176 



TOBACCO LEAF. 



model style for transplanting by machine is shown in 

 Fig. 24. 



Time of Transplanting. When this work~is done 

 hy hand at the South, or in the shipping tobacco 

 districts, it is customary to wait for gentle spring rains, 

 or a "season," as it is called, to put the land in moist 

 condition to permit the transfer of the plants from the 

 seed bed to the fields without endangering their vitality. 

 Usually, in the great shipping tobacco districts, the 

 first general planting is done about the 10th to the 20th 

 of May. In the yellow-tobacco districts of eastern 

 North Carolina and South Carolina, tobacco is often set 



FIG. 32. ANOTHER STYLE OF FRAME. 



in April. If the weather should be seasonable, with 

 gentle showers, drawings from the bed may be made 

 once a week. It is the greatest folly to set out small 

 plants on old land after the first of June, unless the 

 ground is very moist, in the latitude of Kentucky, Vir- 

 ginia, Tennessee and North Carolina. After that 

 period, very vigorous, stocky plants must be used. It is 

 more and more becoming the custom among the best 

 growers to have plants enough to set out the entire crop 

 the first "season" that comes after they are large 

 enough. 



