SPECIAL FERTILIZERS. 401 



tilizer and starter. It is recommended to use 1000 

 pounds of this mixture with 1500 pounds of cottonseed 

 meal per acre, the meal and half of the fertilizer being 

 plowed under, and the rest of the fertilizer applied as a 

 starter, and harrowed into the soil just before the plants 

 are set out. The Mapes tobacco starter, for tobacco 

 beds and for plants at setting out, has also been much 

 used, and is serviceable in giving plants a prompt start. 

 Such a start is important, as only the earlier grown and 

 fully matured tobacco cures light and glossy under usual 

 conditions. 



More evidence that leaf of the best quality can be 

 raised on commercial fertilizers, is shown by the fact 

 that the largest prices in recent years have been for Con- 

 necticut leaf manured in this way. Special attention is 

 directed to the magnificent Andross crop of broadleaf 

 grown in the celebrated East Hartford section, an en- 

 graving of which (from a photograph taken for this 

 work), appears on Page 400, while the typical plant of 

 Connecticut broadleaf shown in Plates I and II, Pages 

 19 and 23, was from this crop. The fertilizer used was 

 4000 pounds of tobacco stems per acre, with 1500 pounds 

 of Baker's castor pomace and 800 pounds of H. J. Baker & 

 Bros.' A. A. brand of tobacco fertilizer. Another field 

 was treated the same way the previous year, but upon it, 

 in 1896, manure was substituted for the stems, with 

 2000 pounds of pomace, which was the treatment given 

 the fields illustrated in 1895. Mr. Andross adds : " We 

 generally alternate between stems and pomace, and ma- 

 nure and pomace or cottonseed meal. Sometimes we 

 use manrre two years and stems one year. It is safe to 

 say that we get the cleanest, healthiest and heaviest 

 crop the year when the stems are used. In my east 

 field, not shown in the photograph, I used manure and 

 pomace, but it is not as heavy as the field where the fer- 

 tilizer is used." 

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