The irIuLLKTix. 121 



I't'i-ii liters froiii the wrouf; sources, your (luality will decrease in the same 

 ratio, or perliaps faster, than your pounds increase, and instead of the farmer 

 beinji benelited. ho is damaged. It is not a difficult tliini,' lo grow 1,000 to 

 1,200 pounds of tobacco i)er acre in tlie old belt in North Carolina, and I 

 believe it is entirely possible to grow l.fiOO to 2,000 i)ounds ])er acre, if you go 

 in for pounds and sacrifice quality (speaking of <iuality in this article. I refer 

 to color and texture) ; but under existing con<litions, will sucli methods be 

 profitable? Knowing as little as we do about tobacco — when I say this I do 

 not mean to say that we know less than tobacco growers in other States, but 

 what I do mean is that we are just beginning to learn and there is a vast 

 amount yet to be learnwl about handling tobacco, both in growing and curing. 



The one important thing I should like to imi)ress upon all tobacco grow-ers 

 is that the ratio between quality and quantity is variable. When this is 

 thoroughly api)reciated, then we can make a start towards improving both. 

 The failure to grasp this one fact and appreciate the relative importance of 

 it has no doubt caused many a tobacco grower to get his balance on the wrong 

 side of the ledger. 



There are a few fundamentals that must rank first in importance in order 

 for us to increase our yield and still maintain our quality. 



The first is improved seed. All farmers should have an ideal plant from 

 which they hope to propagate their plantings. He cannot be sure that he is 

 doing this unless he saves the seed from this plant without any cross-pollina- 

 tion from other plants which may be very inferior. It is a well-known fact 

 unless the seed heads from this plant are protected they may become mixed 

 by bees, hunnning-birds, or butterflies carrying the pollen from one blossom 

 to another on their feet or bills. This pollen may be carried some distance; 

 consequently, when you have an "open pollinated" seed head, you do not know 

 what you are planting the next year. But by a "close pollinated" seed head 

 you know that you are planting seed from your ideal plant, and you can rea- 

 sonably expect, under similar environment and seasonal conditions, for like to 

 beget like, and from year to year there will be a perceptible increase in uni- 

 formity and general improvement of your tobacco. This, however, cannot 

 be done in one year's time ; no more can you develop a prolific corn from a 

 one-eared variety, in one year ; but by continuous selection of the two- and 

 three-eared stalks for seed more and more stalks w411 have two and three ears, 

 until within a few years you have a prolific variety. 



When you have saved your tobacco seed under bag, then it is very im- 

 portant that the light seed should be removed before sowing seedbed. This 

 can be easily done by building a fire in a close room, cracking the door, through 

 which will be a draft, and then pour the seed slowly from a bottle to a pan 

 placed on the floor, holding bottle some two or three feet above pan in front of 

 crack in the door. The heavy seed will fall in pan, the' light seed be blown 

 away. There are several methods in use, but I merely suggest this as a very 

 simple one. 



Deep and thorough preparation of the land is as important for tobacco as 

 corn or cotton. To illustrate this I think will probably show the tobacco 

 grower the folly of poor and shallow preparation. It is generally conceded 

 among the farmers in the bright flue-cured belt that they make a. good crop 

 of tobacco about once in five years ; the other four years the crop is from 

 medium to poor ; and when tobacco ranges from medium to poor — the farmer 

 is growing it at a loss. Consequently we decide the fifth year is an ideal 

 season, or approximately so, for a seedbed broken 3 inches deep, which is 

 about the average depth plowed in this bright tobacco belt. Now, if you will 

 break this land 6 inches deep, which you can do in fall or winter without 

 turning the clay on top, and not damage in the least the quality of your to- 

 bacco, then instead of having your tobacco drown on 3 inches of soil or fire 

 up on 3 inches of soil, you will have inches, which will take care of twice as 

 much rainfall, also hold twice as much moisture and in all probability reduce 

 the percentage of poor crops 50 per cent. I think every farmer can appre- 

 ciate at once the importance of it. After your laud is thoroughly broken it is 

 important that the land should be thoroughly fine. The hair-like roots of a 

 tobacco plant cannot grow off rapidly in clods ; so it is desirable to harrow as 

 often as possible before planting. 



