122 WALL'S MANUAL 



PREPARATION OP SOIL FOR TOBACCO. 



This is a point of the very first importance in 

 making a crop of tobacco. The soil must be rich and 

 mellow. New land is generally best for tobacco. But 

 in the best tobacco- growing sections, the land is 

 nearly all cleared, except so much as is required to 

 be kept in timber for fencing and fuel. 



The preparation of the old land is, therefore, 

 the matter of importance. Tobacco requires an 

 abundant supply of ammonia, as well as mineral 

 matter, especially lime and potash. Hence, guano 

 and rich stable and hog-pen manures, lime, plaster, 

 and the phosphates, are all valuable fertilizers for 

 this crop. It has been shown that ammonia is not 

 generally abundant in soils which have been 

 frequently cultivated without manures; hence, old 

 lands require an application of some form of 

 ammonia-producing manure to secure a good crop 

 of tobacco. 



A good clover or pea crop may be plowed down 

 in the fall, and manured well and plowed again in 

 the spring, with subsoiling, when the land requires it. 

 If the manure is not abundant, some guano should 

 be mixed with it, and a small quantity will then 

 answer the purpose. All wet lands must be well 

 drained for tobacco. 



When artificial fertilizers are applied to this crop, 

 they should be sown as soon as we begin to bed up 

 the land to plant. Lay off the tobacco field as if to 

 sow wheat, and sow guano, plaster, and salt, at the 

 rate of two hundred pounds of Peruvian guano, one 

 hundred pounds of phosphate of lime, one hundred 



