54 " The Bulletin. 



grass seed sprout and begin to come up, then I cultivate the surface of the land 

 and kill the weeds and grass again. 



I keep up this surface culture after every rain to sprout and destroy the 

 weed and grass seed in the land and conserve the moisture. When the time 

 comes to sow turnip seed I look out for a rain ; when I see a cloud coming, 

 and am reasonably sure there will be rain, I mix my tiu-nip seed with a 

 liberal quantity of some good fertilizer rich in potash and sow them down on 

 the prepared land and rake them in lightly. When the rain comes the seed 

 sprout and the young plants come right on up and get rooted in the land before 

 it dries out. But just before the seed comes up I always give the land a good 

 coat of tobacco stalks, reserved for that purpose. Following this method, not 

 one year in the last IG or IS have I failed to get an unusually large yield 

 of the very finest turnips : but this is not the good part of it, having sprouted 

 and destroyed the weed and grass seed in the laud while getting ready for the 

 turnips, doing just a little more work puts it in fine condition for tobacco 

 plants. When the time comes to sow the tobacco seed, all you have to do is 

 to pull the turnips off. if they have not yet been taken off. rake off the old 

 tobacco stalks, if they are not rotten enough to work into the land, put on a 

 little more manure free from grass seed, and sow down over the bed a 

 liberal quantity of some good fertilizer and work it all well into the land, 

 making a fine mellow seed-bed. Smooth it off well ; then measure out the 

 tobacco seed you wish to put on the land and mix them with a sulficient 

 quantity of dry ashes, sand or fertilizer to handle well and sow down on the 

 bed, putting on about half the seed while sowing from end to end or in going 

 over the bed the first time. Then turn and go across the other way or sow 

 from side to side the other half of the seed. This going over the bed twice 

 insures an even distribution of the seed on the land. After the seed are sown, 

 rake or brush them in lightly, firm the soil in some way, put on the canvas 

 and your bed is done, and all without burning a stick of wood. Now, I have 

 told Vou of what I believe to be the best way to prepare a plant bed and also 

 of wiaat I believe to be the most expensive way (that of burning). Of course, 

 there are other ways. One way is to go into the- forest and select some good, 

 rich, moist spot of land in a warm place, rake the leaves off, dig up, manure 

 and fertilize well, and sow the seed without burning the land. This is a very 

 good way, and I have no objection to it, only that plants grown in this way are 

 usually more tender than plants grown in beds out in the open field. When 

 beds are prepared in this .way we should always be careful to dig down well 

 around the edges of the beds and cut off all the roots that may have grown 

 out into the land from surrounding timber. Otherwise these roots will I'ob 

 the young tobacco plants of all the food and moisture they should have, and 

 they will be a failure. 



Another way of preparing seed-beds is that of keeping over old beds from 

 one year to another and sowjng them without reburning. In this case, when 

 the plants are pulled off a bed it is then covered over with straw or leaves 

 sufficiently thick to keep the weeds and grass from growing ui) over it and 

 sown again the next year. But I do not like this method, as such beds are 

 likely to be damaged more or less by grubs. Then, too, the plants on such 

 beds are liable to be attacked by root-rot and other diseases. In case beds are 

 kept over in this way they should always be sterilized before the tobacco 

 seed are sown. To sterilize a bed it is advisable to add one pint of formalin 

 to every 121/^ gallons of water used, and spray the mixture uniformly over 

 the bed, at the rate of from three quarts to one gallon to every square foot 

 of land : then put on the canvas and let it stay on one or two days to keep in 

 the fumes; then take off the canvas and let the bed air and dry some ten days 

 or two weeks before the tobacco seed are sown. Some claim that one and 

 one-half or two pints of formalin to every fifty gallons of water is strong 

 enough for this sterilizing mixture. 



Now, I have said all I wish to about the preparation of plant beds. Of 

 course, there are some little details about the work 1 have failed to mention, 

 but they are of minor importance, and I take it for granted that the intelli- 

 gent farmer will understand just where they come in and know how to deal 

 with them in his practice. 



