108 



The Woods led. — This bed was prepared in a moist bottom 

 in the woods, well protected by being surrounded with pines, 

 and was seeded about a week later than the first bed. The bed 

 was well burnt, the heavy coals taken off and the ground got- 

 ten in a finely^pulverized condition with hoes and rakes. It 

 was fertilized after the same method as before mentioned, seed 

 sown and labelled, and covered in the same way as the first 

 bed. 



Boards about one foot broad were placed around this bed 

 for the laths to rest on to which the canvass was tacked. 

 In addition to this purpose, when a plant bed is inclosed 

 with boards in the manner described, there is not much dan- 

 ger of its being attacked by the hopping flea beetle. 



The plants came up well in this bed and were not so large 

 as those in the first bed, when the dreadful March freeze 

 came. Comparatively few of these plants were killed, which 

 is accounted for, by the bed being so well protected from 

 the cold winds by the dense pine forest. 



After recovering from the effects of the cold, the plants 

 grew off rapidly and many were ready for setting out in the 

 month of April. These plants were not attacked at all by 

 the flea beetle, which fact is explained by the beds being 

 surrounded with boards and covered with cheese cloth. 



From experiments made in raising plants in open beds, 

 we find that they are liable to be destroyed by the flea bee- 

 tle and other insects. Hence, we can reasonably infer that 

 the best results will be obtained by having the plant bed in 

 a well sheltered moist place in the woods, by surrounding 

 the bed with boards, covering it with cloth and placing a 

 light dressing of short pine straw on the bed after burning 

 and before putting on the cloth. 



Again, it is better to use cloth of a heavier thickness than 

 the ordinary cheese cloth. It can be safely stated, that in 

 the experiments conducted for three years in raising tobacco 

 plants on the station, that fertilizing the plant beds with 

 equal parts of cotton seed meal and acid phosphate have 

 given better results than any other method of fertilization. 



