December, 1909.] 



497 



Drugs and Medicinal Products. 



wise develop largely on beds exclusively 

 manured with horse and mule manure. 



The manure should always contain a 

 sufficient quantity of straw, and alter it 

 has been well mixed with the soil the 

 beds should remain untouched for a 

 month or more. During the Cold months, 

 and from time to time (say occe a 

 fortnight) it should be worked to expose 

 the soil to air and sun, and so kill any 

 disease germs that might be present. 



If hotbeds are necessary the top soil 

 should be removed to a depth of, pay, 

 10 inches and a layer of about 6 inches of 

 fresh stable manure placed at the bot- 

 tom. The soil taken out should be mixed 

 with well-rooted stable manure, leaf 

 mould, or any other well decomposed 

 vegetable matter, and then be replaced 

 on top and further treated as ordinary 

 beds. 



Frames.— Frames should be made so as 

 to cover the beds in order to protect 

 them against cold at night and sunshine 

 in the day time, and to keep out flying 

 insects. These frames, however, are not 

 necessary in the low veld or for late 

 beds at the higher altitudes, and these 

 beds should only be protected against 

 excess of sunshine and flying insects by 

 means of grass-mats or cheese-cloth or 

 muslin-cloth. 



When frames are to be used they can 

 be made of tarred wooden planks of 

 about 1 in, thick and 10 in. to 12 in. 

 high. Corrugated iron, which is gener- 

 ally present on a farm, can also be 

 used for the purpose in such a way 

 that the frame is about 6 in. above 

 the level of the beds, and so as to receive 

 the cover consisting of grass or cloth, 

 which then cannot touch the young 

 plants. A cheap and good way of con- 

 structing these frames is to surround 

 the bed with sundried or, better still, 

 burnt bricks, if possible, which can be 

 easily made on the farm. 



Fertilising — Tobacco seed being very 

 small (about 300,000 to the ounce) the re- 

 serve material for the nourishment of 

 the seedling is very soon exhausted, and 

 the seedling is forced to feed itself much 

 sooner from the soil than with most 

 plants, Therefore seed beds must be 

 made in such a way that the seedlings 

 will easily find plenty of available food. 

 If they should not be sufficiently rich 

 in plant food, fertilisers must be added, 

 in addition to the humus which has been 

 previously added in some form, and 

 which will keep the beds better provided 

 with moisture. 



If fertilisers must be used, I recom- 

 mend for potash the application of wood 



63 ' 



ashes, containing, besides other useful 

 elements, a certain percentage of potash ; 

 for nitrogen, sulphate of ammonia, be- 

 cause its nitrogen acts more slowly than 

 in nitrate of soda, and therefore it is 

 better suited for seed beds (dried blood, 

 which contains about 12 per cent, nitro- 

 gen, will also be excellent for seed beds), 

 and superphosphates for adding phos- 

 phoric acid. If the beds have not received 

 any kraal manure or tobacco stems or 

 stalks, a complete fertiliser, containing, 

 say 10 per cent, of potash, 4 per cent, of 

 nitrogen, and 10 per cent, of phosphoric 

 acid, all in an available form, may be 

 used. If, after the seedlings have grown 

 up a doubt exist that there is not 

 sufficient plant food available, a small 

 amount of these fertilisers could be 

 applied in a dilute solution at the time 

 of watering the beds. The young plants 

 often show lack of plant food by looking 

 yellowish and not fresh green and 

 healthy. 



Pulverising, — The upper layer of two 

 or three inches of soil must be well 

 pulverised and all coarse organic matter 

 should be removed. This can be done 

 by sifting. If the proportion of clay 

 appears to be too large, some pure sand 

 may be mixed with the surface soil ; the 

 advantage of this will be that the beds 

 are better drained, and at the same time 

 they will not dry out and cake so quick- 

 ly. The rootlets of the young seedlings 

 will also penetrate the soil more easily. 



■ Sterilising — On our Experiment Sta- 

 tions at Rustenburg and Barberton, 

 we had our seed beds sterilised in a way 

 which gave excellent results, and can 

 therefore be recommended to tobacco 

 planters. This method is as follows :— 

 After the soil has been properly prepared 

 and is in readiness for receiving the seed, 

 boil some water in old paraffin tins or 

 any other utensils at hand, and pour 

 the boiling watei as quickly as possible 

 on to the beds so as not to let the water 

 cool off too much, and allow it to soak 

 in to a depth ot about six inches. Repeat 

 the treatment once or twice on one or 

 two consecutive days. Sow the seed 

 after the beds have dried up a little. 

 This method of treating seed beds has 

 resulted in our experiencing no trouble 

 from fungus diseases or insect pests 

 notwithstanding the fact on some of the 

 beds fresh stable manure had been used. 

 The application of boiling water on the 

 beds not only seems to practically sterilise 

 the surface soil, destroying disease germs 

 and insects that may be present, but 

 also destroys the weed— seeds present, 

 which would otherwise produce weeds 

 and interfere with the growth of the 

 young tobacco seedlings. 



