TOBACCO. 



187 



time to cure it. After you get the crop in the shed, if there 

 comes a cold, freezing night, as is often the case in New Eng- 

 land, it will freeze. The tobacco crop must be hung up early 

 enough to be cured before the cold weather in the fall. That 

 will certainly freeze it, for no tobacco shed was ever built 

 tight enough to protect it from such freezes as we frequently 

 have in October and the first of November. So that our sea- 

 son is none too long, begin as early as you please, to raise and 

 cure a good crop of tobacco. We must then begin early with 

 tlie seed bed, and I will describe to you what we, in that por- 

 tion of the Connecticut valley where I live, consider the proper 

 way of preparing a seed bed. 



We begin this operation in the fall, early enough to be sure 

 that we can do it. Some of our farmers put it off so long 

 that the ground freezes before they begin, and then they can- 

 not do it. We select the best manure that we can find, free 

 from seed ; one great point in preparing the seed bed, is to 

 have it so arranged that the weeds will not trouble the plants. 

 Some gentlemen among us, who have given the most attention 

 to it, and have beds in which they have raised plants for four, 

 five or six years, do not spend more than a day in weeding a 

 bed for five or six acres of tobacco. The beds are perfectly 

 free from weeds, and when kept for years, and properly man- 

 aged, the plants will not be troubled with weeds. The custom 

 of some of our farmers is, not to use any barn-yard manure 

 on their seed beds ; they use Peruvian guano, sowingit in the 

 fall and plowing it in, in order that its sharp and caustic na- 

 ture may be subdued a little, so as not to injure the seed when 

 it is sown in the spring. It is universal with our best tobacco 

 raisers to manure in the fall, and plow in. Some use super- 

 phosphate ; and the best kind of superphosphate is an excel- 

 lent thing ; and some use fish, which is also an excellent ma- 

 nure for tobacco plants. The experience of these gentlemen 

 has taught them, that manure whicli is free from weeds is an 

 essential thing to use upon a tobacco bed. 



In the spring, the bed (unless it is very light soil) is plowed 

 again thoroughly. Some just harrow it over, sow the seed, 

 and roll it in ; but I think the general custom is to plow the 



