THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



177 



KKMKDY FOR KIDNKV WORMS. 



From llie Maine Farmer. 

 I cured swine of llie disease called " kidney 

 worm," by iiiakiiiijj an incision wiih a knile, on 

 each side of the hack bone, and aiipiyiny; epiriis 

 of turpentine to the wounds and alotii? the small 

 of the back. Ii may also be cured tty givinir red 

 pepper in their food ; taken in season it readily 

 yields to treatment. 



ESSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO, 

 AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THE PLAN- 

 TATION.* 



By a Maryland Planter. 



From the American Farmer. 



The illustrious 'I'homas Jefferson, in his Notes 

 on Virginia, in makini? a comparison between the 

 culture of tobacco and wheal, has remarked, that 

 the culture of the former '• is productive of infinite 

 wretchedness. Those employed in it are in a 

 continual exertion beyond the power of nature 

 to support. Little food of any kind is raised by 

 them; so that the men and animals on these 

 (arms (tobacco plantations^ are badly led, and the 

 earih is rapidly impoverished." 



These remarks are applicable, in many instan- 

 ces, to the management of tobacco plantations of 

 the present day. Many planters make every ex- 

 ertion to raise all the tobacco they can, without 

 paymg proper attention to any other crop. In 

 the management of a tobacco plantation, such a 

 course should be followed, as will produce the 

 greatest quantity of food lor animals, with the 

 least labor. Attention should be paid to the 

 growing of artificial grasses ; for they not only 

 furnish Ibod lor animals, but they likewise make 

 manure for the renovation of the land made poor 

 by the culture of tobacco. Therelbre, a planter 

 who has swamp land, ought to make every exer- 

 tion to reclaim it, and a more useful crop to him, 

 he could not put in it than a crop of timothy. 

 Kven if a planter has no swamp land, he ought 

 lo put some of his upland in timothy, or some 

 other of the longer grasses. It is true he should 

 always have all the arable part of his plantation 

 set in clover or some other of the grasses, except 

 the part cultivated in corn and tobacco. That is, 

 clover should be sown to improve the land, and 

 ought not, unless in the richest spots, to be cut 

 off". Besides, clover cannot always be depended 

 on for hay, for if the season should not exactly 

 suit it, it will not grow hijih enough to be cut and 

 saved, whereas it is not so much so with the other 

 grasses. 



The growing of wheat, rye, and oats also, fur- 

 nishes food lor men as well as animals, but a crop 

 of small grain interferes materially with a crop of 

 tobacco, particularly at the time of harvesting 

 the former. About this time the crop of tobacco 

 is in most need of hoeing and ploughing ; grass 

 at this season grows rapidly, and by dividing the 

 labor between the two crops, both sufTer, the 

 grain is poorly taken care of and the fields of to- 

 bacco frequently become set with grass like a 

 meadow. A crop of tobacco is never so good as 

 ilwould have been, if permitted to get in the 

 grass shortly after the plants have been trans- 



* See Note A. 

 Vol. IX.-12-C 



planted. Indeed I have seen some fields of 

 tobacco entirely runied by having been in the 

 trrass ; although hoed and ploughed, the land 

 had become so full ol' the litter from the grass 

 and its roots, that the tobacco plants never would 

 grow afterwards. So that in cultivating of tobac- 

 co the greatest care should be taken to prevent 

 the crop li'om getting in the grass. I have al- 

 ways thought, that where a planter looked to his 

 tobacco crop for his profits, if it was not for the 

 making or raising of provender for his live stock 

 it would be much better lor him to raise no grain 

 except corn. As a plantation cannot be carried 

 on without animals on it, it becomes necessary 

 that some small grain should be raised. It must 

 be kept in mind, that I am not writing about a 

 mixed crop, where tobacco and grain might be 

 both looked to lor the profits of the plantation, 

 that is, where there might be a certain quantity 

 of grain, as well as tobacco raised without the 

 one interfering with the other. 1 am writing aa 

 if a crop of tobacco was always the more profita- 

 ble crop, and recommending such management; 

 on a plantation as will obviate as lar as possible 

 the remarks of the illustrious man quoted at the 

 besinning of this essay. 



In Prince George's county, Md., where the 

 cultivation ol" tobacco is brought as near perfec- 

 tion as in any other part of the world, a well 

 managed plantation is conducted in the following 

 manner (so as to improve the land and counteract 

 the tendency of the tobacco crop to impoverish 

 it.) The land that has been worked in corn and 

 tobacco during the year, is in the fall sown in 

 wheat or rye, or a part kept for oats ; in the 

 ensuing spring the whole is put in clover. The 

 grain and clover is plastered in April. By this 

 mode of management a planter has fresh fields 

 out of clover every year lor corn and tobacco. 

 The plantation of course is fenced in such a 

 manner as to give the requisite number of fields. 

 During the year there is as much manure made 

 as can be, without its interfering with the crop of 

 tobacco. The manure is used on parts of the 

 tobacco field that will not so readily improve by 

 the use of clover and plaster. By this manner 

 of management, lands that are adapted to clover 

 and plaster, are improved and kept in a stale of 

 great lerlility. 



It is almost useless to say, that all agriculturists 

 should make and save all ihe manure they can. 

 Yet in the cultivation of tobacco there is a pecu- 

 liar necessity ; for tobacco grown on land that has 

 been cultivated the year belbre it is put in tobacco 

 will, if sufficiently manured, bring tobacco that 

 will cure finer, and consequently, be worth more 

 money when carried to market. Tobacco to cure 

 fine must grow rapidly after it is planted, which 

 it will not do if there is much litter in the 

 ground (B.) Lands taken out of clover and put in 

 tobacco, frequently have so much litter in'them, 

 that the tobacco grows very little until Septem- 

 ber : consequently the tobacco has not lime to 

 ripen, but if it should, it will have so much juice 

 and be so late in the fall, that it will cure a dark 

 color, and will be such as is not much in 

 demand in foreign markets (C.) Whilst I ana 

 writing on the advantage of saving manure on a 

 plantation, 1 will give the management of one 

 of my neighbors, as the saying is, when he com- 

 menced the world. His plantation contained 

 about fifty acres of land, about fifteen of which 



