344 TOBACCO LEAF. 



planted in tobacco is fresh land, which makes the very 

 best cutting tobacco. 



Fertilization and Rotation. It is a very rare thing 

 for fertilizers, or manure, to be used anywhere in the 

 White Burley districts. One planter says he never uses 

 manure if Jhe "can possibly avoid it," for the tobacco 

 product is much better when grown without it, having 

 more elasticity and other desirable qualities. Some- 

 times, though rarely, a little manure is spread over the 

 land before it is harrowed. Tobacco stalks and trash 

 from the barns are preferred to any other fertilizer for 

 tobacco, and impair its qualities less. 



The tobacco crop is usually followed by wheat sown 

 in the fall, and upon this timothy is sown immediately, 

 and red clover in the following spring. The land is 

 allowed to remain in timothy and clover for several 

 years before it is planted again in tobacco. The timothy 

 "eats out" the clover in about two years, and the blue- 

 grass takes the timothy in about four years. When well 

 sodded with bluegrass, the soil is again prepared for 

 another crop of tobacco. 



On new land, two crops of tobacco are grown in 

 two successive years. After the first crop of tobacco is 

 taken off, the land is sown to rye, which is allowed to 

 grow without pasturing, until the following April. 

 The rye is then turned under with a skimmer and sub- 

 soiler, or only with a turning plow, like the bluegrass 

 sod. After the land has produced two crops of tobacco, 

 wheat and timothy are sown immediately after the 

 tobacco is housed, and clover the following spring. 

 After the expiration of three years, another crop of 

 tobacco is grown. After the third crop, the rotation is 

 like that given for old land. 



Tobacco plants are usually set after a shower, but if 

 the rains are tardy, or insufficient, the plants are set out 

 in the afternoons and watered. The Bemis planter, 



