TOBACCO 157 



in the rows. The bed can be covered lightly with coarse 

 grass until the first leaves appear, and ought not to need 

 watering. After heavy rain, the grass must be renewed. 



Transplanting. Tobacco should be transplanted when 

 it has four or five leaves the size of a peso. The ground 

 prepared for the plants must have been very thoroughly 

 cultivated. The easiest way is to plant them on level, 

 flat ground ; but it is usually better to raise each plant, 

 putting it in a little hill, or to plant them in rows along 

 low ridges. If the hills or rows are too high, the ground 

 will be likely to become too dry. A proper distance 

 between plants is 75 cm in each direction. They will 

 produce larger leaves if planted 90 cm apart, but the 

 leaves will be coarser in texture and less mild. 



If some plants are injured in transplanting, they should 

 be replaced at once, even if they are not dead, for injured 

 plants grow slowly, and the crop should be matured 

 as rapidly as possible. The longer the crop is in grow- 

 ing, the more likely it is to be destroyed, by storms or 

 otherwise. The finest leaves are those which grow most 

 rapidly. It is well worth the extra work to transplant 

 a block of earth with each plant so as to disturb the 

 roots as little as possible. The plants must be set into 

 the ground just as deeply after transplanting as they 

 were in the seed bed. 



Cultivation. As soon after transplanting as the roots 

 are well fixed in the new ground, which should be in not 

 longer than one week, the ground should be well loos- 

 ened with a cultivator or hoes. If this first cultivation 



