114 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



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object, beiug to place both the manure and the fertilizer so that the plant will receive the stimulus from the very start. 

 Both commercial fertilizers and barn-yard manures are applied according to the soil, and this must be done, after 

 long experience, with great care and judgment. Too much will injure the quality and the texture or may cause 

 firing; too little may leave the plant small, lean, and poor; the object being to use enough to make eight or ten 

 plants yield a pound of fine tobacco when cured. Quantities applied are variously reported, as from 50 to 500 

 pounds per acre, and when no home-made manure is used the amount of commercial fertilizer is very nearly doubled. 

 Peruvian guano has been generally abandoned in raising fine tobacco. Most of the fertilizers used are manufactured 

 especially for fine tobacco under various names and brands, and most of them are said to be rich in ammonia, soluble 

 phosphates, and potash. 



Much attention has been paid to home-made manures, stable manure being generally used and preferred to all 

 others, and giving best results when used in combination with commercial fertilizers the latter starting the plant 

 and giving quick growth; the former finishing the growth, giving body and maturity. Size maybe attained without 

 manure by the use of fertilizers alone, but not body. Some planters make their own fertilizers by treating bone 

 dust with sulphuric acid, and composts are also made of muck and stable manure. Ashes are also used, and by some 

 guano is considered especially applicable to new land. 



Reports from various counties show an average increase of yield per acre of 70 per cent, by the use of fertilizers, 

 with a considerable improvement in quality; but the cost varies so much with the amount used and the distance from 

 market that it is hardly necessary to give it when intelligent planters report it as ranging from $1 50 to $15 per 

 acre, the area of their use being of more importance, as exhibiting progress in careful culture. The area of tobacco 

 land on which fertilizers and manures are used is reported as follows: Granville, 90 per cent.; Kockingham, 95; 

 Ouilford, 98; Warren, 75; Alamance, 75; Forsyth, 95; Yadkin, 25; Wilkes, 10; Buncombe, 5; Madison, 2; Gary, 

 Randolph, and Hay wood, none. The counties using the least quantity are those in which fresh soils are mainly 

 employed for the production of tobacco. 



ROTATION. 



The rotations practiced in connection with manuring for the preservation of the soil vary somewhat, but wheat 

 is almost unanimously regarded as the best crop to follow tobacco, both to allow the land time to recuperate its 

 exhausted tobacco-producing qualities, and because the clean cultivation necessary for tobacco and the unconsumed 

 manures and fertilizers make an excellent preparation for wheat. Wheat is followed by pease, one bushel to the 

 acre, the growth of which is turned under in the fall when just beginning to ripen and followed by wheat or corn. 

 AVhat is called green-manuring is not practiced, except in the use of pease. A succession of tobacco two seasons, 

 then wheat, followed by corn, is a common course ; after which the land is often allowed to lie idle one season. On 

 account of wire- worms it is almost impossible to obtain a stand of tobacco after clover or grass; hence they are not 

 used to any great extent as rotating crops. Some of the best planters report planting for several successive years 

 in tobacco, with yearly improvement in quality and in quantity. Soil may have something to do with this, but it is 

 in the main due to superior care and diligence and to the judicious use of proper fertilizers. Some planters follow 

 tobacco with wheat and clover for two years, followed by rye or wheat, and then tobacco. As a rule, when wheat 

 stubble laud is intended for tobacco, it is plowed early in the fall or winter, to receive thorough freezing and to 

 destroy the cut-worms, and cross-plowed in the spring, thoroughly harrowed and pulverized, and cleared of trash 

 and unrotted stubble. Corn is not regarded as a good crop to rotate directly with tobacco. 



SEED-BEDS. 



The soil selected for the seed-bed is as fine as flour, with the least possible admixture of coarse sand and gravel, 

 inclined to be moist, but not wet, and thoroughly drained. The sowing is done sometimes as early as December 1, 

 and again as late as the 15th of April, but January and February are preferred. 



Usually the plants appear about the 1st of March if the sowing has been timely, and are sufiacieutly well grown 

 for transplanting by the first week in May. 



Plants are ready for setting out when the leaves are about 3 inches long and the width of three fingers, but for 

 old ground the plants should be larger, and the leaves 5 or 6 inches long. 



TRANSPLANTING TOBACCO. 



Planters generally agree that the 10th of May is soon enough to begin transplanting, and that successive plantings 

 are desirable, in order that the crop may not all mature at once. Later than the 10th of June is not looked upon 

 with favor by the best planters. Planting is sometimes done as late as the 1st of August, but never with expectation 

 of more than very moderate returns. If set out too early, the plants are likely to be damaged by cold, and to be 

 deprived of the dews of August and September ; if too late, they may not mature properly before frost. 



In general, planters wait for rain in order to transplant, though crops of seventy acres have been successfully 

 planted by making artificial seasons. 

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