16 TOBACCO CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES 
the seed-beds on old cultivated land, but it was very waste- 
ful and not at all satisfactory. 
It is seldom that conditions are favorable for seed-bed 
making in the tropics and tobacco seed-beds are especially 
difficult to handle. The tobacco seed is very small, there- 
fore the soil in the seed-bed must be very mellow and fine. 
The plants after germinating are weak and easily choked 
by weeds, therefore the soil must be free from weed seeds. 
The small tobacco plant is also subject to the attack of a 
fungus disease, causing a decay of the stem, which is very 
troublesome and causes more loss than is generally recog- 
nized. Therefore the soil must be sterilized in order to 
free it from this pest. 
The mountain or brush land filled the requirements for 
seed-beds, because after having been burned over it was 
mellow on the top. As it was virgin it was fairly fertile, 
and as the burning had killed the weed-seeds as well as the 
fungi in the soil it was clean and sterile. 
In Cuba, seed-beds are frequently made on old land 
which is fertilized heavily with commercial fertilizer imme- 
diately before sowing the seed. The fertilizer is as a ruls 
not worked into the soil, as it is said to give best results 
when left on the surface. The reason for this is undoubt- 
edly the sterilizing effect, although this has not been con- 
clusively proved. 
HOW TO MAKE A SEED BED 
The main things to guard against are: drought. heavy 
rains and damping-off. Therefore the land must be sub- 
ject to irrigation, it must be covered to break the force of 
heavy rains and the soil must be sterilized to clean it from 
all fungus. 
