TOBACCO. 121 



PREPARATION OF THE LAND. 



The land must be deeply and thoroughly prepared. 

 All rubbish must be removed from the field, as any 

 break or hole in the leaf grows larger as the leaf in- 

 creases in size. 



A rich sandy loam that is warm will be found best 

 for this crop. Tobacco can stand a greater drouth 

 than the ordinary field crops. It is always well to 

 send the crop along as rapidly as possible, and to get 

 it in early; by so doing a great deal of the insect rav- 

 ages will be avoided. The rich alluvial bottoms, or 

 other heavy land, should be avoided, unless one desires 

 to raise coarse and cheap tobacco. Fancy, high priced 

 tobacco, cannot be raised on such land. 



The rows are put from four to six feet apart and the 

 plants from a foot to eighteen inches in the row. It 

 takes two or three davs to set out an acre by hand, so 

 one cannot wait for a rain, but the plants must be 

 watered, not only once, but several times, during a dry 

 spell before they will have formed a new root system. 



CULTIVATION. 



There is very little if any tobacco that is cultivated 

 too deeply or too often, but much that receives too lit- 

 tle and too shallow cultivation. As long as the horse 

 can pass between the rows without damaging the leaves 

 cultivation may be continued. When the plants are 

 from six to eight inches high they should be hilled up 

 to keep them from being blown over. 



TOPPING AND SUCKERING. 



When the plant has developed from six to ten leaves 



the flowering stalk appears, which is cut or pulled off, 



so as to leave about seven good leaves ; this is known 



as topping. During the growth of a well fed plant, 



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