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ia clover. lu Ohio several crops are in mauy cases grown ia succession ; 

 sometimes two of tobacco, two of corn, and one of wheat, and tben grass 

 or tobacco again; in other places tobacco, Avheat, clover, as in other 

 tobacco regions. Farther west, where new lands are abundant, tobacco- 

 growing is either confined to such lands, or alternated with wheat, with 

 little thought of any regular course of rotation. 



CULTURE AND CURING. 



A comparison of the local modes of culture and curing reveals great 

 differences in the modus operandi of tobacco-husbandry. 



The cultivation in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, substantially 

 the northern limit of Connecticut Valley tobacco-growing, is essentially 

 the same as in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The soil is a warm, 

 sandy loam, manured with ten or twelve cords of stable-manure and 

 two to five hundred pounds of guano per acre, harrowed in. The surface 

 is ridged up to bring the manure around the plant. Sometimes the 

 ground is lightly marked with the jdow, and guano or superphosphate 

 of lime placed in the hill. AVhen the plants are set they are mulched 

 with straw or hay to prevent their Avithering. In Hampden, Massachu- 

 sett, ten cords of good manure, horse-manure preferred, are applied. 

 At the time of transplanting, which occurs from the 5th to the 25th of 

 June, the land is plowed, and then a light furrow is cut, sowed with 

 300 pounds of guano or superphosphate, and covered with ridges, leav- 

 ing the rows somewhat elevated. The Havana plants are set 18 inches 

 by 3 feet, the seed-leaf 2 feet by 3. The yield of the former does not 

 equal that of the common sort. The seed is usually sown in April in 

 Connecticut, in a carefully-prepared seed-bed liberally manured with a 

 rich compost or concentrated fertilizer. Horse-manure for the field- 

 culture is obtained as far as possible, and supplemented with any avail- 

 able well-decomposed farm-yard manures, and also with Peruvian or 

 fish guano, superphosphates, wood-ashes, bone-dust, tobacco-stems, and 

 other fertilizers. The ground is plowed and harrowed sufficiently to 

 ]>ulverize and mix the -fertilizers. The plants are set in Hartford County 

 from July 1 to July 10, in rows oh feet apart, and from 18 to 25 inches 

 in the row. The best cultivation is given; the seed-blossoms and all 

 suckers are broken oif ; the plants are cut in August or September and 

 left on the ground to wilt ; then bundles of five to seven plants are strung 

 on a lath, four feet long, and hung in the curing-house in tiers. 



The district known as the Housatouic Valley comprises all of Litch- 

 field County, five towns in Fairfield, two or three in Berkshire, and one 

 in New Haven. Low prices have reduced the acreage to a lower figure 

 than for eight years past, and the product is estimated at 3,500 cases, 

 of which Litchfield produced 3,000 on about 1,000 acres. Tliis district 

 has had considerable experience with special fertilizers, and the conclu- 

 sion is reached that they aid the growth of the plant while injuring its 

 quality. At the present time most of the crop is grown with barn-yard 

 manure, yielding a product of better color and texture, and one that 

 comes out of the sweat better than that made with such special fertil- 

 izers. In New Haven the main resource for fertilizers beyond the com- 

 mon use of farm-yard manure, is a double-refined poudrette. In Tolland 

 the liberal use of horse-manure, say eight to ten cords with 350 pounds 

 of guano per acre, is deemed sufficient to keep uj) soil-fertility without 

 rotation. 



The main reliance in Onondaga, New York, is upon clover-sod and 

 farm-yard manure, tbonoh various Innds of connnercial fertilizers have 

 "l A 



