THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



3 



that the large plough and harrow are substituted 

 for the coulter and grubbing hoe, and the hilling 

 may be a little longer delayed. 



If the seasons have been favorable, and the 

 plant beds duly attended to as before observed, 

 the plants will be ready to set out from the 15th 

 to the last of May. It is most common to wait 

 for a rain or season as we call it, to perform this 

 operation, in which case the hills must be pre- 

 viously cut off about four inches above their 

 base; but in early planting it is quite safe to 

 proceed without a season, provided it is done in 

 the evening, and the hills cut off at the same 

 time. It is universally admitted that a moderate 

 season is better than a very wet one ; and that 

 is considered the best, in which the earth does 

 not entirely lose its friability, but at the same 

 time will bear to be compressed closely about 

 the roots of the plant without danger of becom- 

 ing hard or baked. Under the most favorable 

 circumstances, however, some plants will fail or 

 perish, and, therefore, the ground must be gone 

 over after every rain until the last of June, to 

 replant the missing hills. It is not important 

 here to describe the mere cultivation of the crop 

 as it respects tillage, it being only necessary as 

 in the case of all other plants to keep the earth 

 light and free from weeds and grass. This is 

 generally done by two weedings, first by scrap- 

 ing a little earth and all the young grass from 

 the plants and then in a short time restoring the 

 same earth, and as much more as will make a 

 considerable hill around each. In old land, and 

 that free from stumps, the single horse shovel 

 plough is used with great advantage as an aux- 

 iliary to the hoe. 



When the plants attain a proper size, which 

 observation and experience will readily point 

 out, they are to be primed and topped. The 

 priming is merely stripping off four or five leaves 

 at the bottom, leaving about a hand's breadth 

 between the first leaf and the top of the hill. 

 Topping is simply taking out the bud with the 

 finger and thumb nails, leaving the necessary 

 number of leaves, which in general is not more 

 than eight, though the first topping may be to 

 nine or ten leaves to make it ripen more uni- 

 formly, and bring the crop into the house more 

 together. For the same reason, the late plants 

 are not topped to so many, falling from eight by 

 degrees as the season expires, down to six and 

 five. A little practice, and slight attention to 

 the manner in which the leaves grow from the 

 stalk, will soon enable a person to perform this 

 operation with great dexterity and despatch, 

 without counting the leaves. All that is requi- 

 site after this until the plant is fit to cut, is to 

 keep it from being eaten by the worms, and to 

 pull off the suckers that grow out at the junc- 

 tion of the leaves to the stalk. These suckers 

 put forth only twice at the leaves, but after that 

 indefinitely and continually from the root, and it 



is thought injudicious ever to let them get more 

 than a week old, for besides absorbing the nu- 

 triment necessary to push forward, and increase 

 the size and thickness of the leaf, the breaking 

 them off when of a large size, makes so great 

 a wound as greatly to injure the after growth 

 of the plant. In general about three months is 

 requisite to perfect the growth of tobacco frcm 

 planting to cutting. 



Of the diseases and casualties to which it is 

 subject, and its tendency to exhaust land. — To- 

 bacco is subject to some diseases, and liable to 

 be injured by more casualties and accidents than 

 any other crop. That growing upon new or 

 fresh high land is seldom injured by any other 

 disease than the Spot or Firing, which is the 

 effect of very moist succeeded by very hot wea- 

 ther. For this we know of no remedy or anti- 

 dote. Tobacco growing upon old land, particu- 

 larly upon low flats, besides being more subject 

 to spot, is liable to a disease we call the Hollow 

 Stalk, which is an entire decay and rottenness 

 of the inside or pith, terminating gradually in 

 the decay and final dropping off of ihe leaves. 

 This disease is sometimes produced by the 

 wounds caused by pulling off overgrown suck- 

 ers, thereby admitting too great an absorption of 

 water into the stalk through the wound. In 

 land not completely drained, the plants are some- 

 times apt to take a diminutive growth, sending 

 forth numerous long, narrow leaves, very thickly 

 set on the stalk. This is called Walloon tobac- 

 co, and is good for nothing. As there is no cure 

 for these diseases when they exist, we can only 

 attend to their prevention. This will at once be 

 pointed out by a knowledge of the cause, which 

 is too much wet, and indicates the necessity of 

 complete and thorough draining before the crop 

 is planted. It may not be amiss here to men- 

 tion, that tobacco is more injured than any other 

 crop by ploughing or hoeing the ground when 

 it is too wet, and to express a general caution 

 on that head. 



The accidents by which tobacco is often in- 

 jured and destroyed, are high winds, heavy beat- 

 ing rains, hail storms, and two kinds of worm, 

 the ground or cut worm, and the large green horn 

 worm. High winds, besides breaking off the 

 leaves and thereby occasioning a great loss, are 

 apt to turn them over. The plant unlike most 

 others possesses no power to restore ihe leaves 

 to their proper position, which must shortly and 

 carefully be done by hand, otherwise the part 

 inverted will gradually perish and moulderaway. 

 Those who have studied the anatomy of plants 

 can tell us the cause of this, as well as, why na- 

 ture has denied to tobacco the faculty of restor- 

 ing its leaves to their proper position. The 

 ground worm, the same which is sometimes so fa- 

 tal to corn, is ascertained to be the Larvae of the 

 common black bug found in great numbers un- 

 der wheat shocks, &c. This worm is seldom or 



