1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



105 



and a half of tobacco ha.s been obtained from 

 a single acre, many will regard it as sim])ly a 

 bar-room story, or wholly a myth. 

 Tobacco in Berks. 



The Berks county ujiricuUurists are waking 

 up to tlic importance of the tobacco crop. At 

 the last meeting of the agrieiiltiual society 

 the following preamble and resolution were 

 passed : 



Whereas, The culture of tobacco has 

 proved highly remunerative and is extensively 

 cultivated in the adjacent county of Laucas- 

 ter, and witli a view of stimulating the farm- 

 ersof Berksto commeiu'e its growth, therefore 



Resulved, That the Agricultural and Horti- 

 cultural Society of Berks county offer a pre- 

 mium of fifty dollars for the Ijest acre of to- 

 bacco grown in this county, and that the 

 president appoint a connnitteeof tliree farmers 

 who shall be authorized to award the premium 

 in 1878. 



CUTTING AND CURING TOBACCO. 



The United States Tobacco Journal makes 

 the following statement of some experiments 

 which have been made in some of the tobacco 

 producing districts of Germany, with decided 

 success. At the time llie plant is ready for 

 cutting, judgment should be used in deter- 

 mining the body and texture the leaves posses 

 at such time. If the leaf should Ije of a 

 tlimsy, weak character; the whole stock, in- 

 cluding the root, .should be extracted and nail- 

 ed, or hung up in the barns with the tips of 

 the leaves hanging downward. This will 

 greatly benefit tJie leaves, as the sap contained 

 in the root will gradually diffuse itself into 

 the leaves and add considerable to their 

 strength and tlie coming sweating process. 

 If on the other- hand, the lea\es should be of 

 heavy character, then onlv the leaves should 

 be cut off and lumg up. This will reduce the 

 surplus of sap, deprive the leaf of any accu- 

 mulation of strength, turn out to be of a 

 thinner and more desirable textiu'e after 

 sweating. 



[Of course, our experienced tobacco growers 

 will know more about the value of the above 

 than wc do, and we only quote it because 

 " In the multitude of counsel there is safety."] 



^ 



CULTURE OF TOBACCO. 



A few Practical Hints — Danger of Overdoing 

 it — Shedding, Sorting, etc. 

 This is a subject which at the present time 

 seems to be foremost in the great agricultural 

 interests of our county, and is claiming the 

 attention of the majority of our farmers. In 

 fact, with us, it is the great topic of conversa- 

 tion, and apparently seems to be the golden 

 dream of every owner of land — from the 

 possessor of a parcel of 20x40 feet, to the large 

 landholders. Every one you meet talks to- 

 bacco ; as if it were not enough to chew and 

 smoke it. It is the everlasting theme that 

 greets our ears from morn to night, and on 

 every side. And as a consecpience its culture, 

 &c., being the great subject of the day, and 

 items of news being scarce, we concluded that 

 perhaps it would not be amiss to throw out a 

 few practical hints in regard to its culture, 

 &c., formed from observation. It is true 

 there are "millions in it," but tlie (piestion 

 has arisen in our mind if it may not be po.ssible 

 that it may be overdone. First, may not the 

 soil finally fail to produce, and may not the 

 growers in their anxiety to*amass wealth, 

 overstock the market, and as a consequence 

 reduce the price or value of it, and thereby 

 realize less from it than they would from a 

 com or wheat crop. As a general thing 

 growers of tobacco use every particle of ma- 

 nure and fertilizer that becomes available on 

 the tobacco ground, entirely neglecting the 

 manuring of tlie wheat, corn and potato patch, 

 and as a consequence short crops are the re- 

 sult, and instead of, as in the days of yore, 

 when thirty-five and forty bushels of w-heat 

 were harvested from the acre, the average 

 yield has fallen to fifteen and twenty-five 

 bushels, a decrease of almost one-half, besides 

 a very short crop of straw ; and such is the 



case witli all other crops. The question need 

 not be asked why this is, for it is an admitted 

 fact that tobacco al)sorb3 in its growth from 

 the soil certain ingredients or properties of 

 the same, that heavy fertilizing and rest of 

 the soil will alone replace again. And another 

 point which we desire to draw attention to, is 

 that two many laud owners endeavor to grow 

 more themselves tiian they are able to man- 

 age, and as a consetpience it fails to get that 

 attention necessary to secure a good crop. 

 We have frequently observed that some of the 

 land owners put out from twenty to thirty acres 

 of their best land, and entirely robbing the 

 balance of the farm of manure, and whilst 

 endeavoring to fiirn\ more than they can prop- 

 erly work or givc^ their attention, the result 

 follows, that where they have one acre of 

 gooil tobacco, they have live of an inferior 

 character (and all other crops neglected and 

 short according), and consequently tlooding 

 the market with an inferior article. We hold 

 that no one man can properly with the care 

 and attention neces.sary, manage more than 

 two acres, and then only by giving it his whole 

 attention. Besides, as a general tiling, many 

 of those growers have not sufiicent shedding, 

 and are therefore compelled to crowd it into 

 too small a sjiace. To cure tobacco properly 

 it should have sufiicent room, so that each 

 stalk may hang free from the other ; other- 

 wise we will have wliat is commoidy known 

 among thegrowcrsas "mow-burnt" tobacco, 

 and also an ununiforin color. We predict that 

 if farmers continue to presist in driving their 

 land in growing cro]i after crop so extensively, 

 without sufficient fertilizer and rest, that 

 their land will finally become non-productive. 

 Thei'e should by all means be a less area of 

 land farmed, and tliat should be placed in 

 charge of good experienced growers, and nt>t 

 more than two acres to any one man, g,nd I 

 feel justified in asserting that a better and 

 more merchantable article will be placed in 

 the market, and as a conse(pience a better 

 price realized, and in the end recompense the 

 owner of tlie land better than if he had 

 double the number of acres, besides resting 

 his land. We have known right in our own 

 vicinity, growers to realize from three acres, 

 which were well managed and attended, as 

 much as some growers realized from ten acres. 

 The reason is quite simple and reasonable. In 

 the first place, the land was well manured ; 

 secondly, they had plenty of room to hon.se it, 

 without crow'ding ; thirdly, they were able to 

 give it all the attention required — keeping it 

 free of worms, &c., and, lastly, sorting it 

 properly. In the last particular "many fail in 

 putting forth a good merchantable article. It 

 should be properly sorted, too much care can 

 not be given in this direction. Sound and 

 uniformed colored leaves should be placed by 

 themselves — each stalk should be very care- 

 fully examined when being stripped, leaves 

 should also be of a uniform length, a handful 

 with long and short leaves tied together make 

 rather an unmerchantable appearance, and 

 very often cause a poor sale. We think from 

 what little experience we have had, that many 

 growers also fail at the time of topping, by 

 waiting until the seed-head makes its appear- 

 ance. This, we hold, is a bad practice, from 

 the fact that thetoj) leaves never fully mature, 

 and as a general thing cures very irregularly, 

 and nine out of ten of a light yellow color. 

 In our judgment we think that it should be 

 topped, even on very strong land, with from 

 ten to fourteen leaves at the outside, and ex- 

 perience has taught us, that as much weight 

 can be grown from the acre by low topping as 

 if topped eighteen and twenty leaves, besides 

 a better article. But I am becoming lengthy, 

 and will leave tiie subject for .some future 

 time. — Zebedee, Washington Bormujii, June 4, 

 1877, in Examiner and Express, 



THE TURNIP CROP. 

 There has been given more attention of 

 late years to the cultm-e of turnips by those 

 who live in the vicinity of large cities than 

 was formerly the case ; and we are glad to 

 find it so, for there is no better sign of a pros- 



perous farm than a field of first-class turnips. 

 It .shows at once that he who raises them does 

 not altogether depend on grain raising, and 

 atso that he knows luiw to keep u)) the feitili- 

 ty of his .soil, for one may as well expect to 

 gather figs fiom thistles or grapes from tliorns 

 as to have a good cro]) of turnips olf a piece 

 of poor land. 



At the same time it will bear remark, that 

 turnip-culture is not attended to with that 

 degree of thoughtful skill which aims to pro- 

 duce the best results with the least expendi- 

 ture of labor and skill ; and the consequence 

 is that many a turnip-crop costs more in labor 

 than the whole thing is worth. 



It is often said that the labor of putting and 

 to])i)iMg costs as nmch as the turiui)s bring; 

 but that is chielly owing to the .small size of 

 the roots. Of cour.se it takes less than one- 

 half the time to work a bushel of largi' size 

 than it does small ones. It is worth a little 

 extra care, therefore, to get them all as near 

 as possible of full size. 



The trouble with many is that they fear the 

 seed may not all be good, and hence it is sown 

 much more thickly than it ought to be, but 

 the i)roper way is to test the seed before sow- 

 ing, and then sow understandingly. It is a 

 common belief that turnip seed will grow 

 after being many years old. Some of it will, 

 but experiment has shown that of a hundred 

 seeds which will grow when()ne year old, some 

 will not grow the second, and less the third. 

 The older it is the worse it is. If, therefore, 

 good fresh seed is to be had, it need not be 

 sown any thicker than desirable on this ac- 

 count. Again, some fear losses by the fly ; 

 but if seed be sown as it ought to be on rich 

 soil, it usually grows faster than the fiy can 

 eat it. At anyrate the fiy is as likely to de- 

 stroy it when thickly as when thinly sown. It 

 is much better to risk a thin crop than to have 

 so much labor brought about by a too thick 

 sowing. 



We believe that it is generally conceded 

 that the white turnip is best sown broadcast, 

 as in drills they get too large and "pithy." 

 The rutabaga, however, never get too large 

 for us, and thus drill culture is emjiloyed ex- 

 clusively for it. For the same reason it is sown 

 in .Iuly,while for the ordinary turnip, August, 

 or even early in September, is quite time 

 enough for it. 



Besides the evidence of prosperity which 

 good turnip culture affords, a crop of turnips 

 is in itself a means of jirosperity, for there is 

 nothing more useful where a number of cows 

 or sheep are kept. Dry cows can almost live 

 on them ; and by proper timing the food, they 

 can be given to milch cows without any danger 

 of tlavoring the milk. — Gtnnaniown Tekyraph. 

 •— — 



THE ORIGIN OF PRAIRIES. 



Why they are not Encroached Upon by Bord- 

 ering Woods. 



In a paper in the American Naturalist, Prof. 

 J. D. Whitney, after showing the insufficiency 

 of theordinary theories to explain why prairies 

 are not encroached upon by liordering wood.s, 

 offers the following explanation of his own : 



"Let us turn at present to the geological 

 side of the investigation. The whole of New 

 England and New York, and a large part of 

 Ohio and Indiana, together with the whole of 

 ^Michigan and Northern Wisconsin, constitute 

 a region over which the nortliern drift phe- 

 nomena have been displayed on a graud scale. 

 Consequently almost the whole of this area is 

 covered with lieavy deposits of coarse gravel 

 and boulder materials. These deposits, if not 

 at the surface, are near it, and the liner ma- 

 terials deposited on them, by alluvial and 

 other agencies, generally form only a thin 

 covering for the coarse deposits beneath. 

 But as we go south and west from the region 

 indicated alx)ve, we find the underlying rock 

 —the "l)ed-rock" as the California miners 

 would call it — deeply covered with loose ma- 

 terials, it is true, but we obsen'e also that 

 these are quite different in character from 

 what they are to the north and east. We 

 come to a region where the drift agencies have 



