NICOTIANA 



Madras 



THE TOBACCO PLANT 



Cultivation. 

 Soils. 



Manure. 



irrigation. 

 Transplanting. 



Seasons. 



irrigation. 



Pruning. 

 Harvest. 



Snuff. 



Mysore. 



notation. 

 seasons. 



Transplanting, 



Poona, Nadidd, etc. ; Fletcher, Cult. Tobacco in Bomb., in Proc. Board Agri., 

 Puaa, 1906, 116.] 



Madras. The area under the crop amounted in 1905-6 to 132,458 

 acres. The districts with the largest areas are usually Guntur 41,798 

 acres, Coimbatore 26,884 acres, Godavari 8,143 acres, Vizagapatam 5,037 

 acres, Madura 8,296 acres, Karnul 6,664 acres, etc. The crop is grown 

 in all districts, though on the Nilgiris and the west coast the area is small. 

 Benson (Proc. Board Agri., Pusa, 82-92) gives a very full account of 

 tobacco cultivation in the various districts. In Kistna the crop is grown 

 chiefly in the upland taluks on ordinary black cotton soil. The seed-beds 

 are usually located near shallow pools in which the monsoon rains stand. 

 They are well ploughed and manured. After the first ploughing cattle 

 are penned on the plots, and they are again ploughed once or twice. Village 

 manure, consisting of ashes, earth and dried cow-dung, is then applied 

 at the rate of 50 to 60 loads per acre. After two or three more ploughings 

 the seed is sown broadcast, at the rate of one local seer to 18 cents of land, 

 and pressed in by the hand. At first, watering is frequent, three or four 

 times a day. After twenty days, watering is reduced to once a day, and 

 all unhealthy leaves are picked off daily. 



J n about two and a half months, when the plants are 8 to 9 inches 

 high, they are trimmed and lateral shoots, if any, removed , and fifteen days 

 later are pulled up and made into bundles for planting. The preparation 

 of the land for the crop commences about July. Before this, village 

 manure and tank silt are applied, and cattle, sheep or goats penned on 

 it after the first ploughing. The land is ploughed seven to ten times, then 

 twice with the gorru, and afterwards marked off into squares. The young 

 plants are placed in holes filled with water at the corner of the squares, and 

 the earth gathered round them. They are watered for two days in the morn- 

 ing, then for two days in the evening, but are afterwards left to themselves. 

 The crop is topped when 2J feet high and suckered twenty days later, and 

 about ten days later still is ready for harvest, in February or March. No 

 second growth occurs, and the stems are cut down and used for fuel. 



In cultivating tobacco for the manufacture of snuff, the crop is never 

 irrigated from wells, but the plants are grown by the aid of rain alone. 

 Again, if the tobacco is for chewing, watering is withheld four or five days 

 before harvest. The chief centres for snuff tobacco are Trichangode, 

 Easipuram and Uttankarai taluks in Salem district. 



[Cf. Schiffmayer, Tobacco and Its Cult., Saidapet Exper. Farm, 1878 ; Plant- 

 ing and Manuf. of Tobacco in Southern Ind., Madras, 1880 ; Shortt, Man. Ind. 

 Agri., 1885, 145 ; Papers on Tobacco Parasite, " Bodu ! ' or Orobanche Nicotiana, 

 Agri. Dept. Mad. Bull., 1889, No. 2 ; Caine, Cult, and Curing of Tobacco in 

 Madura, Agri. Dept. Mad. Bull., 1889-90, No. 4 ; Rose, Memo, on Mad. 

 Tobacco, 1890 ; Benson, Cult, and Curing of Tobacco in Dindigul, Madura, Dept. 

 Agri. Mad. Bull., 1905, iii., No. 53; Ann. Eepts. Trade and Navigation Mad., 

 Introd., 1892, para. 29; 1894, 11; 1898, 18.] 



Mysore and Coorg. The area in Mysore in 1905-6 was 14,263 acres, 

 chiefly in Mysore, Tumkur, Chitaldrug and Kolar. The crop is grown 

 on land where rdgi and similar grains are cultivated, a crop of which 

 must intervene between every two of tobacco. The seed is sown in June 

 or July, and the seed-beds are prepared near wells or other sources 

 of water supply. The seeds are sown mixed with dung, and after being 

 pressed down with the hand and watered they are covered with mats or 

 the leaves of the date palm. The seedlings are transplanted into fields 

 prepared previously by frequent ploughings and manured by cattle and 



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