EXPERIENCE OP PRACTICAL GROWERS. 



19 



plants will not grow. A tight board-fence put up on 

 the north and west sides of the bed will keep off 

 cold winds and reflect the rays of the sun. The 

 bed should be covered with blankets or straw on frosty 

 nights or the plants may be destroyed. The kind of 

 toliacco best adapted to this locality, and generally 

 grown here, is the hroad-leaf variety of the Connecti- 

 cut seed-leaf. There is a great difference in the width 

 of leaves of the same length, and it is just as easy to 

 raise a large, broad leaf, as a long and narrow one. 



PuEPARATiox OF SoiL. — A rich, gravelly soil is best 

 adapted for the culture of tobacco, producing a finer 

 ciuality than can be grown on meadow-land. A piece 

 that was highly manured last season, and planted to 

 corn, will be a good place to try. Let the land be 

 plowed deep about the fii«t of May, turning under a 

 neavy coat of coarse barn-yard manure, say from 

 thirty to fifty cart-loads to the acre, to the depth of 

 seven or eight inches. About the twentieth of May 

 harrow it thoroughly, and from the first to the tenth 

 of June put on well-rotted manure or compost, at 

 the rate of fifteen or twenty loads per acre, and with 

 a light, one-horse plow ridge up the land, making the 

 ridges from three and a half to three and three quar- 

 ter feet apart; make small ridges, just enough to 

 turn under the manure, that is, about three or four 

 inches above the surface. I have found this plan of 

 ridging the land to work well, as it can be done quick- 

 er and it gives a chance to set out the plants a little 

 higher than when the land is plowed clean, unless you 

 make too much of a hill, in which case the plants are 

 more liable to dry up. It, at the same time, obviates 

 the danger of setting them too low, leaving them 

 in danger of being flooded and covered with dirt in 

 case of a powerful rain. After the land is ridged, 

 make, with a hoe, a little hill or spot where each plant 

 is to be set, taking care to remove therefrom all trash 

 or stones. If desirable to have the rows run both 

 ways, make the hills crosswise the ridges, with the 

 rows two and a half feet apart, with the hills on each 

 ridge, or if but one way, make the hills on the ridge 

 every two and a half feet, or nearly so. This makes 

 the plants three .and a half, or three and three quarter 

 feet between the rows, (to allow a cultivator to be run 

 between the rows, and give room to sucker and worm 

 the plants when large,) and two and a half feet in the 

 row, giving five or six thousand to the acre. About 

 the fifteenth of June, or as near that time as the 

 weather will admit, is the right time to begin to set 

 out the plants. 



Transplanting. — Having the ground prepared as 

 stated, immediately after a rain, or what is better, just 

 previous to a shower, take up the plants that are large 

 enough, that is, those that have three or four leaves as 

 large as a silver dollar. If the bed is not too hard, 

 they may be pulled up by placing the two fore-fingers 

 of one hand under the leaves and the thumb over 

 them ; if the roots break off, the ground can be loosen- 



ed by running a fork down by the side of the plant 

 Place the plants in a basket or pan, and when full, let 

 one go over the rows, dropping one plant on each hill. 

 Set them out by making a hole in the center of the 

 hill with the fore-finger, placing the roots carefully, and 

 press the soil about them firmly. If it rains soon af- 

 ter they are set, or if the ground is quite wet, they will 

 soon take root and commence growing ; should the 

 sun come out hot, they will need to be protected by 

 placing some short, green grass over each plant and 

 watering it well ; this, hovrever, is not necessary if the 

 ground is much wet. Much depends upon having a good 

 time for setting. After the twentieth, if you have not 

 the plants large enough to set, get them somewhere 

 else, if you can, (they can generally be obtained for 

 from fifty cents to one dollar per thousand,) if you 

 have a good time for setting. They will generally wilt 

 down during the day, but if they look fresh in the 

 morning they will do well. A little plaster sprinkled 

 on the leaves helps them along at this time. The 

 plants should be looked over every morning or two, 

 as the cut-worms are sometimes quite troublesome. 

 Dig around the roots of every plant that has been 

 eaten, to find the worms. Sometimes, a plant that 

 looks well, apparently, has been spoiled by having the 

 middle eaten out. All missing plants should be re-set 

 as soon as possible, that they may be uniform in size, 

 as that adds greatly to the beauty of the crop, and 

 nothing looks much finer, while growing, than a field 

 of tobacco of uniform size. 



Cultivation. — After the plants have been set about 

 two weeks, or long enough to get rooted, they wiil 

 need hoemg, to loosen the ground around them and 

 kill the weeds which may have started. Use a com- 

 mon cultivator, going twice between each row to level 

 the " balk " between each ridge, and work it thorough- 

 ly. Care should be taken not to let it run too near 

 the plants so as to disturb the roots or to cover the 

 leaves with dirt. Then, with a hoe, level off" the ridge 

 between each plant a little and hoe nghtly around 

 them. In thjs way an acre of tobacco can be hoed near- 

 ly as quickly as an acre of corn. Hoeing should be 

 repeated often enough to keep the land free from weeds 

 and the ground light about the plants. It can be 

 easily hoed without the cultivator, or you can use it^ 

 taking out the two back-teeth (or one of them) after 

 the plants get larger. 



Insects. — The cut-worms will continue to trouble 

 till there have been a few hot days, or the plants get 

 leaves as large as the hand, after which they will do 

 but little damage. Missing plants may be re-set until 

 about the tenth of July ; after that time they will not 

 do much. The top, or tobacco-worms, begin to ap- 

 pear about as soon as the cut-worms leave, and if well 

 cleared out at first, when they can be more easily 

 found, much time and tobacco will be saved. 



Topping. — Cultivators do not agree as to the time 

 and where to top the plants. Some favor the plan of 



