VIRGINIA PLANT PATCH. 421 



wide and twelve yards long, sow one chalk pipe bowl full of 

 seed, after being mixed with ashes ; tread with the feet or 

 pat it over with weeding hoes, that it may be close and 

 smooth ; cover it with dog-wood, maple, or any fine brush, to 

 the depth of twenty or twenty-four inches, to protect the 

 young plants from cold or a drouth. After the plants have 

 commenced coming up, re-sow the patches with half the 

 quantity of seed first sown, which will not interfere with the 

 plants first up, but make good re-planting plants. When the 

 plants, or some of them, have grown to the size of a Spanish 

 mill dollar, take off the brush, pick off all sticks, weeds, and 

 grass, and keep them well picked until you have finished 

 setting out. 



" Should the plants not grow fast enough to suit, manure 

 with Peruvian guano ; have it fine, and sow over in the 

 middle of the day when they are dry, or if it be raining 

 briskly, it may then be sown over. Should the patches be 

 suffering for rain, put five pounds of Peruvian guano in 

 twenty gallons of water, and sprinkle it over with a watering- 

 pot. To destroy the flea, bug, or fly, put dry leaves around 

 the patch, and set fire to them at night, which will attract 

 and destroy them if they are disturbed with a broom or leafy 

 brush." 



The old Virginia planters selected and made the plant 

 patch as follows : 



"The quality of earth, and places which are universally chosen 

 for this purpose, are newly cleared lands of the best possible 

 light black soil, situated as near to a small stream of water as 

 they can be conveniently found, due attention being paid to 

 the dryness of the place. 



" The beds, or patches, as they are called, differ in size, 

 from the bigness of a small salad bed to a quarter of an acre, 

 according to the magnitude of the crop proposed ; and they 

 are prepared for receiving the seed in March and the early 

 part of April, as the season suits, first by burning upon them 

 large heaps of brush wood, the stalks of the maize or Indian 

 corn, straw, or other rubbish; and afterwards, by digging and 

 raking them in the same manner of preparing ground for 

 lettuce seed ; which is generally sown mixed with the tobacco 

 seed (the same process being suitable to both plants) ; and . 

 which answers the double purpose of feeding the laborer, and 

 of protecting the young tobacco plant from the fly ; for which 

 intent a border of mustard seed round the plant patch is 

 found to be an effectual remedy, as the fly prefers mustard, 



