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made. They should not be above four feet in breadth and ot any 

 desired length, though for the convenience in walking through the 

 Nursery they may be made about ten feet in length, the pathways 

 along and across the beds being about half a yard in width. The 

 height of the beds should not be more than one inch above 

 the level, having long wattles placed at the edges or borders of 

 the beds sustained by pegs driven down at their extremities so as to 

 support the earth. Corn is then planted in the middle of the beds, two 

 grains per hole, and each hole two feet apart. Near the time of sow- 

 ing the seed the soil is chopped with a cutlass without injuring the 

 corn. Corn protects the young plant from the rays of the sun. If 

 when the seedlings spring up the corn has bars, they should be 

 picked off, for they damage the seedlings. 



4. A Nursery can be made so as to be at the same time a Tobacco 

 field. It is done as follows: — The land is cleared of rrees, the boughs 

 and rubbish burnt and corn immediately planted on the land. Previous 

 to sowing the seed, the earth is chopped and prepared as explained for 

 beds. The seed is sown as usual, but when the plants are fit for 

 transplanting they should be thinned out where too many grow 

 together, and those taken out planted where there are few or none at a 

 regular distance from each other as on a field. The Tobacco grown 

 by this method yields more leaves than by being transplanted 

 to a field, possessing besides the advantage of their being finer 

 in texture and of a better colour. The after-cultivation and 

 curing is identical to that planted otherwise. The Cuban 

 planter calls the Tobacco so grown " Criollo " (Creole.) This 

 is generally done in the Nurseries after planting in the field is finished, 

 but is never adopted as a regular system of culture, because their is no 

 uniformity in the quality of the leaf and the quantity produced per 

 acre. 



The Seed. 



Among the most important points in Tobacco culture is the 

 selection of the seed. It should be taken off the most healthy and 

 perfect plants, and when properly ripe, that is, when the seed-pods 

 blacken. The plants selected for seed should be left uncut and should 

 not of course be "topped," and all suckers plucked off. The see Ipods 

 on their stalks should be thoroughly dried and then hung up in bundles 

 for some length of time, [t is preferable to rub out the seeds of the 

 pods, winnow and put into well-covered demijohns, jars, or glass bottles. 

 The see Is sown the firs^ year ought to be imported directly from 

 Havana as the only means of securing the Cuban kind of Tobacco. 

 Frequent supplies of seeds should be regularly supplied as it is apt to 

 deteriorate if grown too long in one district. 



Method of Sowing the Seeds. 



Care must be observed in sowing the seeds that they are evenly 

 scattered on the soil for if they be thickly sown the young plan's will 

 spring up too closely and will be so delicate and tender that they will not 

 stand transplanting. To secure the seeds being evenly scattered, they 



