Food for Plants. 43 



or the various forms for pipe smoking and cigarettes. 

 All kinds of tobacco have the same general habits of 

 growth, but the two classes mentioned liave very differ- 

 ent plant food requirements. 



Cigar tobaccos generally require a rather light soil; 

 the manufacturing kinds prefer heavy, fertile soils. In 

 either case, the soil must be clean, deeply broken, and 

 thoroughly pulverized. Fall plowing is always practiced 

 on heavy lands, or lands new to tobacco culture. To- 

 bacco may be safely grown on the same land year after 

 year. The plant must be richly fertilized; it has thick, 

 fleshy roots, and comparatively little foraging power — 

 that is, ability to send out roots over an extensive tract 

 of soil in search of plant food. 



Fertilizer for tobacco is used in quantities per acre as 

 low as 400 pounds of high grade and as much as 3,000 

 pounds of low grade. While the production of leaf may 

 be greatly increased by the use of Nitrate, the other plant 

 food elements should also be used to secure a well ma- 

 tured crop. In the case of cigar tobaccos. Nitrate may be 

 used exclusively as the source of Nitrogen as it is diffi- 

 cult to secure a thoroughly matured leaf unless the sup- 

 ply of digestible Nitrogen is more or less under control, 

 a condition not practicable with ordinary fertilizers. 



Tobacco gro\\^ng is special farming, and should be 

 carefully studied before starting in as a planter. For 

 small plantations, the plants are best bought of a regu- 

 lar seedsman. The cultivation is always clean, and an 

 earth mulch from two to three inches in depth should be 

 maintained — that is, the surface soil to that depth kept 

 thoroughly pulverized. 



At the Kentucky Experhuent Station, experiments 

 were made \dth fertilizers on Burley Tobacco. The land 

 was " deticient in natural drainage," so that the fertil- 

 izers could hardly be expected to have their full effect. 

 Yet, as will be seen by the following table, the profits 

 from the use of the f ertiUzers were enormous : 



