414 TOBACCO LEAF. 



and New York planters is Prout's hoeing machine, 

 Fig. 117, which is peculiarly adapted to this crop. Of 

 course, other cultivators and horse hoes are used, but 

 this is considered one of the best. 



With seedleaf, it is a rule to draw the dirt towards 

 the plant at the second hoeing, so as to hill it a very 

 little. The cultivator may be run between the rows to 

 advantage five or six times, but do not commit the error 

 of using it too late, for it is quite certain that after the 

 plant is half grown, the cultivator does more harm than 

 good by disturbing the roots, and the roots of seedleaf 

 reach out further from the plant than do the roots of 

 Havana. When tobacco is ready to top, the roots are 

 too much developed to permit cultivating. All the 

 later culture that is needed the cutting down of weeds 

 in the row can be better done with the hand hoe. 

 Some growers, who believe in "feeding high," sow 100 

 to 300 pounds per acre in the rows just before the 

 second cultivation. 



Havana seed requires considerable more hilling than 

 seedleaf, because it tips over more readily. The first 

 hilling should be the same, but at the second cultivating 

 hill up decidedly more than for seedleaf. When the 

 ridger has been used in preparing the land, a hiller, 

 such as is attached to some cultivators, can be used 

 advantageously, or one can be made readily as follows : 

 Take a board, five inches wide and two feet long, 

 sharpen to a point from a distance of one foot from the 

 apex. Upon each side of the edge nail a piece of barrel 

 stave, two and one-half feet long and five inches wide, 

 making the upper edge even with the top of the wedge ; 

 make a hole near the apex, and fasten to the middle 

 piece of a common cultivator between the horse-hoe 

 teeth, leaving the cutter turned out. At a third culti- 

 vation, this same hiller can again be used to advantage, 

 but place a four-inch block upon the point of the hiller, 



