EXPERIENCE OF PRACTICAL GROWERS. 



45 



' place. vVhen procuring seed, at a seed-store, 

 always be caieful to get new seed. When it is new it 

 a of a dark brown ; when old it is lighter in color. 



The seed should be sown any time, from the first of 

 February till the tenth of March ; but I have known 

 it to be sown as late as the twenty-fifth of March and 

 do well. 



THE SEED-BED should be made on a south hill-side, 

 in new loamy ground, not too dry. Cut off the timber, 

 and separate the trash from the coarse wood ; then 

 rake off the leaves and brush, leaving the ground per- 

 fectly bare ; so as to admit the heat of the fire. Then 

 put the brush on fou r or five feet thick ; then put on 

 a thick layer of the coarse wood, and then set fire to it. 

 This should be done when the ground is in good work- 

 ing order. After the bed is burnt, the ashes should 

 lie on till the ground is cool ; then the brands should 

 be raked off, and the ground dug up five or six inches 

 deep ; this is best done with a grub-hoe ; rake and 

 pick all the roots out, making it loose and mellow. 

 Level the surface of the bed, and it is ready to be 

 sown. Mix the seed with dry ashes, so as to sow them 

 regularly. One table-spoonful of good seed will sow 

 a bed twenty-five feet square, and will raise enough 

 plants to set five or six acres. After sowing as regu- 

 larly s possible, the bed should be rolled or tramped 

 with tiie feet until it is solid and bvel ; then cover it 

 up wuh brush till spring opens ; tuen the brush should 

 be removed to admit the rays of the sun, which will 

 Boon bring the plants ; keep the weeds and grass out 

 of tbe bed till the plants are large enough to trans- 

 plant. They are handiest to transplant when their 

 largest leaf is three or four inches long. 



SOIL AND PLANTING. Tobacco can be raised on 

 most qualities of soil ; but the best is new first year's 

 land ; white oak, hickory, hazel, or pawpaw land is 

 preferable. After plowing, the ground should be har- 

 rowed thoroughly, making it as mellow as possible. 

 Checker it off with a shovel-plow, so as to form the 

 hills about three feet apart ; make up small flat mellow 

 hills. This should be done by the time the plants are 

 targe enough to transplant. Transplanting is usually 

 done with a peg, sharp at one end, making a hole suf- 

 ficiently large to admit the plant ; press the earth 

 closely around the roots, in the same manner that cab- 

 bage is transplanted. 



We generally commence setting out tobacco about 

 the first of June and continue till the twenty-fifth ; if 

 get out after this, it is not apt to get ripe before 

 frost. 



CULTURE. As soon as the tobacco is set out there 

 b a great destroyer lays hold of the plant, and often 

 tutting the stem off, thereby ruining it. It is a spe- 

 cies of black ground-worm, usually known as the 

 cut-worm. These must be looked after every morn- 

 ing, for they do their mischief in the night, conse- 

 quently their sign is easier detected in the morning, 

 and they have not entered deen int !ha eround. 



When the plant makes a start to g.?ow it soon gets out 

 of the reach of the cut-worm; thon all the vacant hills 

 should be replanted. 



As soon as the weeds and grass start tc grow, the 

 hills should be scraped down with a hoe, njt disturb- 

 ing the roots of the plant. By the time the grasi 

 makes its appearance the second time, the tobacco u 

 large enough to admit the plow. A narrow shovel- 

 plow does the neatest work ; run three furrows to the 

 row, not close enough to fracture the tobacco, then 

 work it over thoroughly with the Loe, putting a small 

 mellow hill to each plant. 



WORMS. By this time you will observe tie work 

 of the green tobacco-worms. They must be looked 

 after at least once a week. There are two different 

 species of this worm the red-horned and the blue- 

 horned, each equally destructive. One of these worms 

 will soon destroy a plant. When it has finished its 

 work, it enters the ground to come up next spring, io 

 the form of a fly. This fly lays her eggs on the tobac- 

 co, which hatch out young worms. The egg is hardly 

 as large as a mustard-seed, and of a yellowish color. 

 Many of these flies may be caught about Jamestown 

 weeds and destroyed. They may be seen of evenings 

 sucking the Jamestown blooms. Keep all destroying 

 insects off of the tobacco while it stands in the field. 

 The bud-worm was very destiuctive in the years 

 1860-2; it works in the bud of the plant, making 

 great havoc with the young leaves. 



When the tobacco is about a foot and a half high, 

 it should get its last plowing and hoeing, and should 

 have a large flat hill put around it. 



PRIMING AND TOPPING. When the 'buds that con- 

 tain the blooms make their appearance, it should be 

 primed and topped. Priming is done by pulling off 

 the bottom leaves, so that those remaining will not 

 reach the ground ; then pluck out the buds, leaving 

 twelve or fourteen leaves on a stalk. 



We generally go over the field three or four times, 

 topping and priming. First, topping that which is 

 large enough, and letting the smaller remain till the 

 next week, and so on till it is time that all should be 

 topped, to escape the frost. We generally finish top- 

 ping by the twentieth of August. 



If the transplanting is finished by the twenty-fifth 

 of June, which it should be, the tobacco will be 

 amply large enough to top by the twentieth of August, 

 which will give it time to ripen by th twentieth of 

 September. 



Some seasons tobacco may be planted later, but it ii 

 unsafe in this locality, for the frost may come and lay 

 waste a summer's labor. 



SEED-PLANTS. The earliest plants should be left for 

 seed ; do not top them, but trim the leaves off at the 

 top, to about ten to a plant. 



Four flourishing plants will yield one half-pint of 

 good seed. The bud-worm should be kept from the 

 seed-plants, as they wiU enter the pods and eat th 



