180 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



picking the grass out of" the beds. Besides, thick 

 eowing is a great security against the flies. Beds 

 that a°e thinly set wiih plants are soon cleaned 

 when the flies get in them ; whereas, beds thickly 

 set may be considerably eaten by flies, and yet 

 plants enough left : hence the triie saying "sow 

 some for fly,°and some for I." I have known per- 

 sons to miss planting their crop oC tobacco by not 

 sowing seed enough in their beds; but 1 never 

 knew one to miss by sowing too many. Beds 

 that have too many plants in them can be raked 

 and the plants thinned. This has lor a long time 

 been customary. A rake for i he purpose is soon 

 made. I have made the teeth with twenty pen- 

 ny nails. 



Plant-beds, if the land is not rich, should be 

 manured, this can be done before the seed are 

 sown or afterwards. If the land is poor it is best 

 to manure the bed before it is sown. Any well 

 rotted manure will answer, but stable manure is 

 best. Ashes answer very well lor light soils, and 

 have the advantage of having no grass seed in 

 them. In saving manure for plant-beds, care ought 

 to be taken lo prevent grass seed from getiing 

 with it ; so that stable manure, to be free from 

 wrass seed, ought to be saved when the horses are 

 not turned loose out of the stable, and when they 

 are fed on some kmd of Ibod that contains no seed. 

 Corn-blades are one of those kinds of Ibod. Hen- 

 houses and the roosts of poultry tiirnish good ma- 

 nure for tobacco beds. Hog-pens also furnish 

 very good manure for plants. When beds are 

 manured after the plants are up, the manureshould 

 be put on in a very fine state. (I.) 



It 16 a custom with many planiers to cover their 

 beds after they are sowed with pine or cedar brush. 

 This is a very good way to get the plants up, as 

 the brush keeps the land moist. The brush should 

 be taken off' the plants soon after they are up, as 

 it makes them tender and what is termed long- 



To keep up places for tobacco beds from year to 

 year, as soon as they are done with for that time, 

 they should be hoed or wed up, and then covered 

 with straw or tobacco stalks, three or lour inches 

 deep. 



I now come to the transplanting of the plant. 

 Having kept the land in which they are to be 

 transplanted clear of too much grass and weeds 

 it is now to be got ready lor making the hills. 

 The ground should be ploughed over, and il it 

 should be soddy or lumpy, aheavytooih harrow 

 should be run over if. It is now ready to be laid 

 off, which is done by running fiirrows from two 

 and a half or three teet apart one way, and then 

 turning and running furrows the same distance 

 apart directly across the others, at what may be 

 termed right angles ; these furrows should be very 

 shallow. Deep furrows make the hills too high, 

 and when they come to be worked away the 

 plants are left standing as if they were in pin- 

 nacles. When making ihe hills, the top should 

 be rounded off',so that the pat of the hoe will be 

 no lower than any other part of the hill. This, 

 though seemingly of little consequence, is more so 

 than it appears to be at first sight. In times of 

 heavy rains it prevents the water and sand (rom 

 settling about the plant. Very often when plants 

 have only been planted a day or two, there are 

 heavy rains. If the hills are not made so that 

 the water can run off" immediately, the plants get 

 covered up by dirt washing over them. 



When drawing the plants from the bed they 

 should be drawn with as much of their roots as 

 possible. A common table fork, by being run 

 under their roots, enables a person to draw the 

 plants wiih all the fine fibres to their main roof. 

 This mode should not be resorted to until the 

 beds have been drawn several times, as the fork 

 is apt to loosen the earth about the roots of'the 

 plants left in them, and consequently injures them ; 

 t)ut lowards the latter part of the planting time, 

 when they will not be much longer wanted, the 

 drawmg with a Ibrk will cause the late planting 

 to grow oflT immediately. For plants drawn in 

 this way, will, by leaving all their fine roots com- 

 mence growing much quicker after they are trans- 

 planted, ihan plants will which have been drawn 

 by hand. Plants that are used to replant with ■ 

 should be drawn in this manner. 



When Ihe plant-beds are within a short dis- 

 tance of the tobacco land, the plants should be 

 carried to it in baskets or tubs that will not hold 

 more than a bushel ; for by carrying them in large 

 baskets they become bruised. The m.ost con- 

 venient way is to haul them in a cart ; but this 

 way bruises them. The best way to manage 

 when the beds are not too far off', is to set the 

 most careJul hands on 'he plantation in the beds 

 drawing plants, while the smaller and less useful 

 hands should carry the plants to those who are 

 planting them. 



When setting the plants in the hills, care should 

 be taken not to put more of ihe plant in the ground 

 than the root ; that is, the plant should be set as 

 near as can be as it was in the bed. By putting 

 the plants too deep in the hills, they frequently 

 stand some time and then rot off at the root ; if 

 they should not rot off' they will not grow lor 

 some time. 



Afiertheplants that hnve been transplanted have 

 commenced growing, or in the language of plant- 

 ers, taken hold of the hill, weeding time com- 

 rnences. It is well not to weed tobacco too soon 

 alter it is planted ; lor if most of the grass seed do 

 not get up before the hill is taken away, they will 

 come up'after the tobacco is wed out, and it will 

 have to be wed again. But on the other hand too 

 much grass ought not to be suffered to grow about 

 the tobacco hills. For filih is (bought to be the 

 means of producing what is called the web-worm 

 which is sometimes very destructive to crops. 

 Many planters are of the opinion that weeding 

 away the hills in a short time alter the plants are 

 planted, will prevent the web worm from getting 

 in the crop. I have known some to have all the • 

 grass carried out of their tobacco ground when 

 their crop had become grassy) under the impres- 

 sion that that would prevent the web-worm. 

 This is a very good way ; for grass left in tobacco 

 lands, even if it is no cause of web- worm, prevents 

 the tobacco from growing kindly. When tobacco 

 is being wed, too much of the hill should not be 

 taken away, as it leaves the plant standing on a 

 small spire of earth, and in dry weather exposes 

 the root too much to the sun. Some planters al- 

 ways weed their tobacco plants without running 

 a plough or cultivator in the space between the 

 hills, because the plough and horse sometimes 

 knock out of the hills some of the plants. This 

 is a very laborious way, and a great deal of labor 

 is lost. 1 have always found the most labor 

 saving way to be, to weed, when the tobacco 



