VIRGINIA PLANT PATCH. 491 
wide and twelve yards long, sow one chalk pipe bowl full of 
seed, after being mixed with ashes; tread with the feet or 
pat it over with weeding hoes, that it may be close and 
smooth ; cover it with dog-wood, maple, or any fine brush, to 
the depth of twenty or twenty-four inches, to protect the 
young plants from cold or adrouth. After the plants have 
commenced coming up, re-sow the patches with half the 
quantity of seed first sown, which will not interfere with the 
plants first up, but make good re-planting plants. When the 
plants, or some of them, have grown to the size of a Spanish 
mill dollar, take off the brush, pick off all sticks, weeds, and 
grass, and keep them well picked until you have finished 
setting out. 
“Should the plants not grow fast enough to suit, manure 
with Peruvian guano; have it fine, and sow over in the 
middle of the day when they are dry, or if it be raining 
briskly, it may then be sown over. Should the patches be 
suffering for rain, put five pounds of Peruvian guano in 
twenty gallons of water, and sprinkle it over with a watering- 
pot. To destroy the flea, bug, or fly, put dry leaves around 
the patch, and set fire to them at night, which will attract 
na destroy them if they are disturbed with a broom or leafy 
rush. 
The old Virginia planters selected and made the plant 
patch as follows :— 
“The quality of earth, and places which are universally chosen 
for this purpose, are newly cleared lands of the best possible 
light black soil, situated as near to a small stream of water as 
they can be conveniently found, due attention being paid to 
the dryness of the place. 
“The beds, or patches, as they are called, differ in size, 
from the bigness of a small salad bed to a quarter of an acre, 
according to the magnitude of the crop proposed; and they 
are prepared for receiving the seed in March and the early 
ele of April, as the season suits, first by burning upon them 
arge heaps of brush wood, the stalks of the maize or Indian 
corn, straw, or other rubbish ; and afterwards, by digging and 
raking them in the same manner of preparing ground for 
lettuce seed; which is generally sown mixed with the tobacco 
seed (the same process being suitable to both plants) ; and 
which answers the double purpose of feeding the laborer, and 
of protecting the young tobacco plant from the fly ; for which 
intent a border of mustard seed’ round the plant patch is 
found to be an effectual remedy, as the fly prefers mustard, 
