OTHER FARM CROPS 611 



woods, and sow it, after thoroughly burning the land until it has 

 a reddish or brick-like appearance, when it should be spaded up 

 and thoroughly chopped over with hoes until it is fine and even. 

 The ashes should not be raked off, but should be thoroughly mixed 

 in with the soil. As soon as the ground can be worked in the spring, 

 it should be lightly spaded and thoroughly loosened to a depth of 2 

 or 3 inches with harrows or hand rakes. When in good condition, 

 it should be marked off in beds about 4 or 5 feet wide and seeded. 

 It is the usual custom with this variety to use a heaping tablespoonful 

 of seed for every 100 square yards of seed bed. After sowing, the 

 best plan is to run a heavy hand roller over the bed or press it with 

 a board or with the feet. As a rule, the bed is tramped over with 

 the feet until the surface is packed. The seed bed is usually pro- 

 tected by a canvas covering to prevent the ravages of flea-beetles 

 and to keep the bed moist and warm. 



The preparation of the land is generally begun in the month of 

 March, the usual plan being to turn under the soil with a 2-horse 

 plow to the depth of about 8 inches. About the middle of April a 

 revolving disk or harrow is run over the land in order to cut the sod 

 to pieces, after which the field is smoothed over with a slab drag. It 

 is very rare for fertilizers or manure of any kind to be used in the 

 White Burley districts. Tobacco stalks and trash from the barnyard 

 are preferred to any other fertilizer for this tobacco. Owing to the 

 fact that the crop is grown for two years and the field is then put in 

 rotation with other crops, the fertility of the soil is maintained. 



The tobacco plants are usually set after a shower, or when there 

 is no rain they are set out in the afternoon. The land is cultivated 

 with a bull-tongue cultivator during the first week or so, and then 

 cultivated every week with a double-shovel cultivator as long as it is 

 possible to do so without injury to the plants. As soon as the cultiva- 

 tion is finished the plants are topped, leaving from 16 to 20 leaves 

 on each plant. From four to five weeks after topping, the tobacco 

 is usually fully ripe and the plants are cut with a tobacco cutter or 

 butcher knife. The stalks are split down the middle and strung on 

 sticks 4 1-3 feet in length, after which they are taken to the tobacco 

 barn and hung 12 inches apart on the tier poles. When fully cured, 

 the tobacco is sorted, usually into six grades, and the different grades 

 are tied into bundles of from 10 to 20 leaves and packed for the 

 market. 



Directions for Saving Seed. In all cases where new seed is taken 

 into a locality it should be thoroughly tested before growing on a 

 large scale. This is especially true of all seed imported from Cuba, 

 Sumatra, Turkey, or other foreign countries. The past few years 

 have witnessed a striking illustration of the effect of using seed direct 

 from tropical regions, such as Cuba and Sumatra, when grown in the 

 northern tobacco districts. The plants grown from this freshly im- 

 ported seed broke up into many different types, some of which may 

 prove valuable, but most of the types are irregular and undesirable. 

 Therefore it has been a common experience for growers to suffer 



