290 



FARMERS' REGISTER— TO TOBACCO PLANTERS. 



To tlie Tobacco Planters. 



From the Richmond Enquh-er — 1827. 

 As the price of wheat must necessarily remain 

 low while a o;eneral peace continues, and its pro- 

 duction has been very much curtailed of late years, 

 from the uncertainty of making good crops, our 

 attention will consequently be more and more 

 turned to the culture of tobacco ; and as 30 to 50 

 per cent, has generally been lost on this crop, from 

 wantof better management, feeling it a duty, I take 

 pleasure in pointing out your defects, and in sug- 

 gesting the proper amendments ; and to those who 

 are sceptical, I recommend a partial triril and ex- 

 periment. As I shall recommend nothing more 

 than what has been practised by some of you to 

 great and very satisfactory , as well as profitable suc- 

 cess, I hope others will feel a confidence, so far at 

 least, as to make the trial. My object is merely 

 to communicate to all, a knowledge of the advan- 

 tages discovered and enjoyed by a few. 



TOPPING AND PRIiriNG. 



Two great errors are in general practice, in top- 

 ping and priming. On the rich land you generally 

 top too low ; almost all the tobacco made on the 

 rich land is too large, too coarse and curly, in con- 

 sequence of topping too low and planting too far 

 apart. On such land as you generally turn out 

 and make ten leaves to the plant, you should aim 

 at making twelve at least, by topping to about 

 sixteen, and not finish priming when you top, but 

 commence again when the four top leaves get 

 about half grown. If the seasons should produce 

 a rapid growth, indulge some of the suckers the 

 high topping, and permitting tlie suckers to remain 

 awhile, during the rapid growtli of a wet summer, 

 will cause the leaves to be smaller, grow slower, 

 and of finer texture. When the four top leaves 

 get half grown, prime off two more, and sucker 

 clean; by this time you can determine whether 

 your crop will probably come to the knife late or 

 early ; if late, prime off Iwo more in a short time ; 

 and if you should shortly thereafter apprehend its 

 suffering from dry weather, prime off two more 

 This will, in general, bring you to the tenth, mid- 

 dle, or latter end of September, with ten leaves to 

 a plant. If the drought should then have been so 

 severe as to have kept back the growth too much, 

 and the leaves now be much too small and no rain 

 yet, prime off two more and take your chance 

 with the remaining eight, which will weigh as 

 much, when ripe, as any greater number would, 

 if permitted to remain. 



But if the crop should not suffer from dry wea- 

 ther, your plants will produce at least twelve good 

 leaves; and if the seasons should be very good, 

 thirteen to fourteen might well be made. Nothing 

 is easier than to keep down the size of the leaves, 

 and prevent them from getting too large, if you 

 will only top high and indulge the suckers to a 

 proper extent in the early part of the summer, 

 when the seasons are favourable to rapid growth. 

 Sucker and prime judiciously, as the rains subside 

 and dry weather sets in. 



By turning out a superabundance of leaves, it 

 enables you to speculate on the weather in this crop 

 with more certainty, than any other ever known 

 to the writer. Some planters always make fine to- 

 bacco. 



The tobacco on the middling rich land, of light, 



quick, active qualities, should be topped high al- 

 so, and treated in the same manner as recommen- 

 ded for the rich. Two great advantages res^ult from 

 high topping : it causes the u[)per leaves to branch 

 out from the stalk nmch farther apart than the 

 lower, which gives them more benefit from the 

 genial rays of the sun, and latent properties and 

 substances of the air, which feed the plants by ab- 

 sorption ; and the upper leaves have a better shape, 

 not so curly, and much smoother and more valua- 

 ble than the lower. 



The four top leaves of a plant often, are, in ge- 

 neral, worth more than the other six, although the 

 four arc not so large, and do not, in general, weigh 

 half as much as the six. The four top leaves are 

 always the richest, if ripe, and of much tlie best 

 and most useful shape. They are decidedly so 

 when a plant is fully ripe, because they have the 

 greatest benefit from the sun and air, and act as a 

 shelter and covering to a great part of those below 

 them : and the covered shaded parts of the lower 

 ones are always- thinner, more chaffy, and lacking 

 in substance, texture, colour and elasticity, as well 

 as flavour. 



Hence the great advantage from high topping, 

 since we all certainly know that kind nature's 

 good arrangement causes the branches and limbs 

 of all vegetation, from the grass to the tree, to bud 

 and spring out further and further apart as they 

 approach the top. Nature's design and wisdom, 

 in this regulation, cannot but be manifest to any 

 one wiio will reflect a moment upon the subject : 

 it is to prevent the upper from stifling and suffo- 

 cating the lower, if I may be indulged to use such 

 terms on the subject of vegetation. 



As the same rules are also applicable to the cul- 

 ture of tobacco on thin land, such as can just bare- 

 ly produce a crop, I need say but little, particu- 

 larly as I am not disposed to encourage its culture 

 on poor land ; on such as one-third to half the Vir- 

 ginia crop is made, which neither pays for the la- 

 bour nor loss of soil. 



But it is the general, current, and very errone- 

 ous opinion, that much of the fine high priced to- 

 bacco has been made on poor land. It will be well 

 to correct this error, as it has caused much injury, 

 and great loss of labour, and final destruction and 

 death to a great deal of thin land, either poor ori- 

 ginally, or in the last stage of consumption, by the 

 Virginia-killing mode of cultivation. It is true, 

 however, to a notorious degree, that several poor 

 counties have of late been very conspicuous, and, 

 perhaps, meritoriously celebrated, for making fine 

 high priced tobacco; but the fine tobacco was not 

 made on poor land, when the land was actually 

 poor ; it was made on the richest, liveliest spots 

 that could be picked out in those poor counties ; 

 and the poverty of the circumjacent lands and 

 country, tends very much to brighten and increase 

 the tine ilavt)ur in curing, because the atmosphere 

 of a high, dry poor country is much sweeter and 

 purer than it can possibly be in a rich country, 

 particularly low mud lands, rich low grounds on 

 rivers of wide bottoms, where the exhalations keep 

 the air highly impregnated with too much oxy- 

 gen and otlier acrimonious and deleterious matter, 

 which the tobacco iinbibed to too great an extent 

 in its growth, and should be thrown off in curing, 

 and would lose in a purer state of atmosphere, in 

 the process of what you call, coming and going. 

 Consequently, it would be of great advantage to 



