EXPERIENCE OF PKACTICAL GEOWEES. 



23 



in properly-prepared beds, and other conditions favor- 

 able, the plants can be set out some time between the 

 twenty-fifth of May and tenth of June. At that time 

 their leaves will be as large as a dollar-piece. Over- 

 grown plants are not desirable. But before your plants 

 are ready you should attend to 



The Kind of Land. — This depends somewhat upon 

 the character of the tobacco designed to be raised. 

 If the object is weight, take old and rich land. The 

 richer, (with animal manures,) the heavier the tobacco ; 

 the heavier the tobacco, the coarser will be its charac- 

 ter, and, in old-established markets, the less it will 

 bring per pound. Any rich land will bring heavy to- 

 bacco, provided it is not too wet. Excessive moisture 

 is destructive to its growth. No farming product is so 

 eifectually destroyed on wet lands as tobacco, and 

 none is so little affected by dry weather. Last season 

 there was no rain in this section from the third July till 

 the thirteenth of October. Other crops were seriously 

 shortened in consequence of such a drought, but bet- 

 ter tobacco I never saw grow. I would say, then, 

 that any land, good for any other crop, will brmg good 

 tobacco, if it is not too wet. 



The Prepaeation of the Land. — To do this well, 

 (and it is greatly to the mterest of the grower,) re- 

 quires deep plowing and thorough harrowing. Like 

 all other crops, tobacco will do best in land best pre- 

 pared for it. Having plowed and harrowed the land, 

 the next step is to lay it off in rows. If the land is 

 old ground, and rich enough to bring eighty bushels 

 of corn to the acre, mark ofi" the rows four and a half 

 feet each way, to the cardinal points, if convenient, 

 but, in any case, as straight as possible. This is es- 

 sential to the subsequent thorough plowings. In Vir- 

 ginia the practice was to make hills as large as a 

 bushel of sand would ; but I am perfectly sure that 

 three fourths of that labor was unprofitable.* Nor is 

 it best to plant on a flat surface, for two reasons : first, 

 because the plants are likely to be overflowed in wet 

 spells ; and, second, because they can not be as neatly 

 or as well worked with the hoe or plow. For these 

 reasons I would prefer an elevation of six or eight 

 inches, and to obtain it I would throw two furrows 

 together with a one-horse turning-plow. When ready 

 to plant, these ridges should be flattened six inches 

 square, at intervals of exactly four fgfet, at which 

 points the plants should be set out, just as you would 

 cabbage or tomato-plants. Having planted your crop, 

 the next consideration is 



The Mode of Cultivating. — When the leaves are 

 half the size of a man's hand, it should be gone over 

 with a cultivator, or what is called here a "double- 

 shovel." Whatever the implement may be, the object 

 of the operation should be to stir the land four inches 

 deep, and kill the starting grass or weeds. This plow- 

 ing should be followed by a hoeing, taking the grass 

 out of the hill, and covering the surface all around, 

 and up to the plant. When the leaves are eight or 



ten inches long, the crop should receive a second plow- 

 ing, followed immediately by a second hoeilig, with 

 the same general objects. No other hoeing is re- 

 quired, unless the land be very foul, but a third plow- 

 iug should be given about two weeks after the second. 



Now, the substance of these directions is simply 

 this : to work tobacco, with plow and hoe, in such 

 ways, and at such times, and with the same object in 

 view as you would any other crop, and that is, to de- 

 stroy grass and weeds, and keep the surface well pul- 

 verized. Under favorable conditions, your plants are 

 now in a state to receive another manipulation. But 

 before I proceed to that, I will remark, that I have seen 

 many valuable crops of tobacco raised without any 

 hoe-work — altogether with the plow. 



Priming. — This consists in puUing of the bottom 

 leaves, to the number of four or five. Any plant 

 large enough to top ought to be primed first ; as a 

 general rule is, not to prime until the plant is ready 

 to top also. Many good planters omit the priming 

 process altogether, though by that plan they increase 

 the class called " lugs," and lighten their other and 

 better qualities of tobacco. But I would advise all 

 planters to prime their crops. The next work in the 

 cultivation of the crop is called 



Topping. — This is the most important operation yet 

 performed, and simply means pinching out the bud, or 

 cutting off the top of the growing plant — important, 

 from the fact that the operation may leave too many 

 leaves on the stalk to grow, and ripen, if they can, or 

 it may take off some that would have grown and ripen- 

 ed well. It is evident that the growing stalk must be 

 shortened at some point ; hence the 'necessity of the 

 exercise of judgment. 



If the directions already given have been duly 

 observed, five sixths of the crop will be large enough 

 to top and prime in August, and ripe enough to cut by 

 the fifteenth or twentieth of September. But if a rule 

 must be given, I would suggest the following : Prime 

 the plant, as above directed, then count as many 

 leaves, from the bottom up, as there are weeks inter- 

 vening between the time of doing it and the fifteenth of 

 October. I say the fifteenth of October, because that is 

 the time at which killing frosts usually come in this 

 latitude. There are, no doubt, exceptions to this rule ; 

 but it is designed only as a general one. All condi- 

 tions favorable, a tobacco-plant will ripen in as many 

 weeks, from the time -of topping it, as there are leaves 

 left on the stalk. Consequently, if the topping is 

 done early, it can be topped high, if later, it must be 

 done lower, and if still later, still lower. Planters 

 differ very much at this point. Some will top as high 

 as sixteen leaves, others ten, and a great many at 

 eight. My own opinion is, that a plant topped at ten 

 will weigh as much as one at sixteen, topped at the 

 same time, and on the same kind of land. I think I 

 have been sufficiently explicit on that point. Too 

 much particularity might discourage the learner, there- 



