10 



PROFITABLE FARMING. 



land is wet. It will require from one and one-half to two hours to cook the soil 

 properly. 



Or, better still: Rake over nicely the plat to be burned, then place down 

 poles from two to four inches in diameter, three and one-half to four feet apart, 

 over the entire surface to be burned. Then place brush thickly over the plat and 

 weight down with wood, over which throw leaves, trash or other combustible 

 material; over this sprinkle kerosene oil, and set the whole on fire and burn at 

 one operation. 



But any mode of burning the plat will suffice, provided that it is effectually 

 done. After the plat hasb^en burned and has cooled, rake off the large coals 

 and brands, but let the ashes remain, as they are essentially a first-class manure. 

 Then coulter over the plat deeply, or break with grub-hoes, and make fine the 

 soil by repeated chopping and raking, observing not ■ o bring the subsoil to the 

 surface, and remove all roots and tufts. Manure fi^m the stable, hog-pen or 

 poultry house, or some reliable commercial fertilizer, :;hould be chopped into and 

 thoroughly incorporated with the soil while preparing the bed to be sown. Expe- 

 rience has demonstrated that it is better to use both. 



A good tobacco fertilizer mixed with equal quantity of poultry-house drop- 

 pings and thoroughly incorporated, makes a most excellent manure for plants, 

 and so does a compost made with selected chemicals, stable manure and rich 

 moist earth. The latter when composted in time is the best and surest. But beware 

 of using manure containing grass seed. The judgment of the planter must guide 

 him in the amount of fertilizing material to be applied at this stage; but it is well 

 to remind him that the tobacco plant rarely responds to homoepathic doses of 

 plant food, but that the allopathic usage suits it; best. 





This Plata illustrates the sowing, treacling and trenching of a plant-bed In the forest—the favorite 

 location— where there is less danger of Injury to the plants by the flea-beetle, and where beds hold out 

 longer during drought and furnish a larger supply of plants. The treading is greatly enioved bv the 

 young of the colored population, who smg and dance, " cut shines,' as they prance over the surface to firm 

 the sod and thereby hasten germination of the seed. Under the slave regime it was thfe custom to strike 

 tip a ji^ or corn-huskIng song as the work progressed, the old joining the young in both song and dance as 

 the excitement increased, thereby winding up the job in a regular jollifleation. 



Sow at the rate of a tablespoonful of seed, which is about half an ounce, on 

 every fifty square yards at first sowing, and later resow with a heaping teaspoon- 



