CHAPTER VI. 



MANURES AND FERTILIZERS. 



It is evident from the preceding chapter that the 

 form, quantity and quality in which food is furnished 

 the tobacco crop, opens up a vast field of vital impor- 

 tance. Yet it is only within very recent years that the 

 scientific aspects of the influence of manures and fer- 

 tilizers upon tobacco have been studied. But as the 

 culture of this crop increases, as the area of virgin lands 

 contracts, and as competition for fine quality grows, the 

 problem of feeding the tobacco plant is bound to com- 

 mand increasing attention. We therefore elucidate the 

 subject as fully as the present state of knowledge permits. 



Very little has been conclusively demonstrated, as 

 yet, by the recently begun work at our southern exper- 

 iment stations, and the state of the art of fertilization of 

 southern leaf is well described in the chapters on heavy 

 leaf and manufacturing tobaccos. The most accurate 

 data are those furnished by the experience of the most 

 careful planters in the Connecticut valley some of 

 whom deserve high rank for the truly scientific char- 

 acter of their work and by the several years' results of 

 the Connecticut (Poquonock) and Pennsylvania exper- 

 iment stations' exhaustive tests. From all these sources 

 our data are compiled. 



Soil vs. Manures and Fertilizers. The soil upon 

 which tobacco is grown may have as great or greater in- 

 fluence upon the leaf as the plant food artificially sup- 

 plied. The soils usually preferred for the different 

 types of tobacco are considered in later chapters, and it 

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