98 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



from our farm. In other words, it would require eleven crops 

 of wheat to do as much injury as u single crop of tobacco. The 

 composition o the ash is variable, in some districts one of the 

 leading ingredients being replaced by some other. In an 

 average of samples tested by Prof. Brewer, potash salts formed 

 a third part of their weight, and seventy-five to eighty per 

 cent, of the soluble portion. Soda exists in but a small quantity. 

 Sometimes the potash is replaced by lime. Thus in France, 

 along the river Garonne, the tobacco has this peculiarity, and 

 is noted for its mildness. In American tobacco, the potash 

 salts predominate, and most so in the stronger kinds, which 

 grow on new soil. A study of the census will show us, that in 

 any tobacco district, the production starting at nothing, mounts 

 rapidly to a maximum, turns the corner, and never regains its 

 higher figures. The reason is, that land can only bear maxi- 



mum crops of tobacco for a short time, and once the decline 

 comes on, no power on earth can restore its fruitfulness. By 



high manuring, we can, with other crops, actually improve the 

 fertility of our farms, or at any rate, guard against impoverish 

 ment. With tobacco, if we manure highly, we may for a time 

 avert the dies irce, so far as bulk of crop is concerned, but only 

 at a sacrifice of quality so great as to destroy our profits. New 

 crops have coarse quality of structure, and rankness of flavor ; 

 while, per contra, the tobacco of finer brands is gotten from 

 lands long cultivated. A thin leaf, with small pliant veins, is 

 most esteemed, and of this character is the tobacco of Holland 

 and Connecticut. The season of growth is ordinarily crowded 

 into forty days, and the larger portion of the soluble salts must 

 be at this headlong speed, supplied to the spongioles. The 

 crop is so tender, that of all those we cultivate, it is the most 

 subject to destruction by hail. In Germany there are " Hail 

 Insurance" companies on the mutual plan. It is a notorious 

 fact that hail-storms extend over very limited areas at a time, 

 and hence the farmers of a whole country uniting in small 

 annual payments toward a mutual fund, it will be scon that 



