I02 The Soverane Herbe 



and cut straw and branches of trees, with the triple 

 object of nourishing the plants, preserving them from 

 ants, and protecting them against cold. In India it 

 is also necessary to shield them from sun and rain. 



In a week's time the plants, no bigger than pin- 

 heads, appear above the ground. In two or three 

 weeks' time they are carefully thinned out, and after 

 seven or eight weeks' growth they are as big as crown 

 pieces and ready for transplanting. The field is hoed 

 into square hollows with alternating square hillocks, 

 two or three feet apart. A warm, rainy day early in 

 May is chosen and the plants, carefully drawn from 

 their nursery bed, are planted out singly in a hillock. 

 Each plant is allowed an area of some three square 

 feet, so that an acre contains about i,6oo plants, 

 which, if big, broad leaves are grown, yield half a 

 pound of tobacco each, or 800 pounds per acre. 



The process of transplanting and the care of the 

 plants afterwards is a very tedious and anxious one. 

 A single night's frost at any stage of growth kills 

 them completely. In such case the planter renews 

 his crop from a reserve sowing. The ground must 

 be kept scrupulously free from weeds, lest they should 

 deprive the plants of any of the nutriment the soil 

 contains. The attacks of insects must also be 

 guarded against and their raids stopped. Lime and 

 sawdust are scattered around the roots to form a 

 quarantine ring, and on many plantations turkeys are 

 kept for the sake of the destruction they wreck among 

 things that crawl. 



One of the greatest enemies of the planter is the 

 horn, or tobacco worm, that commits great devastation 



