PLANTING, TOPPING AND PRIMING. 



323 



this and the rich lowlands throughout Southside is raised 

 the staple known through the world as James River tobacco. 



" On this crop the planter lavishes his choicest fertilizers ; 

 for the ranker the growth, the longer and larger the leaf, the 

 greater is the value thereof, though the manufacturers com- 

 plain bitterly of the free use of guano, which, they say, 

 destroys the resinous gum on which the value of the leaf 

 depends. Once set, the young plant must contend, not only 

 with the ordinary risk of transplanting, but the cut-worm is 

 now to be dreaded. "Working underground, it severs the 

 stem just above the root, and the first intimation of its pres- 

 ence is the prone and drooping plant. For this there is no 

 remedy, except to plant and replant, until the tobacco itself 

 kills the worm. In one instance, which came under our 

 observation, a single field was replanted six times before the 

 planter succeeded in getting 'a good stand,' as they call it on 

 the plantations ; but this was an extreme case. 



"When the plants are fairly started in their growth, the 

 planter tops and primes them, processes performed, the first 

 by pinching off the top bud, which would else run to seed, 

 and the second by removing the lower leaves of each plant, 

 leaving bare a space of some inches near the ground, and 

 retaining from six to a dozen stout, well-formed leaves on 

 each stem, according to the promise of the soil and season, 

 and these leaves form the crop. The rejected lower leaves 



STRINGING THE PRIMINGS. 



or primings, in the days of slavery, formed one of the 

 mistress' perquisites and were carefully collected by the 



