1K81.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



125 



Tobacco Culture. 



II . (iresp; proiiucpJ a loug essay by J. P. Boyd, of 

 l'l:'ladolpliia, on the culture of tobacco. 



liiiacco fanning and routine farming the writer 

 cnlriiils art- inconi|iatiljlc,and it is not wiBeecouomy 

 tu haw on tliu regular farming force to raise a few 

 a. ris of tobacco. You cannot taliea portion of your 

 rr-nlar farm force and turn it to tobacco account, 

 HU'I then restore it in its original good condition. If 

 It come back at all it will come partially demoraliz- 

 ed. Solemn contract for an entire season may hold 

 It, but the next summer you may loose it altogether, 

 rc-employing it at liigher rates or engage it handi- 

 capped with conditions as to time. Thus tobacco 

 demoralizes others than those who chew and smoke 

 It. When this force comes back from tobacco it 

 comes with changed notions of work and the price of 

 work. 



It will probably demand so much a month with the 

 privilege of cropping au acre of tobacco. No matter 

 how it comes, you caii't belp feeling that it is not the 

 old, patient, contented, tractable force you parted 

 with, but a kind of upset, dissatisUed, uncertain, 

 unmanageable force, toward whose demoralizatfou 

 you have contributed, and for which you are pro- 

 foundly sorry. 



If tobacco is going to be the overshadowing crop 

 and the cereals, etc., the accessory crop, then let the 

 entire force be organized with reference to tobacco 

 and perhaps the great wealth you gather from it will 

 enable you to buy wheat, beans, butter, and other 

 despised and neglected products, on which to subsist ; 

 but you must not forget the Old Virginia experiment 

 where tobacco, even in connection with unpaid labor 

 BO lorded it over the destinies of the people that the 

 land cried out in its poverty, and the owners thereof 

 sank from affluence into the helplessness of bank- 

 ruptcy. 



Tobacco growing is not agriculture in a general 

 sense, but a special culture, and its success depends 

 on a special force. 



You boast that you have the climate and soil in 

 your fayor. You point with pride to the patches and 

 plants which fairly groan under their burden of 

 tobacco leaves, but you compare very unfavorably 

 with the tobacco growers of far less favored regions. 

 Massachusetts and Connecticut grow 200 pounds per 

 acre more than you do ; and the profit is in these 200 

 pounds. They are the counting pounds of the acre, 

 being above and beyond all your uncertainties, trou- 

 bles and expenses of planting, harvesting, curing and 

 marketing. 



You are not doing with tobacco what you would 

 do with any other crop upon whose cultivation you 

 had earnestly entered ; you are merely playing with 

 a situation, and, pardon me, you are spoiling your 

 farms, yourselves and your labor. As long as you 

 regard tobacco culture as an accessory to your regu- 

 lar tillage ; as long as you merely devote to it a 

 force borrowed or stolen from your routine force, 

 you only cloud and confuse a situation which would 

 otherwise be plain. The conclusion reached was 

 that there must be a complete severance of tobacco 

 from the regular farm force, but the former must be 

 taken in hand and specially educated for its func- 

 tion. This will, of course, lead to a sort of aris- 

 tocracy of this kind of labor. It will naturally grow 

 exclusive and exacting, and this disposition will be 

 greatly encouraged and pampered by your present 

 method of paying for such labor by giving it half of 

 the crop. 



But in introducing tobacco culture at all you have 

 directly invited this catastrophe. If you will seek 

 and pocket tobacco dollars you must face manfully 

 all tobacco consequences. This essay was criticised 

 by several present. All agreed that tobacco culture 

 demoralized farm labor. 



R. D. King and some others bad noticed a corn 

 field and a tobacco tield on the same farm in the 

 neighborhood of Chestnut Level. The tobacco had 

 been taken care of, but the corn was neglected. 



Ellen H. E. Price, of Philadelphia, read the " Pipes 

 of Lucknow,"by Whittier; Wm. King recited "Tarn 

 O'Shanter." 



The club then adjourned to meet in pic-nic style, 

 at the Black Barren Springs, at the regular time 

 next mouth. 



Agriculture. 



The Turnip Crop. 



The time Is apiiroachlng when we arc to think of 

 providing the ground lor the turnip crop. It is too 

 early to sow yit, but it is not too early to set apart 

 the field intended for the crop. The varieties gen- 

 erally sown are the Early Flat Dutch, the Purple 

 Top, the Bloomsdale Pomeranian Globe, or the Yel- 

 low Aberdeen. For commercial purposes, it is rare 

 that turnips can be raised to much profit, unices one 

 is In the regular market-gardening business. They 

 cannot be put in a regular farm crop, to be taken to 

 market by l'urmers,and yet make as much on them as 

 can be done with potatoes ; and yet Is so useful a 

 vegetable for home use among cattle, or home con- 

 sumption as a garden product, that a turnip patch is 

 extremely satisfactory in everybody's ground. 



There has not been much improvement in the tur- 

 nip for many years, and heuce there Is no great 

 choice of varieties. Perhaps the kinds we have are 

 good enough, and may be regarded as at least 

 among the best. In most other vegetables we want 

 them as large as we can get them or as early as 

 they will come. But extra large turnips are not de- 

 sirable ; and If one can sow turnip seed the cud of 

 August and pull in October it is sufEcient to satisfy 

 the earliest longings. Besides it is found, perhaps, 

 ill no vegetable so much as in the turnip, that It is 

 culture quite as much as variety which makes both 

 earliness and flavor. The right kind of rich ground 

 will make a turnip-bulb in an incredible short space 

 of time ; and the root in such ca?e becomes so tender 

 and sweet that some will eat them raw as rapidly 

 almost as they would eat an apple. 



The right kind of rich manure is that which is 

 thoroughly well-decomposed. If fresh stable manure 

 is employed for the turnip, we get an enormous 

 growth of foliage and small growth of root. In 

 many plants the sign of a good root is abundant 

 means. A moderate top-growth is much more 

 favorable to a good root than otherwise. In Eng- 

 land, where the turnip is universally raised, bone 

 dust is the great popular fertilizer for the turnip. 

 Here we find that a piece of ground heavily manured 

 for some spring crop, and which has been taken off 

 in time, is in a better condition for a good crop of 

 turnips than the best manure immediately applied at 

 sowing time. Where it can be made to suit, there is 

 nothing so good as a preparer for turdips as the 

 potato. This root rather likes a raw manure ; and 

 by the time they have done all they desire to do, the 

 balance is just in the condition the turnip desires. 



There is one thing worth remembering, that is, 

 that the turnip is gi^ht exhauster of the soil. Many 

 persons, who find at this season that they have little 

 pieces of ground with nothing in it, think that as the 

 turnip comes so soon they may as well-have some- 

 thing as nothing from it. This is all very well if the 

 turnips are really wanted, and can certainly be turned 

 to good account. But if otherwise, they will not "pay 

 for their feed," and it is much better to go without 

 thi:m. —Germantoum Telegraph. 



The Monthly Reports from the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



The following crop reports are furnished by the 

 Department of Agriculture : 



Cotton : The returns to the Department on July 1, 

 show an increase in the condition of cotton since the 

 reporls of June. The average condition is 9.5, against 

 100 at the same time last year. The following are 

 the reports by States : .14 counties in North Carolina 

 average 94 ; 19 counties in South Carolina average 

 9:5 ; r>7 counties in Georgia average 9S ; 13 counties In 

 Florida average 99 ; 31 counties in Alabama average 

 102; 39 counties in .Mississippi average 94 ; 18 coun- 

 tfes in Louisiana average 9C ; 64 counties in Texas 

 average 89 ; 32 counties in Arkansas average 92 ; Vi 

 counties in Tennessee average 105. The plant is 

 generally reported small and ten days late. Hot'and 

 too dry weather is almost universally noted, but ex- 

 cept in Southern and Western Texas little Injury was 

 reported for that cause at the date of the return. 



Alabama and Georgia each report a better condition 

 than last year, while Texas and ArkauB.is are lower. 

 Insect Injuries are seldom mentioned . 



Wheat : The condlllou of the wheat crop as re- 

 ported July 1, Is much better than on Jane 1 and 

 averages 83 for the whole country. The Atlantic 

 States fall off slightly as conipured witli the returns 

 for the same time last year, but the large wheat re- 

 gion north of the Ohio river and west of the M'ssts- 

 sippi returns a low condition compared with 18^0. 

 Michigan reports only 64 per cent, and Illinois 60; 

 Ohio and Indiana are below last year, but report a 

 fair prospect ; Missouri and Kansas both make great 

 complaints of damage from insects. In the spring 

 wheat States Iowa alone returns a condition much 

 lower than last year, and which Is only 73. 



Com : The Increase In area planted in com la 

 nearly two per cent, over that planted In 18.'0. The 

 average condition of the crop Is not so high as the 

 last two years, and Is 90, against 100 last year. In 

 all the North Atlantic States the crop Is backward, 

 owlhg to the cold, wet spring, but in the States south 

 of the Delaware river and on the Gulf of .Mexico it 

 is reported as fair. Texas, however, report" a seri- 

 ous injury from drought. In the great corn-produc- 

 ing region bordering on the Ohio and Mississippi 

 rivers the average Is below last year, particularly In 

 the State of Iowa, which only reports a condition of 

 77, caused by the cold spring and too much rain In 

 June. In Illinois and Missouri the condition Is re- 

 ported favorable. 



German Millet. 



This most valuable grass was introduced Into thii 

 country but a few years ago, while It has been 

 grown with great success in Europe for a considerable 

 time. It closely resembles the Hungarian grass, 

 and belongs to the same genus. The distinction, 

 howevei, may be plainly seen in the difference be- 

 tween the heads of the two, those of the former 

 being composed of many clusters of seeds, while in 

 those of the latter the seed is distributed around a 

 single stem, as in the case of timothy. The heads of 

 the German millet are also much longer, the foliage 

 broader, and the plants attain a greater height than 

 the Hungarian. 



Milch cows and other stock arc very fond of Its 

 luxuriant, tender leaves, and if cut and well cured as 

 soon as the seed is in its dough state it makes excel-. 

 lent hay for all kinds of slock. It is not difficult to 

 grow four or five tons toanacre. Last year Landretb, 

 the seedsman, harvested six tons fmm one acre. 



It may be sown and harrowed in, using three pecks 

 of seed per acre, any time in June or July. It lakes 

 a little over two months to perfect the crop, so if 

 planted July 1st it will come off early in September. 

 Suppose, therefore, the clover field is not well set 

 with grass, the other hay fields yield lightly, and 

 one is likely to have less hay than his stock will 

 need, he can sow German millet on part of the clo- 

 ver stubble, harvest the crop in September, and 

 follow with winter wheat. In this way he can Oil 

 his mows and by next season have a better stand of 

 grass. Or he may select a part of a field that Is to 

 be used for corn next year, or a patch from which 

 early potatoes have been taken. 



In dry times It thrives where most things will not ; 

 In wet seasons it will grow four or five feet high. It 

 should be cut when In blossom, to make the sweetest 

 hay, and requires care in curing. It can be cut as 

 other hay or with the reaper, and bound In bundles 

 after drying. 



In comparison with Hungarian grass It much larger 

 and coarser, the yield Is greater, and where It Is de- 

 sirable to sow either the German millet Is to be pre- 

 ferred. It does very well to cut green for soiling, 

 but it is no better than corn in fact, neither Is as good 

 as corn for that purpose. The seed. If allowed to 

 ripen, is excellent for stock, especially for poultry, 

 but It is then au exhausting crop. 



The seed is not expensive, and an experiment this 

 season, in a small way, may be found profitable by 

 many of our readers. 



