw is the best. If your tobacco 

 is rank, and the leaves full of sap, a blow with the hatchet is 

 very apt to tear the leaves. The man takes a common fine- 

 toothed saw, seizes hold of the plant about a third of the way 

 up, and cuts it off. A skillful man will cut it off with one 

 cut. The first push of the saw will take the plant off, no 

 matter how large it is. He lays that right back on to the side 

 of the row carefully with a kind of sweeping motion, so as 

 not to break the leaves, seizes another and cuts that in the 

 same way. These plants are not allowed to remain there long 

 enough to heat very much. We have adopted a new plan. 

 We find that the quicker we can get the tobacco in the barn, 

 a,way from the sun and liglit, the better the color of the leaf, 



