Edible Products. 



540 



[December, 1908. 



clean of the first direct planting by 

 fungus. The lots transplanted into 

 such soil suffered no less and thrived 

 from the beginning. 



These methods are not original at all 

 with us. They have been found the 

 safest and best methods in other parts 

 of the world, and are commonly followed 

 also in the propagation of tomatoes, 

 egg plants, peppers and cabbages in 

 the United States, where many thou- 

 sands of acres are planted to these crops. 

 All of the seed beds in our Propagation 

 Garden for the past three years have 

 been handled by these methods, and 

 we have been constantly astonished at 

 the ease with which they can be carried 

 out and with the far greater certainty 

 and the far better quality of the results 

 obtained. Some planters have not been 

 ready to endorse these methods, regard- 

 ing them as impracticable. But these 

 are usually men not acquainted with 

 the practical working of the methods 

 and so not competent judges. Careful 

 estimates on this year's work show that 

 the extra handling can be done at a 

 cost not to exceed 15 to 20 cents per 

 thousand posturas. The gains are finer 

 posturas, quicker production, avoidance 

 of fungus and necessity to sterilize, and 

 far more certain results. Points which 

 we regard as alone amply justifying 

 the method and making it entirely prac- 

 ticable on any scale. We believe that 

 these points will commend the method 

 to a thorough trial by the most intelli- 

 gent Cuban planters. 



The work is all done, and the prepar- 

 ations made exactly the same up to the 

 point of planting. Then for each ten 

 or more beds it will only be necessary 

 to sterilize and plant one, but this one 

 should be planted much more thickly 

 than ordinary. As soon as the plants are 

 up and large erough to be handled by 

 fingers, boys should be used for the 

 work of transplanting. They should 

 straddle the bed, seated on a piece of 

 board which crosses the bed, and set 

 the plants well down in the ground 

 firming the earth around each one with 

 a single movement as rapidly as they 

 can be handled, and in straight rows 

 across the bed, hitching the seat board 

 back as they go. This work should be 

 immediately followed by the placing of 

 frames and covers. Indeed, a piece of 

 cheese-cloth or muslin should be spread 

 over the plants for shade as fast as 

 they are set and watered. The plants 

 should be set about one and a half 

 inches apart, or closer if the planter 

 wishes a more spindling postura, so that 

 some 2,000 or more may be set in each 

 three square yards, Boys should be 



paid by the piece, and should easily do 

 four or five such beds or more in a ten 

 hour day. Numbers of the transplanters 

 can be kept well supplied with plants 

 by one boy who scoops them up on 

 spadelike pieces of board, dirt and all, 

 without disturbing them in the least. 

 Plants so handled and properly cared 

 for will gain a week to ten days or 

 more over those left undisturbed from 

 a first planting, and will besides make 

 larger stronger posturas, as we have 

 repeatedly demonstrated here, where 

 any planters might have seen and kept 

 close watch of every operation. 



Two-foot paths should be allowed 

 bothways between all the beds, and 

 between every four rows of beds a cart 

 road should be provided for, so that 

 manure may be easily carried directly 

 to* each bed, and if necessary posturas 

 may be rapidly taken out this same 

 way. We would recommend, however, 

 that the seed beds should not be massed 

 in one place but arranged in groups 

 as close as possible to the fields they 

 are intended to serve. They cannot be 

 too close. There will be other conve- 

 niences in this, connected with water 

 supply and so on, besides the consider- 

 able advantages noted below. It will 

 be easy for any planter to estimate the 

 number of these beds 3 by 9 feet, or 

 better 2\ by 10 feet necessary for any 

 given field. Suppose 25,000 plants to the 

 acre be necessary, then it will require 

 12 to 14 such beds to supply the posturas, 

 according to whether tne planter prefers 

 a thin spindling postura or a thick 

 stocky one. One or two extra beds 

 should always be provided to insure 

 against shortages and accidents, which 

 with the class of help available in Cuba 

 are always likely to occur. But with 

 these beds, if properly and intelligently 

 handled, there is no need of preparing 

 more ground than is actually occupied 

 by the plants, whereas commonly in 

 the mountain seed beds a " good stand" 

 of posturas frequently does not occupy 

 but three-fourths, a half, or even one- 

 fourth of the actual area worked, and, 

 on the productive portion, the plants 

 are commonly so crowded that the 

 portion of well-devoloped posturas is 

 necessarily small. 



III. Setting Posturas in the Field. 



The immense advantage of having seed 

 beds at the actual side of the vega 

 has been strikingly apparent in every 

 planting out of some hundreds of trial 

 lots here at the Estacion. Besides, now 

 that many planters are operating seed 

 beds on their places, abundant evidence 

 comes in from throughout the tobacco 

 region. One planter with whom we are 



