146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the piece and go over it with some implement to crush the 

 nubs, if there were any. After the second ploughing, which 

 would be performed about two weeks before plant-setting 

 commenced, having thoroughly harrowed and re-harrowed 

 the land, I would, with a double mould-board plough, furrow 

 it in rows three feet apart, and then strew from twelve to fif- 

 teen cart-loads of compost manure in the furrows, which 

 would then be covered with a "tobacco ridger." The 

 "ridger" further pulverizes the land to receive the plant. 

 If in the course of a week or ten days the plants are not 

 ready for setting, go over the piece with a horse cultivator, 

 first between the rows, then on the rows, running the culti- 

 vator teeth down into the manure, mixing it with the soil ; 

 then immediately follow with the ridger again, taking pains 

 to make the rows where they were before, over the manure. 



This process destroys the small weeds and is fully equal 

 to one hoeing, and more easily and cheaply done. The land 

 is made fresh to receive the plant, the roots of which should 

 be put down straight into the hole made for them and not 

 crammed into the ground doubled up ; neither should the 

 hole made for the plant be made with a stick and the bottom 

 of the hole left without filling with soil ; the soil should be 

 pressed firmly and completely around the roots of the 

 plant. 



The time for the tobacco plant to arrive at maturitj' is so 

 short, that if the manure is put into the hill (of which the 

 strewing in the furrow is a substitute), it is placed where it is 

 sooner found to give the plant nourishment. 



The sooner the soil is stirred after the plant has given 

 evidence of growth after being transplanted, the fiister it will 

 grow in the few weeks that follow ; and the oftener the soil 

 is stirred, till the plants become too large to pass between the 

 rows with a horse hoe, the better the crop. 



With the rows three feet apart, Prout's Horse Hoe seems 

 pretty well adapted for tilling Havana tobacco, which can 

 be done after the first hoeing with very little hand labor. 



The great enemy to the tobacco plant is the green worm (3fa- 

 crosila Carolina) , which is an altogether diflferent animal from 

 the cut-worm already spoken of, which also works upon the 

 young corn-plant as well, and is often called the corn worm, 



