34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



When there is sufficient rain, well distributed in showers, 

 during the first few weeks of growth, it makes little differ- 

 ence whether the fertilizers are near the surface or deeper. 

 If very heavy rains follow planting, it is an advantage to 

 have the fertilizer on the surface, because the plant roots 

 have a better chance to get it. If the fertilizer is ploughed 

 in and is below the plant roots, very heavy rains may carry 

 it too far down for them to get it promptly. 



But, on the other hand, if little rain falls in the first week 

 after setting, the crop will do best if the fertilizers are well 

 down, where the soil is moist ; if near the surface they may 

 burn the plants. 



Hence we cannot say that one method is superior to the 

 other. All depends upon the season, and when the land is 

 prepared for setting the crop, no one knows what the eccen- 

 tricities of the season will be. 



This matter of fertilizers we could discuss all day and still 

 be at odds over it when night came ; but I must drop it now 

 to say something regarding the curing of tobacco. 



What happens while the leaf is curing in the barn ? In the 

 first place, it dries out. The tobacco from an acre of land 

 does not, of course, always weigh the same, but even a 

 moderate crop may weigh, as it is hauled in, 25,000 pounds 

 per acre. A week later, it may weigh 16,000; in another 

 week, 12,000; the next week, 10,000; and a month later, 

 when it is ready to be stripped, 5,500 pounds, of which 

 1,550 pounds are leaves and 3,950 pounds are stalks. That 

 is, during the cure, 19,500 pounds of water, 9| tons, have 

 gone out through the doors and ventilators, and you take 

 down at stripping time little more than one-fifth of the 

 weight which you hung up at harvest. These figures are the 

 results of weights made this year, — they are not a guess. 



In the next place, the leaves first ripen and then die. 

 Along with this ripening and dying certain chemical changes 

 take place, caused in part, perhaps, by fermentation, but 

 about this we know very little. 



But, as a result of all this drying, ripening, dying and 

 fermenting, the sticky, brittle, green leaf becomes a very 

 thin, glossy, elastic, cinnamon-brown tissue, suitable, after 

 fermenting in the case or bulk and seasoning, to wrap cigars. 



