65 



"Do not let the crop j^et wet after cutting- ; do not 

 expose it to a hot sun. Both are equally injurious. It 

 is lit to cut when it assumes a mottled appearance, the 

 veins become sunken, the leaf breaks with a clear frac- 

 ture, and it is thicker in texture than before. After 

 cutting, handle always by the butts. The peculiar 

 color is given in a measure by sweating. It should be 

 some one of the shades of cinnamon. Skill in the art 

 can only be acquired by practice. Trust none but care- 

 ful men with the handling of tobacco. Do not let the 

 plants touch each other in the drying-house, and let the 

 roof be rain-proof, and be sure, above all things, to get 

 good seed of some reliable man, and do not grow it on a 

 rank, coarse soil. It will pay to take care of the crop 

 at thirty cents per pound." 



It will be noticed that northern cultivators say nothing 

 of splitting down the stem, but instead of this split- 

 ting, in order better to hang the plant in the drying- 

 house, they generally, we believe, if not unanimously, 

 prefer the use of twine for suspending the plants to dry 

 With regard to the fire drying, so much spoken of by 

 southern cultivators, we believe it is seldom or never 

 resorted to by northern cultivators. 



Mn.-DISEASES, ENEMES, CASUALTIES, EXHAUST- 

 ING TEXDExXCIES. 



On these we give the results of long experience, by 

 the late Peter Minor, of Albemarle County, Va. Mr. 

 Minor concludes his treatise, in the following words : 



" Tobacco is subject to some diseases, and liable to be 

 injured by more casualties and accidents than any other 

 crop. That growing upon new or fresh high land is 



