570 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
of most of the trouble in securing a stand, hunt it assiduously and par- 
ticularly in the early morning when it can most readily be found. 
VI. Keep the grass and weeds down, and the soil loose and mellow 
by frequent stirring, avoiding as much as possible cutting and tearing 
the roots cf the plant in ail stages of its growth, and more especially 
after topping. When at all practicable—and, with the great improve- 
ment in cultivators, sweeps, and other farm implements, it is oftener 
practicable than generally supposed—substitute for hand-work in culti- 
vation that of the horse. The difference in cost will tell in the balance- 
sheet at the close of the operation. 
Vit. Attend closely to “worming,” for on it hinges in no little degree 
the quality and quantity of tobacco you will have for sale. A worm- 
eaten crop brings no money. So important is this operation that it may 
properly claim more than a passing notice. Not only is it the most 
tedious, the most unremitting, and the most expensive operation con- 
nected with the production of tobacco, but the necessity for it deter- 
mines more than all other causes the limit of the crop which in general 
it has been found possible for a single hand to manage. Therefore 
bring to your aid every possible adjunct in diminishing the number of 
worms. Use poison for killing the moth in the manner so frequently 
described in treatises on tobacco, to-wit, by injecting a solution of cobalt 
or other deadly drug into. the flower of the Jamestown or “jimson” 
weed (Datura stramonium), if necessary planting seeds of the weed for 
the purpose. Employ at night the flames of lamps, of torches, or of 
huge bonfires, in which the moth may find a quick and certain death. 
in worming, spare those worms found covered with a white film or 
net-like substance, this being the cocoon producing the ichneumon-fly, 
an enemy to the worm likely to prove a valuable ally to the planter in 
his war of extermination. 
Turn your flock of turkeys into the tobacco-field, that they, too, may 
prey upon the pest, and themselves grow fat in so doing. 
if these remedies should fail, sprinkle diluted spirits of turpentine 
over the plant through the rese of a watering-pot, a berculean task 
truly in a large crop, but mere child’s play to the hand-picking process, 
for the one sprinkling suffices to keep off the worms for all time, whereas 
the hand-picking is a continual round of expensive labor from the ap- 
pearance of the first worm until the last plant has been carried to the 
barn. We have no idea that such sprinkling will at all affect the odor 
or flavor of the tobacco when cured. 
If, as stated by a writer in a California paper, the well-known “yellow- 
jacket” be useful in destroying tobacco-worms, by all means win it as an 
ally. As proving its usefulness, the writer asserts that one of his neigh- 
bors, a Mr. Culp, during fifteen years growing tobacco, has never expended 
a dollar for labor to destroy the worm, trusting all to this little work- 
man, who, he says, carefully searches the plants for the worms, and 
never allows one to escape its vigilance. 
We cannot speak from our own experience as to many of these sug- 
gested means for overcoming the horn-worm, but we have no hesitation 
in saying to the farmer, try any, try all of them rather than have your 
erep eaten to shreds, and the labor of more than half the year brought 
to naught in a few days, it may be, by a single “glut” of worms. 
Vili. “ Prime high and top low.” While open to objection in partic- 
ular cases, even with the character of tobacco chiefly under consideration, 
and altogether inadmissible, it may be, in the management of other vari- 
eties of tobacco, this is a safe rule, we think, to follow in general practice. 
We tavor “priming” by all means; for when no priming is done the 
