TOBACCO, 183 



tobacco men who looked at it said, " Oh, white veins ! " But 

 those leaves were so large that they did not need to cut through 

 the veins to get a cover for the cigar. 



Mr. Hart. How many pounds do you raise to the acre ? 



Dr. Riggs. We think two thousand pounds to the acre a 

 good crop. I Have raised from two thousand two hundred to 

 two thousand four hundred pounds to the acre, by actual 

 measurement. I do not speak at random, as farmers do 

 sometimes when tliey say they plowed eight or ten inches 

 deep, and if you put on the rule you will find that it is four 

 inches. There are not many who measure down on the land 

 side of the plow. It is very indefinite. There are not many 

 farmers who plow more than five inches deep when you come 

 right to it and put on your rule. When you put on your 

 rule and find twelve inches, you have a very large furrow ; 

 there is a large amount of earth turned up. It looks 

 tremendous. It requires three yoke of oxen in ordinary 

 ground, with a double Michigan plow, or any other, to go to 

 such a depth as that and turn it over. I use a double Michi- 

 gan plow entirely in the preparation of my ground for to- 

 bacco, on stubble land, tnrf land, corn land, and ahiiost every 

 thing but oats after corn. I am sometimes tempted, when, 

 hard pushed for time, to take my Collins' steel plow, which is 

 the next best plow I use, going from eight to ten inches, by 

 measurement. I would suggest, while on this point, to every 

 member present, that he carry a rule in his pocket and meas- 

 ure the depth to which he plows, so as to have a little more 

 , definite information about it. I do, invariably, and when I 

 say a foot I mean a foot, when I say fourteen inches I mean 

 fourteen inclies. 



When I bought my farm the old furrow marks on the land 

 were not over four inches deep, and for a very good reason. 

 The former owner was one of those men who skin their land, 

 — take two dollars off a field and carry it to the city and sell 

 it for a dollar, put that dollar in their pocket, and think they 

 are growing rich. I plowed those fields with a double Michi- 

 gan plow, until I got down eight, ten and twelve inches. 

 Now I have acres of that farm in herd's-grass and red-top of 



