SPECIAL CROPS. 227 



on the land, three crops may be raised without manure, but no 

 more tobacco should be raised on it, for at least three years, and 

 it should be liberally manured for the intervening crops. 



Well rotted barnyard manure, ashes, and salt, are the three 

 specifics for tobacco. Lime it must have, either in tne shape 

 of ashes, gas lime, or superphosphate of lime. Salt at the rate 

 of from three to six bushels to the acre, furnishes the soda re- 

 quired by the plant. As for other manures, the cultivator must 

 use what he can get. Twenty-five loads per acre of compost, of 

 muck with solid and liquid manure, with twenty bushels of ashes 

 and four of salt, is the plainest prescription we can make. 

 Twelve loads (by loads we mean loads) of compost as above, 

 with two hundred weight of guano, (salt and ashes added, as 

 before,) is a good proportion. If the ashes are not at hand, two 

 to three hundred weight of phosphate can take their place. 

 Guano, on all crops, should be covered deeply, while superphos- 

 phate should be left near the surface. Manure from the hog 

 pen, where peat and muck have been supplied liberally, is a most 

 excellent dressing. In feet any substances that will promote 

 the growth of other crops, will benefit this. Green and strawy 

 manure should never be applied directly to the crop, but first 

 rotted and composted. No ashes, lime, or other fertilizer, should 

 ever be sprinkled on the leaves of the plants. 



Preparing the Seed Bed should be attended to as early in 

 the season as the ground gets dry. One tablesjDoonful of seed, 

 if each seed produce a plant, would sufiice for an acre. But, as a 

 precaution against all accidents, sow three tablespoonfuls of seed 

 for each acre to be set in tobacco. Each spoonful of seed should 

 have a square rod of land, so that a seed bed of three square rods 

 is required for each acre in plants. The most approved method 

 of treating the seed bed is as follows. Select a protected, sunny 

 spot, the south side of a wood, or a southern slope, if possible, 



