234 TOBACCO PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



PREPARATION OF TOBACCO SOIL. 



The laud for the succeeding crop is plowed iii the fall, immediately after the tobacco is harvested. This checks 

 the growth of suckers, which always shoot up from the old stubble, and are gross feeders, furnishing also a refuge for 

 worms. The breaking is doue with a two-horse turning or stubble plow to the depth of 5 or G inches. About the 

 first of the succeeding May the soil is again broken with the same plow, and a third time about the first of June, 

 or just before the plants are ready for transplanting. Manure may be applied at any time before either plowing. 

 Coarse manures arc better when applied in the fall, but fine, well-rotted manure is usually spread over the laud just 

 before the second or the third plowing. Some do not apply manure until after the third plowing, when it is harrowed 

 or dragged in. After being thoroughly pulverized with a harrow or drag, the laud is marked off: if for seed-leaf, 2 

 by 3 feet, some preferring 4 by 2 feet; if for the Spanish varieties, 3 by 1 feet. Hills are generally made with a hoe 

 at the intersection of the lines and "patted" so as to compact the earth; but when only lined out one way, they 

 are made on the line at proper distances. Sometimes no hills are made, but the plants are set out on the side of 

 the lines. The plants are generally set out immediately after a shower of rain, but when water is convenient, and 

 the plants are becoming overgrown in the beds, artificial watering is often resorted to. The planting is done from 

 the 1st of June to the 4th of July, but these are extreme limits. The great bulk of the crop is set out from the 

 10th to the 20th of June. 



By an easy calculation, it will be seen that, of seed-leaf, from 5,445 to 5,808 plants are set to the acre, and of 

 the Spanish varieties 9,680 plants, a larger number to the acre than is planted in any other tobacco district in the 

 United States. To this cause is no doubt due the exceeding tenuity and tenderness of the Wisconsin tobacco. 



CULTIVATION OF THE TOBACCO CEOP. 



As soon as the soil is in proper condition to work after the plants have been set out a cultivator, with five 

 teeth, is run between the rows, and this is kept up once or twice a week, until the field has been gone over five or six 

 times. The crop is hoed twice, once after the cultivator is run through the first time. Very little dirt is put to the 

 plant, level cultivation being preferred. In some portions of the district a horse-hoe is used in cultivating the crop, 

 which, by its peculiar construction, enables the farmer to go very near the plant and stir every part of the soil. In 

 very small patches the cultivation is done entirely with the hoe, which is kept up every week until the plants are 

 so large that they cannot be worked without breaking the leaves. 



TOPPING AND SUCKERI NG OF TOBACCO. 



In about forty-eight or fifty days after the plants are set, if the crop has been well cultivated and the weather 

 seasonable, the flower buds make their appearance, and are pinched out, leaving from fourteen to sixteen leaves 

 on each plant. None of the bottom leaves are taken off, but all are left to mature or dry up, serving as a protection 

 against the dirt. Fields, however, are often seen in full blossom before the tobacco is topped, and this results in 

 great damage to the crop. Tobacco is suckered twice: once iu about a week after it is topped, anil again just 

 before it is cut, which is generally about two weeks after topping. 



As has been noted, tobacco is generally ready for harvesting in two weeks after being topped, and yet there is 

 considerable variation iu the time on different soils. On warm, sandy loams the plant will be as ripe in twelve days 

 as it will bo on heavy clayey soils in eighteen days. This is one of the reasons why the sandy loams are preferred. 



TOBACCO INSECTS. 



Fortunately for the tobacco-growers of Wisconsin, the horn-worm, the great enemy of the tobacco-plant in 

 other states, has never appeared in great numbers, the farmers ascribing their immunity from them to the frequent 

 plowings which they give the land before planting, thus disturbing them in their beds while in the chrysalis state, 

 some of them being covered so deeply that they are not able to extricate themselves, while others are thrown to the 

 surface and are devoured by fowls. The severity of the winters also destroys a considerable number. The farmers 

 carefully search every leaf that indicates their presence. Grain is sometimes thinly scattered on the tobacco-fields 

 and fowls are driven upon them, and while hunting for the grain they gather many of the worms. This mode is 

 not reported from any other section. 



CUTTING, HOUSING, AND CURING OF TOBACCO. 



Harvesting begins early in August and continues without intermission into September. A large portion of the 

 crop of 1880 was harvested during the first and second weeks in August. The time of day preferred for cutting is 

 from two o'clock in the afternoon until nearly sundown, because at that time tobacco is less liable to be blistered 

 by the heat of the sun. The instrument used for cutting is a hatchet, the plants being cut off nearly on a level 

 with the ground and laid back on the rows to wilt. After wilting they are speared on laths. Ot tne large seed- 

 leaf varieties only about six plants are put on a lath, but of the smaller Spanish or Havana varieties ten are not 

 considered too many. After being speared on the laths, the latter are carefully put on a long wagon-frame, made 



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