CULTURE AND CURING IN TENNESSEE. 179 



TRANSPLANTING TOBACCO. 



When the lower leaves of the plants are as broad as three fingers they are of sufficient size for transplanting, 

 this being usually done immediately after a rain. A gentle rain, in which the water is soaked into the earth as fast as 

 it falls, is much preferred. The transplanting should not be done while the ground is wet enough to be compacted by 

 pressure against the roots, for this gives a check to the plant in its new situation. The plants are carefully drawn, 

 one at a time, and placed straight, with the heads all in one direction. After this is finished they are picked up and 

 laid straight in baskets or in a wagon-bed and taken to the field. Transplanting is done by means of a wooden 

 peg, 6 inches long and an inch and a half thick, gradually sloped at one end to a point, and a good man may set out 

 5,000 plants in a day, though to set 3,000 properly is considered a fair day's work. An acre, when the rows are 3 

 feet apart each way, will contain 3,555 hills, so that two acres, with one person to drop plants for every two engaged 

 in setting, may be considered a satisfactory day's work for three hands, including the drawing of plants. 



The manner of transplanting is this: A dropper, with a basket of convenient size filled with plants, takes 

 two rows, dropping a plant on each hill. Two transplanters follow, each with an extra plant in his hand, called 

 a "hand-plant". With the peg described he makes a hole in the center of the hill, two or three inches deep, 

 depending upon the size and length of the plant. The roots are thrust into this hole to the bottom, and a gentle 

 pressure is made downward upon one side of the plant, while the dirt on the other side is supported by the fingers 

 of the left hand. The plant dropped upon this hill is picked up and carried to the next, and while passing from 

 one hill to the other the person transplanting has time to adjust it in his hand ready for setting. The use of the 

 "hand-plant" greatly facilitates the work. When the supervening weather turus off dry and hot, many plants 

 will perish, and to prevent this it is the practice among some farmers to put lumps of dirt, either upon the plant 

 or on the southern side of it, in order to screen it from the blasting rays of the sun. This is very troublesome, 

 and rarely pays for the time and labor expended. Others draw the dirt up closely to the leaves of the plant, so 

 that the bud, enfolded in the leaves, will be just beneath the surface of the soil. This is found to be much more 

 effective and less troublesome. 



The usual period of planting tobacco is from the 20th of May until the 10th of June, though very often a 

 considerable quantity is planted during the first week in May and as late as the 4th of July; but it rarely happens 

 that a good crop is made when the plants are set out later than the 15th or 20th of June. Some plants are always 

 destroyed in the field, either by cut- worms, grasshoppers, or dry weather. The replanting is carried on as late as 

 the middle of July. The eagerness among planters to have their crops planted at as early a day as possible induces 

 many to set out plants before they are large enough. 



CULTIVATION OF THE TOBACCO CEOP. 



The cultivation of tobacco among the best farmers is continuous, no sprig of grass being permitted to interfere 

 with its growth. As soon as the plants have become well rooted, it is the practice with many farmers to run a 

 turning-plow, drawn by one horse, twice between the rows, with the bar next to the plants. This wraps up all the 

 grass in the center of the row, and leaves the plants standing on a narrow ridge. Hoes are then brought into 

 requisition, and all the grass is scraped away from the plants and a little fresh dirt is put about them. In a 

 week thereafter a cross-plowing is given in the same way, followed again with the hoes, and in about four weeks 

 after the plants have been set a third plowing is given, this time the mold-board being turned toward the plants, the 

 dirt thrown up about them, and the "middles" split out. With many farmers this ends the cultivation, while 

 others will use the plow once or twice more, always throwing the dirt to the plants after they are large enough. 



Within a few years past cultivators have been largely used in working the crop. These are run through the 

 rows every week for five or six weeks, the hoes following, when necessary, to cut out any grass or weeds that may 

 not have been reached by the cultivator. 



Just before the third plowing, when the plants have attained a height of eight or ten inches, three or four of 

 the lower leaves next the ground are generally plucked oif, in order that the dirt may be thrown against the stalk 

 and wrap up any grass that may have come up in proximity to the plant. Some excellent farmers, however, 

 maintain that the tobacco-plant is greatly injured by this operation, and that if the lower leaves are permitted to 

 remain the plant will be much healthier, the crop heavier, and there will be a smaller proportion of lugs, the two 

 lower leaves acting as a protection for the others against the spattering of mud in rainy weather. The object in 

 throwing the dirt to the plant is to give it such lateral support that it will not be readily blown down by the winds. 

 It was once a very common practice, after the last plowing, to go over the field with hoes and make a large broad 

 hill about the plant. These hills give the appearance of a higher and more careful culture, and may have the eft'ect 

 of preserving the ends of a few of the larger leaves which would otherwise rest upon the top of the ridge made by 

 the plow, but the saving in this particular will scarcely compensate for the increased labor, and it is by no means 

 improbable that the plants may suffer more from drought by breaking the continuity of the ridge into separate 

 hills; at all events, the practice has been well-nigh discontinued. In cultivating tobacco farmers avoid working 

 the land when it is too wet. Clayey soil worked when wet will bake, and the injury done the crop is vastly more 



than the presence of grass can effect. Even upon sandy soil no good results follow. 



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