46 



HOW TO RAISE TOBACCO. 



and the owner said to me that he had cultivated this 

 field the entire time, and that a little well-rotted stable- 

 manure did his tobacco good. This field was in the 

 eastern part of Kentucky. 



While tobacco luxuriates in a deep, ricli, warm, 

 new soil, abounding in the salts and acids of decayed 

 and burned wood, it can be profitably raised on an 

 old, exhausted soil, even if it be sandy and left for its 

 'poverty. The ashes of wood, peat, or muck, as well 

 as their pyroligneous acids, are excellent fertilizers, as 

 is the ammoniacal water from gas-factories. I should 

 not hesitate to cultivate tobacco on an old exhausted 

 soil, even if it were a light sandy one, provided I had 

 near by one of the beds of the New-Jersey green sand 

 or a bed of peat, turf, or muck, in which case I would 

 draw from either at least fifty ox-cart loads, in the 

 fall, on to each acre I intended to cultivate the next 

 year, and spread it evenly over the intended lot, so as 

 to let it have the freezings and thawings of the win- 

 ter. As soon as the spring season would permit, I 

 would harrow the ground, so as to break and mix the 

 muck well, and then plow eight inches deep. When 

 the tobacco-phmts were ready for transplanting, I 

 would cross-plow the field twelve inches deep and 

 harrow across these furrows, so as to again give the 

 soil, and muck, peat, or sand a thorough mixing. Then, 

 with the "New-Jersey corn-marker," I would mark 

 it and cross-mark it three feet each way. At every 

 intersection, I would put one quart of the following 

 compost: fifteen bushels of wood-ashes, two barrels of 

 the gas ammoniacal water or urine, and three bushels 

 of fine-ground gypsum and one hundred and thirty 

 bushels of the green sand, peat, or muck that had had 

 a winter's frost. Hen manure would be a good sub- 

 stitute for the gas-water or urine, but it would have to 

 be soaked well. Tliese several substances to be com- 

 pletely mixed. This quantity should be prepared for 

 every acre, or 150 bushels would about give a quart 

 to every nine square feet of an acre. I should prefer 

 to dress the ground thus, and rotate with corn, clover, 

 potatoes, and tobacco, and I would not change the ro- 

 tation or manuring, except to use less as the soil I 

 cultivated was richer. There are many substitutes 

 for each part of the fertilizers named. 



I must now i-eturn to the seed or plant-bed, which 

 should be near the field where they are to be set, and 

 in a sheltered corner for preference. The bed should 

 bo as thoroughly woi-ked and enriched as the field, or 

 as one would prepare a garden for choice vegetables, 

 having two bushels of the compost well raked into 

 each square rod. The seed may be sown in drills, 

 which are easier to hoe, while broad-cast is easier to 

 sow. I should prefer the drill-sowing, and not more 

 than four or five inches apart, to be done as early as 

 spring will admit. 



The quantity of seed to be sown is the next to be 

 considered. I have. heard some growers say that a 

 common pipe-bowl twice full of seed was about right 



for each square rod of seed-bed. A Virginia grower 

 told me that he planted the seeds of five of his best 

 tobacco-stalks for every two acres of the field ho 

 wished to set with plants, thus making allowance for 

 waste and the numerous casualties attending the young 

 plants. But the most definite statement I received 

 was from a gentleman in Maryland, who said his prac- 

 tice was to sow three ounces of seed for each ten 

 acres he intended to cultivate in tobacco. I have 

 some ounces of Cuban seed, from which I have 

 weighed, and counted enough to find eight hundred 

 and seventy-five thousand seeds in an ounce. Should 

 every seed perfect a plant, it would be about sixty- 

 seven times the number needed. Perhaps, owing to 

 the imperfect seeds and all other circumstances that 

 tend to the destruction of the young plants, It may be 

 best to sow an ounce of seed to every four square rods 

 of bed, and a plant to stand on every six square 

 inches would give one quarter more plants than need- 

 ed, allowing a rod of bed for an acre of tobacco. 



Curing. — The usual custom is to let the stalks 

 hang until the stems of the leaves got dry enough to 

 break when pressed in the hand. 



The Cuba tobacco-grower would force the drying in 

 wet weather iind retard it in dry weather, as either 

 extreme is Injurious ; the wet is Injurious, as the leaves, 

 when tliey change from the natural color to a pale 

 yellow and light brown, easily mildew ; when dry, a3 

 before-named, it is taken down. Damp weather is 

 best, so as not to break the leaves, which are imme- 

 diately stripped from the stalks and sorted into as 

 many grades as the market may require, from one to 

 four and even more grades, as " bright yellow, dull, 

 seconds, and ground-leaves." But I see no necessity 

 of but three grades, as the over-npe, the unripe, and 

 the just ripe at cutting, and when properly dried they 

 show their grade plain enough to sort. After being 

 stripped and sorted, they are to be separately piled 

 ("bulked" some say) in courses of leaves — two, four, 

 or six tier of leaves, stems end out, and three to four 

 feet high. The leaves should be kept sti-aight in all 

 these handlings. The heap should be made up each 

 day separate, as it begins to make tobacco in twelve 

 hours or so, by fermenting, which is variously called 

 "curing, sweating, conditioning," etc. Soon as the 

 heap begins to get warm it should be replied, putting 

 the Inner tier out so as to equalize the fermentation ; 

 some repile several times and some none ; but tho 

 fermentation should be kept equal, and If covered with 

 old sail-cloth It can be regulated. This fermenting is 

 allowed to proceed for from four to six weeks by care- 

 ful manufacturers ; as it is the process that makes the 

 tobacco to suit the taste of tobacco-epicures it should 

 be carefully done, yet many do it in a careless man- 

 ner, and thus have an article so poor as to not find 

 many lovers. 



At the end of the four to six weeks the Cuba grower 

 would have one side of each leaf slightly moistened 



