HEAVY SHIPPING TOBACCO. 297 



attraction induced by such pulverization brings moisture 

 from the subsoil in seasons of the greatest drouth. 

 And not the least of the beneficial effects of such a prep- 

 aration is the ease with which the superfluous water may 

 be absorbed, for the greatest of all enemies to the tobacco 

 plant is standing water. The first breaking, in the 

 autumn, should take place, if possible, before vegetation 

 is killed by frosts, especially if old meadows, clover pas- 

 ture or stubble lands are selected for the tobacco crop of 

 -the next year. Dead grasses plowed under after mid- 

 winter injure the succeeding crop, by rendering the soil 

 too porous and thirsty. Better far, if the breaking up 

 is delayed, to burn off all dead vegetable matter. This 

 burning will, at least, destroy the larvae of insects and 

 worms, which often prey upon the plants when first set 

 out, not only destroying them, but making it impossible 

 to grow a crop of tobacco that will be uniform in size, 

 color or quality. This second plowing should only be 

 half as deep as the first, unless the furrows are run so 

 close together that the slice cut by the plow will be only 

 half reversed. 



Manuring. Consult Chapters V and VI. Previ- 

 ous to the second breaking in the spring, all the manure 

 which can be gathered from the stables, the barnyards 

 and the poultry yards, and all the trash from the tobacco 

 barns, including the stalks and ashes, should be hauled 

 upon the land, and especially upon those spots that need 

 it the most. It ought to be so distributed that the 

 whole field intended for the tobacco crop should be 

 made, as far as possible, uniformly fertile, in order that 

 the crop may be uniform in size and character. Such 

 crops always command a better price, other things being 

 equal, than one in which there is tobacco of every size, 

 color and quality. A favorite place for growing heavy 

 tobacco is the place where hogs have been fatted the 

 previous autumn. If broken up as soon as the hogs are 



