UNE 190S.J 



Miscellaneous. 



for four or five days, but subsequently the 

 crop is watered once in three days until it is 

 hoed, and thereafter every other day. 



After the crop has been planted, weeds 

 spring up plentifully, and are often allowed 

 to grow for some time, but, when it is about 

 three weeks old, it is hoed, though this oper- 

 ation is delayed longer in some cases. About 

 five or six weeks after planting, the land is 

 further broken up with a man-vetti, and 

 though this operation may be repeated, if the 

 surface becomes very hard, it is seldom that 

 this is done, and the ryots appear to have no 

 idea of the great benefits of maintaining a 

 surface mulch by keeping the soil loose and 

 friable, and especially so after" a fall of rain 

 or a watering. On the day following this 

 hoeing, one slight earthing up of the plants 

 is done, and watering on alternate days is 

 renewed.* 



In some villages, two days before the first 

 hoeing mentioned above, liquid manure is 

 applied to the tobacco plants. Fresh cow- 

 dung is gathered some days previously and 

 placed near the main channel. This is mixed 

 by the hands into the water drawn from the 

 well which carries the manure to the plants. 

 Such manuring is seldom practised, except in 

 Vedasandur, but there liquid manure is ap- 

 plied two or three times whilst the crop is 

 on the ground ; the second application being 

 made when the plants are topped, and a 

 third, more rarely, immediately before 

 harvest. 



The plants are toppedt when they are 2^ — 

 3 feet high and a few days before the bud 

 appears. The plants have then been about 

 two months in the field and carry from nine 

 to twelve leaves. The tops are thrown any- 

 where, and those which fall on the tobacco 

 leaves, from their extremely gummy nature, 

 cause the leaves on which they fall to rot. 

 Topping the plants so low induces the leaves 

 left to spread and increase in size, and is 

 usually supposed to be conducive to an 

 increased weight of outturn, as compared 

 with that from plants topped higher. 



* Hoeing should commence as soon as the plants 

 have struck root, and be continued regularlj, and 

 persistently, as long and as often as needed to keep 

 the surface clear of weeds, and open and free. The 

 ridging up is also usually more or les3 ineffective, 

 and might be more thoroughly done. If the plan 

 of watering in only alternate furrows on each occa- 

 sion, and hoeing the land so watered as soon as pos» 

 sible after watering, were adopted, the crop would 

 certainly benefit, and it is probable that much less 

 water would be needed, 



+ Immediately after topping, shoots or suckers 

 appear in the axils of the leaves, and around the 

 head of the plant ; but suckering is done once only, 

 about a fortnight after topping, and very ineffec- 

 tively, as the suckers are allowed to grow far too 

 large and too long to the great detriment of the 

 plants, and are not removed sufficiently often. They 

 shoula be removed when an inch long, and the crop 

 Should be gone over continually for this purpose. 



The plants ripen in ninety to one hundred 

 days, and when a few spots have appeared 

 on the lower leaves, the plants are cut off * 

 close to the ground at about 5 p.m. They 

 are then allowed to remain exposed to the 

 night dew, and at day-break are gathered 

 up and bulked into small circular heaps 2 feet 

 high, the stalks outwards, and the tips of 

 the leaves inwards. These heaps are covered 

 with straw or the refuse of the tobacco field 

 (tops, suckers, etc.), and are not opened till the 

 third evening after the harvest. The plants 

 are then spread on the ground for a short 

 time, and then hung up on horizontal poles 

 with the stalks pressed close to each other. 

 The stalks of the plants are slightly loosened 

 from each other every morning all along the 

 polef The leaves are cured in fifteen to twenty 

 days from time of hanging up, the colours 

 being rusty red, yellow and green. Where 

 the leaves have been too closely pressed 

 together, the colour is black and texture 

 rotten, Rain destroys the colour and texture, 

 and high winds break and damage the dry 

 leaves. 



When the stems of the leaves have become 

 th oroughly dry, although the stalks may 

 still be green, the plants are taken down and 

 bulked in square heaps, the stalks being laid 

 cross-wise over each other in alternate rows, 

 These heaps are two feet or more in height. 

 The leaves are not stripped from the stalks, 

 but bulked just as they are taken from the 

 poles. This is done in the early morning 

 when the leaves are supple. These bulks are 

 opened and re-bulked every two or three 

 days. The smell issuing from a newly- 

 opened bulk is very offensive, the stalks show 

 signs of mould, and the leaves sweat and 

 blacken to such an extent that unless great 

 eare is taken, the texture of the leaf is 

 entirely destroyed. | When a blackish colour 

 is produced, the fermentation is finished, and 

 the leaves are stripped off the stalk, and tied 



* Cut as they are in this way, the upper leaves 

 on the plant are still immature, while the bottom 

 leaves may be over-ripe, and it would be well if the 

 latter could be stripped off separately, and in fact 

 the whole be harvested as it ripens. The lower 

 leaves might be strung on twine and cured, and 

 when the remainder matures the whole plant could 

 be out. 



•| In the curing too, the plants at present appear 

 to be hung up much too closely together, so that 

 there is no uniformity in the drying, and the colour 

 is far from uniform whilst those leaves which are 

 not we 1 exposed turn black and rot. The harvested 

 plants might be hung up loosely, and further apart, 

 and it might also be advantageous if the stems were 

 split in two before being hung up ; the leaves would 

 then dry more evenly and quickly. 



X The injury done during fermentation is great, 

 and is largely due to the fact that the ryot has no 

 guide by which to control it. For the proper regu- 

 lation of this, the thermometer is required, ' 



