PRODUCING THE SEEDLINGS. 11 
_recorded here are the results of several years of study among the 
tobacco growers of the Connecticut Valley, as well as of the writer’s 
own Joes experience. 
As tobacco plants have to be grown in the ae spring when the © 
weather is cold and many raw north and west winds prevail, a site 
should be selected on a southern slope or the winds cut off by a 
hedge or a high, tight board fence. The next operation is to prepare 
the beds. This should be partly done in the fall by putting on 
organic fertilizer, such as stable manure and cotton-seed meal, and 
thoroughly spading it in. In the spring, as soon as the frost is out 
of the soil (and this can be hastened by putting a glass covering on 
the frames), the soil should be thoroughly spaded up and raked over . 
and a small quantity of commercial fertilizer should be applied and 
raked in. The bed is now raked, leveled, and steam sterilized, when 
it is ready for the seed. 
A great many growers sprout their seed before sowing, but in the 
' writer’s experience more healthy plants are produced in less time 
by sowing the seed dry. If the. seed has been well cleaned and 
blown, about a tablespoonful to 200 square feet of seed bed is suffi- 
cient to produce a good stand of plants. 
In sowing the seed never mix it with any organic substance, such 
as corn meal or cotton-seed meal, but use apple-tree punk and sifted 
coal ashes or land plaster in the following proportions: To five cups 
of punk add two of ashes and one tablespoonful of seed. Mix 
thoroughly and sow. After sowing, rake in lightly with an iron rake 
and press the soil firmly down with a plank. Now wet the bed 
thoroughly by sprinkling water on it and put on the covering, which 
may consist of either glass or cloth. The covering should be held 
about 6 inches above the soil by means of a tight frame made of inch 
boards placed around the bed. 
The seed bed now needs much care, and if the sun is hot the cover- 
ing should be raised to let in fresh air. Water should be used freely 
and the top of the soil kept damp until the plants are about an inch 
high, when water should be used more sparingly and air more fre- 
quently given. | 
It takes from forty to sixty days for the plants to grow large 
enough to be transplanted to the field. A plant should not be pulled - 
for transplanting until it is at least 4 inches long at the stem and the 
stalk is almost as large in ‘circumference as a common lead pencil. 
Some plants in a bed will always grow faster than others, and the 
large ones should always be taken out first—very carefully, so as 
not to injure the smaller ones, which grow to make the next pulling. 
To pull the plants, first wet the bed thoroughly, so that the plant 
roots will pull up easily, and then pull the plants by taking hold of the 
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