PRODUCTION AND COMMEECE. 215 



a liberal hand ; notliing short of princely liberality will 

 answer. Plough it under (both the home-made and the 

 commercial) in February, that it may become thoroughly 

 incorporated in the soil and be ready to answer to the 

 first and every call of the growing plant. Often (we 

 believe generally) the greater part of manure applied to 

 tobacco — and this is true of the ' bought ' fertilizer as well 

 as of that made on the farm — is lost to that crop from 

 being applied too late. Don't wait to apply your dearly- 

 purchased guano in the hill or the drill from fear that, if 

 applied sooner, it will vanish into thin air before the 

 plant needs it. This is an exploded fallacy. Experience, 

 our best teacher, has demonstrated beyond cavil that 

 stable and commercial manure are most efficacious when 

 used in conjunction. In no other way can they be so 

 intimately intermixed as by ploughing them under — the 

 one broadcasted on the other — at an early period of the 

 preparation of the tobacco lot. This second ploughing 

 should not be so deep as the first ; an average of three to 

 four inches is about the right depth. 



" IV. Early in May (in the main tobacco belt to which 

 this article chiefly refers, that is to say, between the thirty- 

 fifth and fortieth parallels of north latitude), re-plough 

 the land to about the depth of the February ploughing, 

 and drag and cross-drag, and, if need be, drag it again, 

 until the soil is brought to the finest possible tilth. Thus 

 you augment many fold the probabilities of a ' stand ' ou 

 the first planting, and lessen materially the subsequent 

 labour of cultivation. Plant on 'lists' (narrow beds 

 made by throwing four furrows together with the mould- 

 board plough) rather than in hills, if for no other reason 



