304 TOBACCO LEAF. 



follows, and is precisely like the first, only at right an- 

 gles to it. All tobacco grown in the heavy shipping 

 districts is planted in checks, and so is worked alter- 

 nately at right angles, first one way and then the other. 

 No hoe work is necessary with the second plowing, un- 

 less the work has been so delayed, or the rains have been 

 so abundant as to allow the weeds to get a start. It fre- 

 quently occurs that the wheat harvest and the early 

 working of the tobacco crop are coincident. The grasses 

 sometimes get a rank start, but if subsequently eradi- 

 cated, no damage is suffered other than retarding the 

 early maturity of the plant and adding greatly to the 

 work. Tobacco is a weed, and though drouth may 

 check its growth and noxious weeds and grasses may 

 apparently choke it, yet when rains come and the weeds 

 are exterminated and the grounds sufficiently worked, 

 the most unpromising plants will soon show a wonderful 

 outcome. Of all the crops grown, it suffers least by early 

 neglect. Nevertheless, the more rapidly it is worked, 

 the less work the crop will require. 



While the presence of weeds and grass, in the early 

 stages of the growth of the tobacco plant, seem only to 

 delay its period of ripening without doing it any perma- 

 nent injury, it is undoubtedly true that nothing injures 

 the quality of the product more than competition with 

 other vegetation, after it has been topped. Every spear 

 of grass and every weed, after that time, robs the tobacco 

 of strength and detracts from the quality of the crop. 



A third cultivation with a shovel plow, with two 

 furrows to the row and running both ways, should fol- 

 low in six or eight days from the second cultivation. 

 At the next cultivation the dirt is thrown to the plant. 

 Three or more furrows are run in each row, so as to 

 break out the middles entirely. This gives a wide, gen- 

 erous bed of loose earth about the plant, supplying its 

 increasing demand for food. Just previous to this 



