26 TOBACCO CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES 
the work connected with this would be amply repaid by 
the better qualty of tobacco and the saving of fertilizer. 
Immediately after harvesting the crop the land should 
be plowed and cow peas, velvet beans, sword beans or some 
suitable legume should be planted in rows from three to- 
four feet apart. Through the summer these legumes will 
entirely cover the ground and should be plowed under 
with a turn-plow a month or six weeks before the tobacco 
seedlings are ready to set out. After plowing, the land 
should be stirred at least once a week until planting time, 
because at that time of the year drought is the one thing 
to guard against and by stirring the surface layer the mois- 
ture in the underlying soil is prevented from escaping. 
FERTILIZING 
The food requirements of the tobacco plant have been 
known in a general way for many years but owing to the 
widely different purposes for which tobacco is used the 
general information is of no value, as a matter of fact it 
is in many instances harmful. We are told that nitrogen 
is the material to make tobacco grow, but that does not 
mean that it is the only thing. Schloesing found that ni- 
trogen increased the nicotine content in the leaf and it is 
well known that nitrogen alone produces an abnormally 
rank growth and a coarse watery texture. 
Phosphoric acid has never played much of a role in 
tobacco growing because the plant needs but a small amount 
of it. Nessler reports that a large amount of phosphoric 
acid in the soil causes the plant to take up more of it than 
is necessary, causing a poorer burning and a dark ash. 
Potash has always been reported to be the most neces- 
