TOBACCO. 17 



While it is economy to dispense with the hand-hoe in making hills on old 

 land — the plow doing all the work, as it ought, when it can be well done — ^yet on 

 etumpy, rooty, and rough land the hoe is indispensable in the preparation of a 

 hill, as it should be made to receive the plant. But before the hills are made, it 

 may be well, unless the soil is naturally rich — and such is not often the case with 

 soils best adapted to yellow tobacco — to apply some fertilizing material to hasten 

 forward the plants, and mature them properly and early. Here commercial fer- 

 tilizers have done, and are doing, their best "vsrork. Bulky, coarse manures often 

 do more harm than good on new and puffy Boils. The smaller the bulk, and the 

 more concentrated the fertilizing elements, the more readily they are appropriated 

 and assimilated by the plants, if of the right material, and in the most available 

 form. Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, lime, and eoda are most necessary for 

 the tobacco plant; and a fertilizer which supplies the relative quantity of each, 

 and from the proper sources, will never fail to show good effects therefrom if the 

 rainfall is sufficient to quicken their action. 



Most of the soils best adapted to the finest types of tobacco, especially bright 

 and sweet fillers, are thin and poor, and need plant food to push the plants for- 

 ward, and rapidly, in growth and maturity, so that the product may be ripened 

 and mellowed of yellow color, preparatory to being housed and cured. 



FERTILIZERS FOR TOBACCO. 



" While chemical analysis defines the composition of plants, it does not define 

 proper feeding, either in the proportions or forms best suited to the crop." 

 Tobacco is grown for its leaf crop; not the largest product, however, that can be 

 grown on the soil, but such as possess fine elastic texture, color, and other desirable 

 qualities, according to type. 



In a crop like tobacco, where the commercial value is largely influenced by 

 artificial conditions of development, the plant food ought to be abundant, solvent, 

 and furnished in form and proportion, which practice has demonstrated as pro- 

 motive of the best results. " It is a problem of practice, enlightened by science, 

 and not to be figured out by science." And, moreover, one which each planter, 

 to some extent, must determine fpr his soil and the type for which it is best 

 adapted. There is no tobacco fertilizer made suited to aH the types and varied 

 soils. The " universal cure-all pill " is as inapplicable to the varied forms of 

 disease as the universal tobacco manure for all the types and soils. > 



CHLORIDES OBJECTIONABLE. 



Tobacco grown for its leaf product indicates that potash is applicable as a 

 manure, but certain forms or combinations of potash are not suited therefor, since 

 it has been clearly demonstrated that chloride of potassium (" muriate of potash") 

 is really objectionable. For Stoner says: "The objection to chloride of potassium 

 as a manure for tobacco depends upon the fact that leaves of this plant which 

 have been grown up>on land rich in chlorides will not burn readily when dry, 

 apparently because the chlorides tend to prevent a certain swelling or puffing up 

 of the ashes in the half-burned tobacco, which is favorable to bringing the parti- 

 cles of carbon into intimate contact with the air. Numerous experiments in, 

 proof of this peculiarity of the chlorides have been recorded." 



