EXPERIENCE OF PRACTICAL GROWERS. 



15 



shed all the rain, but simply with the hand-hoe to 

 strike the edge into the ground a little, three or four 

 times ;) then spat the hill, leaving the ground around 

 level with the spat a httle depressed. Put the hills 

 two feet apart, and the rows three feet between. Be- 

 gin on one side of the field, and to make the rows 

 straight, set guides in the middle and end of same. It 

 will pay you to take extra pains to make the rows 

 straight, in looks and convenience, in going among it 

 with the cultivator. Having made one row of hills, it 

 will be easy to make the rest so by it. If necessary 

 to put on more manure, with a small one-horse plow, 

 turn a shallow furrow for the rows, observing to make 

 them three feet apart, and straight, as above. Into 

 such furrows strew from five to six loads of very fine 

 manure or compost. It is better to strew it through- 

 out the whole length than to put it in hills, as the 

 crop will get the benefit without the danger of the 

 hills drying up. With the hoe, haul in the dirt and 

 fiU the furrow level, covering the whole of the manure, 

 and make the hills by spatting with the hoe as you go, 

 observing to make them at regular distance. It is 

 better, when convenient, to have the rows run north 

 and south, that the sun may more readily shine on the 

 ground to warm it, etc. 



Planting Out. — Having thus fitted your ground, 

 it will be necessary to improve the first opportunity 

 for transplanting after your plants attain a suit- 

 able size, which will be when the leaves attain the 

 breadth of two inches. This is best done in wet or 

 Tiiiny weather, but can be done at any time as describ- 

 ed below. It having rained sufficiently to wet the 

 groimd down an inch or so, proceed in the following 

 manner to remove the plants from the bed : take a 

 common two-tined dinner-fork, or a stick sharpened to 

 a point at one end ; run this down by the side of suita- 

 ble-sized plants, and loosen them by prying under 

 them. With the other hand take them by the leaves 

 and gently lift them out of the ground and place them 

 in a basket provided for the purpose ; proceed thus, 

 and remove such a quantity as you may desire. Then 

 with a good boy to drop them, proceed to the field. 

 Such a boy will drop out as fast as two can set. Let 

 him drop one plant on each hill, occasionally two 

 small ones, to fill in where missing at some future 

 time. To set them properly, take the plant by the 

 leaves near the roots in the left hand, and with the 

 two front fingers of the right, make a hole in the cen- 

 ter of the hill by running them down straight ; with- 

 draw the fingers, and place the roots of the plant held 

 in the other hand in the hole ; with the aforesaid two 

 fingers, push the dirt up to the side of the roots, and 

 finish off by pressing the dirt in and down around the 

 plant, which, if properly done, the plant can not be 

 pulled up by a single leaf. Proceed in like manner 

 with the whole. If your plants should be sufiiciently 

 grown, and no wet weather occurs, take a watering- 



pot and give the plant-bed a good soaking ; then, as 

 before described, take up your plants, being careful 

 not to disturb the roots of those remaining ; after 

 which give the bed another good sprinkling. Set 

 your plants as described before, and immediately 

 water them well. Set them before you wet the 

 ground, for it is done better ; the water will then set- 

 tle the dirt around, and stick them well. This should 

 be done in the after-part of the day ; the next morn- 

 ing water them again thoroughly. If properly done, 

 nine in ten, if not the whole, will live. If you are 

 afraid the sun will burn them, you can cover them up 

 with a little short grass, or burdock, or other leaves. 

 The writer has seen them set as described, and not 

 covered at all, and they have lived and done as well 

 as those set at any other proper time. 



Cut-Worms. — The next, or at farthest, the sec- 

 ond morning after having set your plants, go over 

 to see that the worms do not eat up one half of 

 them. You can tell where they are and have 

 been, by seeing a plant with a single leaf, and 

 sometimes the whole plant eaten off and drawn down 

 into the hole occupied by a large brown or black 

 worm ; you will see little ant-hills like, and round 

 holes in the ground ; by poking around a little in the 

 dirt, you will find a worm very near the mouth of 

 these little holes. Destroy it, and all you can find, 

 and thus save your crop. This searching for worms 

 must be kept up till they cease to do mischief. All 

 plants missing in the field should be renewed from the 

 bed at the first opportunity. The morning is the best 

 time to find the worms, as they are near the surface 

 of the ground ; later, they retire into the ground to 

 appear again near sundown, and work during the 

 night and early morning. 



Cultivation. — Having got your plants all set, 

 the next in order is, m a few days to hoe out the 

 same. Take a cultivator narrowed up, and with a boy 

 to guide the horse, go through ; once to a row is suf- 

 ficient for the first hoeing. Then with a common 

 hand-hoe cut up all weeds and grass, brush the dirt 

 down level around the plant ; stir it but very slightly 

 close to the plant ; leave the stirring and hauling dirt 

 up to the plants to a future dressing. Go over the 

 whole in like manner ; then again in ten days or a 

 fortnight, keeping the worms off in the mean time. 

 With your cultivator, go twice to a row. This time 

 you can stir the dirt pretty freely around the plants, 

 and renew it, being careful not to leave any leaves 

 covered up, or partially so, as it will spoil them. 

 As the leaves are what tobacco is grown for, be sure 

 in all the different processes you go through with, 

 to save them from any thing that will injure them. 

 Should any plant have its center bud broken or eaten 

 off, it will come up with several suckers or sprouts, 

 and will not amount to much ; better replace such, if 

 not too late. It is better to do the rest of the hoeing 



