274 Transactions of the 



from the soils and climate of California. From Wisconsin to Florida, 

 and from Missouri to Connecticut, it is a staple subject of husbandry. 

 On the continents of Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America, in the 

 islands cit' the East and West Indies, it is grown of different qualities, 

 cultivated by widely different methods, and cured by very various treat- 

 ment. Even the inferior article raised next door to us, in Mexico, pays 

 its way. It is manifest, therefore, on the face of the proposition, that the 

 crop ought to be one of the staples of Californian and Oregon ian pro- 

 duction. Old planters, at least, know that where Indian corn will grow, 

 tobacco will grow. The force of this consideration has no doubt had its 

 weight in the series of attempts heretofore made in so many different 

 localities in California, to produce good tobacco. "Yuba, Placer, Stanis- 

 laus, Merced, Tulare, Sonoma, Napa, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara, 

 Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles have all, within 

 the recollection of this writer, contributed their experience — generally 

 an unsatisfactory one — toward the common fund of knowledge, and no 

 doubt a number of other localities ought to be added to the above list. 

 This series of nearly uninterrupted failures has left in each locality ita 

 legacy of discouragement; more especially has it tended to confirm old 

 tobacco growers in the belief that the crop cannot be made to succeed 

 in California, because they have seen that the methods followed were 

 approved ones — that the lack of success was not to be set down to the 

 account of inexperience, but rather of experience. It is to such old 

 planters that this paper is, in part, addressed. An attempt will be made 

 to so point out the difference between the new methods and the old, 

 together with reasons for each departure, as to command the assent of 

 their judgments to the propriety of the changes. At the same time 

 directions will be given for the culture of the crop and its management 

 during curing, so full and minute that the farmer who has never seen a 

 tobacco plant need not make a failure should he attempt the crop. To 

 the first named, some of these directions may seem needless and tedious; 

 to the second, the remarks upon old methods may appear only confusing 

 and out of place; but if each will have regard for the needs of the other, 

 and the obligation that rests on the writer to attempt to satisfy those 

 needs as to both, the length of this essay will not probably be found to 

 exceed the limits required for its best usefulness. ' Some remarks in 

 elucidation of California husbandry, its methods, and the reasons for 

 them, will doubtless be found superfluous by our experienced farmers, 

 which may yet be useful to new comers. 



THE SOIL. 



QUALITY OF THE SOIL. 



The soil for tobacco must be a loam. 1 have said that the plant will 

 grow wherever Indian corn will; there may be some localities in the 

 mountains of California, or in the northern part of the State, where 

 the season between the killing frosts of Spring, and those of Autumn, 

 may be too short to mature tobacco, notwithstanding that they may 

 admit the cultivation of corn. Independent of this consideration, it 

 may be said, in general, that good corn land may be expected to bring 

 a satisfactory crop. It should be a piece of fairly warm loam, with 

 sand enough to work free to the plow. As will be seen later on, the 

 tobacco may be cured in the field without shelter. It is needful, there- 



