CULTURE AND CURING IN KENTUCKY. 77 



FERTILIZATION OF TOBACCO. 



In no other district in the United States, not even in the rich tobacco districts of Missonri, is manuring neglected 

 so much. This is accounted for in part by one correspondent, who says that tobacco is either planted upon freshly- 

 cleared lands, where no manure is thought to be necessary, or upon old sod land, which is found to produce excellent 

 tobacco without any fertilization. In Bracken county a very small amount of land plaster is sometimes put in the 

 hill. In Ken ton county one-tenth of the tobacco area is estimated to be fertilized. Bone dust is used sparingly 

 by a few farmers, and stable manure at a cost of from $5 to $10 per acre. Lewis county reports that about 33 per 

 cent, of the tobacco land has an application of stable manure. A small number of farmers in Owen county apply 

 a special fertilizer, known as "tobacco- plant food", to the hill after planting, and about 150 pounds to the acre are 

 used, at a cost of $3. Barn-yard manure is now used iu Robertson county to a very limited extent. The remaining 

 counties report no fertilizers used, though all admit that well-manured soils will increase the yield from 33 to 50 

 per cent., beside greatly improving the quality of tobacco produced. 



PREPARATION OF THE SOIL FOR TOBACCO. 



Old sod laud is usually broken in the fall or early spring to the depth of about 6 inches and allowed to remain 

 until about the 1st of May, by which time the sod will be thoroughly rotted. It is afterward well harrowed and 

 pulverized and laid off for planting. The most approved plan now is to lay off the rows 3 feet apart and make 

 small hills in the row from 2 to 3 feet apart. Some prefer a shorter distance for the hills iii the rows, under the 

 impression that the shorter the distance to within a foot and a half the smaller will be the stems and fibers. 

 Others aim to produce tobacco of a little heavier body, that may be used either as a heavy cutter or as a bright 

 filler, or even as a heavy filler. To do this the distance is increased between plants. Some few, on old manured 

 lands, go as far as 4 feet for the distance of the rows apart, with hills 3 feet apart in the rows. The distance apart 

 of the plants is probably a less important factor than high or low topping in the determination of special types, 

 and much less than the character of the soil upon which the plant grows. 



It is claimed by some good planters that a silkier article of tobacco may be made by cultivating the sod land 

 the first year iu corn, following the corn with tobacco. The usual rotation is tobacco, wheat or corn, clover or blue 

 grass, and then tobacco again after two years of clover and several years of blue grass. 



The cultivation of the crop is the same as in other districts, and is much better now than before the introduction 

 of the White Burley, for it was a general belief that working the soil well made the Red Burley coarse and rendered 

 it unfit for cutting purposes. The result of better working has been largely to increase the yield of the crop. This 

 is usually plowed three times and hoed once. 



Planted usually between the 15th of May and the 1st of July, the topping is done between the 10th of July 

 and the middle of August, and the harvesting from the 20th of August to the 10th of October. The plant is not 

 pruned, and in this the practice is different from that of any other district in the state. From twelve to sixteen 

 leaves are left to the plant. Some farmers top as high as twenty leaves, but it is found that the leaves are not so 

 large nor so uniform in size and color, nor is the cured product of such desirable quality. It is thought also that a 

 larger number of pounds can be made by topping to twelve leaves than by topping to twenty. 



Tobacco in this district is usually suckered two or more times before it ripens. The period between topping 

 and harvesting varies upon different soils, and by reason of high and low topping, and the prevalence of wet or dry 

 weather for from four to seven weeks, the earliest maturity takes place on warm southern exposures, upon a quick 

 black or brown limestone soil. Northern exposures, clayey soils, wet weather, as well as high topping, all delay 

 the period of ripening, but the average length of time between topping and cutting may generally be put at 

 four weeks. 



HARVESTING OF TOBACCO. 



When fully ripe, the plants are cut with a knife by splitting the stalk, as in the other districts of the state, the 

 time preferred for this operation being the afternoon. A method of cutting and hanging prevails to some extent 

 in Bracken county which is unusual. Each cutter takes three rows, and as each plant is severed it is straddled 

 over a stick set up in the ground in the center of the space occupied by six plants, this number being allotted to 

 each stick. In this way the plants are cut and hung without being laid upon the ground. This saves time, and 

 secures neatness iu handling. These sticks, 4 1'eet long, with their loads of tobacco, are either taken directly to 

 the barns and hung 12 inches apart on the tier poles, or are placed upon scaffolds erected with poles iu the open 

 fields or in the angles of a worm fence. About two thirds of the farmers scaffold their tobacco. The sticks are 

 allowed to remain from five to eight days on the scaffolds, and are then taken to the barns and arranged on 

 tier poles 8 inches apart. It will be observed that one-third of the space in the barns is saved by scaffolding, and, 

 beside, it is thought that tobacco is not only sweeter by taking the sun for a few days, but that the danger from 

 house-burn is much decreased. But tobacco should never be scaffolded in rainy weather. If freshly cut, the leaves 

 get in a condition known as a "strut", and are easily injured iu that condition in consequence of their exceeding 

 tenderness. Scaflolds are also liable to give way in wet weather and precipitate the tobacco in a compact mass 



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