142 TOBACCO LEAF. 



and 1 per cent phosphoric acid. Seedleaf stems are 

 usually drier, containing about the same quantity of ni- 

 trogen and phosphoric acid, but one-fourth less potash. 

 As with all coarse material, stems should be applied very 

 early in the spring, and the better plan is to plow them 

 under in the fall. They supply both nitrogen and pot- 

 ash, and are well suited to the tobacco crop. They are 

 so popular in the Connecticut valley that all the stems 

 available have been used, and before the season for sell- 

 ing closed (about June 10), each year has found the 

 dealers with their stocks exhausted and their late orders 

 unfilled, from 3000 to 5000 tons of stems being used 

 annually. 



Lime is used to a considerable extent upon tobacco 

 lands in the seedleaf districts, and its effect is somewhat 

 peculiar and not wholly in the way of a food element. 

 Tobacco ash contains a large percentage of lime, but on 

 some lands sufficient is present in the soil to meet the 

 demands of the crop. But the opinion is growing that 

 a sufficiency of lime is more often lacking in the soil 

 used for tobacco than is usually supposed. Lime is con- 

 stantly leaching from the upper layers into the lower 

 strata of soil. All saline manures make it leach further. 

 Tobacco, as well as other plants, possesses the power of 

 substitution, and where lime is abundantly present and 

 potash is lacking, a larger quantity of lime is consumed 

 than would otherwise be the case. It is, therefore, well 

 to have a fair quantity of lime present, more, even, than 

 is usually found in the soil. 



The most important action of lime, however, is not 

 that of a plant food, but rather that of a mechanical 

 agent. It promotes nitrification, or the conversion of 

 crude animal and vegetable matter into nitrates. It 

 destroys woody tissue, and when used in excess, burns 

 out the vegetable matter present in the soil, impairing 

 its future value. A little of this burning effect is valu- 



