TOBACCO 207 



the entire length. The fire should then be started and let burn until the 

 soil directly under the fire has been burnt to a depth of three inches. It 

 is then dragged on the skids and another section of the bed burnt. This 

 operation is repeated until the entire bed is burnt. As soon as the ground 

 has cooled off, the coals should be raked off the bed and the fine ashes spaded 

 or plowed under. 



The bed is now ready for the frame to be placed around it. In some 

 states logs are used for this purpose, but one-inch planks twelve inches 

 wide and any desired length, best serve the purpose. The most conve- 

 nient size to make a seed-bed is six feet wide and fifty feet long, which will 

 make 300 square feet of bed. In building the frame to go around the beds 

 the planks should be set upon edge and where the ends meet they are nailed 

 to a stake which has previously been driven in the ground (see preceding 

 page) . After the frame is complete a No. 9 wire should be stretched from 

 the center of one end of the frame to the other, supported at intervals by 

 stakes, the tops of which are about two inches higher than the top of the 

 frame. When the cloth is stretched over the frame this will cause a peak 

 or ridge to the cloth roof. 



Prior to stretching the cloth over the frame, fertilizer should be applied 

 to the bed. Best results have been obtained by using twenty-five pounds 

 of cottonseed meal and ten pounds of acid phosphate to every fifty square 

 yards of seed-bed. This should be thoroughly mixed with the soil, and 

 should be applied several days before the tobacco seed is sown. This 

 form of seed-bed is now used in nearly all of the tobacco districts of the 

 United States with the exception of the New England states, where, on 

 account of their severe climatic conditions and short growing season, glass 

 frames and steam heat are used in order to obtain early seedlings. 



In sowing a seed-bed it is very important to secure a uniform stand of 

 seedlings and in order to have a stocky growth they must not stand too 

 thick in the bed. On account of the small size of tobacco seeds, it is neces- 

 sary to mix them with some foreign substance in order to facilitate uniform 

 distribution in the bed. The best material to use for this purpose is fine- 

 sifted dry ashes. One ounce of tobacco seed mixed with one gallon of 

 sifted wood-ashes will plant three hundred square feet of bed. More than 

 this amount of seed sown to three hundred square feet of bed will cause the 

 plants to grow too thick; consequently, they will not have that desired 

 stocky growth. The seed should not be raked in, but simply pressed into 

 the surface of the soil either by a small roller or by a board placed upon the 

 bed and pressure applied. As soon as the seeds have been pressed into 

 the soil the bed should be watered and the cloth covering placed in 

 position. 



If the seed-bed has been well burnt and otherwise prepared very little 

 attention will be needed except the daily watering, and this must not be 

 neglected if a good germination is desired, for the grower must remember 

 that the seed is upon the surface of the soil and that it takes moisture and 



