66 



seldom injured by any other disease than the spot or 

 firing, which is the effect of very moist, succeeded by 

 very hot weather. For this we know of no remedy 

 or antidote. Tobacco growing upon old land, par- 

 ticularly upon low flats, besides being more subject 

 to spot, is liable to a disease we call the hollow stalk, 

 which is an entire decay and rottenness of the inside or 

 pith, terminating gradually in the deca^^, and final drop- 

 ping off of the leaves. This disease is sometimes pro- 

 duced by the wounds caused by pulling off overgrown 

 suckers, thereby admitting too great an absorption of 

 water into the stalk through the wound. 



'' In land not completely drained, the plants are some- 

 times apt to take a diminutive growth, sending forth 

 numerous long, narrow leaves, very thickly set on the 

 stalk. This is called icalloon tobacco, and is good for 

 nothing. As there is no cure for these diseases when 

 they exist, we can only attend to their prevention. 

 This, will at once be pointed out by a knowledge of the 

 cause, which is too much wet, and indicates the neces- 

 sity of complete and thorough draining before the crop 

 is planted. It may not be amiss here to mention, that 

 tobacco is more injured than any other crop by plowing 

 or hoeing the ground when it is too wet, and to express 

 a general caution on that head. 



" The accidents by which tobacco is often injured and 

 destroyed, are high winds, heavy beating rains, hail- 

 storms, and two kinds of worm, the ground or cut-worm, 

 and the large green horn-worm. High winds, besides 

 breaking off the leaves and thereby occasioning a great 

 loss, are apt to turn them over. " The plant, unlike most 

 others, possesses no power to restore the leaves to their 

 proper position, which must shortly and carefully be 

 done by hand, otherwise the part inverted will gradually 

 perish and moulder away. Those who have studied the 

 anatomy of plants can tell us the cause of this, as well 

 as why nature has denied to tobacco the faculty of re- 

 storing its leaves to their proper position. 



"The ground-worm, the same which is sometimes so 

 fatal to corn, is ascertained to be the larvse of the com- 



