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204 CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



out, and the earth thrown around the plants, forming an addition to the hills. 

 The third hoeing, or ploughing if the ground be baked, should be made before 

 the tobacco is of a size large enough to top, which should be done as soon as 

 the plants will admit of being primed, (that is, the leaves taken off,) to the 

 height of four or five inches, and leave a sufficient number of leaves to top as 

 high as is designed, say on a tolerable soil, fourteen leaves for the first or 

 largest plants; the next at twelve, gradually diminishing as the season ad- 

 vances. 



Cutting, housing and curing, are the most difficult parts of tobacco growing. 

 It should not be cut while the sun is shining very hot, by which it is very much 

 bruished in handling, if not bnrned and rendered lifeless. Care must be 

 taken not to put too many plants on a stick, varying from eight to ten in pro- 

 portion to the size of the tobacco. Neither must it be crowded in the house, 

 by which it is much injured, called house burn. Tobacco should be fired as 

 soon as it becomes of a permanently yellow colour, which varies from ten to 

 fifteen days, by slow fires, and not so as to coddle or cure it in a few hours. It 

 would be better to continue the process twenty-four or forty-eight hours with 

 a moderate heat, having the house tight up to the first tier, but sufficiently 

 open above for the heat and vapour, generated from the green tobacco, to 

 escape. After tobacco is cured, in long continuations of damp weather, it 

 should be fired sufficiently to dry and keep it from moulding. The tempera- 

 ture of tobacco for pressing, should be as dry as it can be handled without 

 breaking. 



From observation, I am induced to believe that land of the second quality, 

 pretty much elevated and of an argillaceous nature, whether new or old, is 

 best adapted to raising tobacco of a superior quality; first, because such land 

 does not put forth vegetation as rapidly as a richer and warmer soil, and 

 thereby the tobacco acquires that fineness of texture and small fibres for which 

 it is much valued; secondly, such land will admit of the crop standing much 

 longer after commencing to ripen, by which it acquires the great variety of 

 shades in colour, another admired quality; and lastly, the slow growth of such 

 a soil, prevents that abundance of sap or juice, produced by a quick growth, 

 which materially injures this plant in curing. It also gives a stamina to the 

 leaf, making it much tougher than the quick growth. But a very beautiful 

 tobacco is produced upon silicious soils, though without much, if any, varie- 



ation of colour, its colour being of a bright amber; and another kind, of a 

 ark nutmeg colour, is produced by the first quality of our uplands; the second 

 and third kinds are produced by the calcareous uplands of our state. 



Land should be of sufficient strength to produce forty bushels of Indian 

 corn to the acre, to raise good tobacco. And I would fix upon that as the 

 medium strength, an addition of much extent, would make the fibres coarse 

 and the growth too luxuriant. Much less, would not produce a sufficient crop 

 to pay the expense of cultivation, (though perhaps the quality might be bet- 

 ter,) unless a greater difference were made by purchasers in the different 

 classes of tobacco. Land that requires manure, should, as before stated, be of 

 an argillaceous nature. The best manure is that of decayed vegetable sub- 

 stances wheat straw being one of the finest manures I have ever tried; the 

 straw has a tendency to give tobacco that variegation of colour before men- 

 tioned. Stable manure does not answer so well. It gives a dark greenish 

 colour, makes the growth too luxuriant and the fibres too large. 



The best method of manuring is, to scatter the manure before breaking the 

 ground, as it is thereby thoroughly mixed with the earth, and is deprived of 

 its burning or heating effects in a dry season; when put in the hills it causes a 

 dirth by heating and absorbing the. moisture. I have for many years tended 

 the long green tobacco. I have also grown the Blue Prior, Big and Little 

 Frederick. But of the four varieties, I prefer the first, it not being so subject 

 to speck or black in spots while ripening. 



Produce. The returns on a good soil, favourable season, 

 and attentive culture, will generally reach one thousand pounds 

 to the acre, in Maryland and Virginia; but on the fresh rich 

 lands of the south-western states, the crop not unfrequently 



