14 



tops of these ridges are knocked off with a hoe or board, leaving them 

 smooth and flat. The plants are given a distance of 12 inches in the 

 drill. Of course great care is used to make -every plant live, as a uni- 

 form growth is essential if a uniform crop is to be harvested. Two or 

 three days after the first setting the field is gone over, putting fresh 

 plants wherever one of the original setting seems to be drooping or 

 dying. 



The cultivation is the same as that given the Cuban variet}^, and it 

 must be rapid and shallow. The ground should be stirred at least 

 once each week until the plants begin to bud, at which time cultivation 

 should stop. It is very essential that the plants shouhl have a con- 

 tinuous, rapid growth from beginning to maturity; they are often given 

 a second application of fertilizer. For this cotton- seed meal or cotton- 

 seed-hull ashes are usually applied when the plants are 12 or 14 inches 

 high. This fertilizer will be available wlien most needed by the plants, 

 furnishing as it does food for the many feeders or surface roots. 



The same means used for keeping the worms off the Cuban crop are 

 also used in the case of the Sumatra; and as the principal value of the 

 Sumatra plant is its wrapper leaves, great care is exercised to preserve 

 the soundness of the leaf. The Sumatra tobacco is topped higher than 

 the Cuban; that is, only the seed bud is taken out, and all of the leaves 

 are allowed to grow. If the laud is exceedingly rich it is found best 

 not to top at all, but to allow the plants to go to bloom. To top in that 

 case causes the leaves to thicken and curl. It has been found by 

 experience that Sumatra tobacco should be harvested at an early stage 

 of ripeness, as the leaves will cure lighter and be more elastic; that is, 

 it will have more life. It is usual to take four to six leaves at each 

 priming, thus going over the field four or five times before the whole 

 crop is harvested. The methods and means of transporting this 

 tobacco to the curing shed are the same as employed in transporting 

 the Cuban variety, and the work in the barn or curing shed is also the 

 same. The first priming, which means the first four leaves taken from 

 the stalk, also the last i^riming, which means the last four or six leaves 

 taken from the top of the stalk, are kept separate. Thus there are 

 three grades, as follows: Bottom leaves, middle leaves, and top leav»es. 



When the tobacco is sufficiently cured it is i)acked in paper bundles, 

 the same as described under Cuban tobacco, and delivered to the j)ack- 

 ing houses, each bundle being marked so that its contents can be known. 



NEW V. OLD LAND. 



As stated in the beginning of this article, new, low hammock land 

 is necessary, or has been so considered. Some excellent Sumatra has 

 been grown on old land, but this is decidedly the exception and not the 

 Tule. However, in 1896, as an experiment, a New York cornpany oper- 

 ating in Gadsden County, Fla., built a shed over 1 acre of old land. 



