72 



NICOTIANA TABACUM AND N. RUSTICA. 



the end of the rains necessitates a light watering every third or fourth day. The seed- 

 lings are thinned out from time to time, and when G inches high, are transplanted by 

 hand into the field, being placed in lines at a distance of 6 to 8 inches apart. The thin 

 planting practised in America finds no favour in this country. Transplanting is invari- 

 ably carried out in the afternoon or evening, and the seedlings are often protected by 

 screens from the heat of the sun for the first few days. 

 Inigatiou. The field is always prepared for reception of the seedlings by a good watering, and 



in the drier parts of the Provinces must be irrigated at intervals of about a fortnight 

 until the crop is ripe. It is essential that water should be given immediately it is re- 

 quired, and this partly explains the reluctance of cultivators to trust to canal irrigation 

 for their tobacco. 



Weedings. Wccds are never allowed to spring up. So soon as the flower buds appear they are 



carefully nipped off", except in the case of a few plants which are reserved for seed. 

 All side shoots springing from the axils of leaves are also suppressed, and no plant is 

 allowed to carry more than ten or twelve leaves. 



Harvesting. The cutting and curing has but little resemblance to the parallel operations in 



American tobacco culture. In Districts west of Allahabad the practice is to cut the 

 plants down whole close to the ground, but in the Eastern Districts the leaves are often 

 picked separately as they ripen. The plants or leaves are then allowed to lie on the 

 ground and wilt for a period which seems to vary greatly in different Districts, and 

 which is much longer when the plant is cut in February than when it is cut in April 

 or May. This explains such discrepancies in the District reports as 12 to 16 days 

 (Cawnpore, Allahabad and the Bundelkhand Districts), 5 or 6 days (Etawah, Agra 

 and Muttra), and 2 or 8 days, or even less than this (Basti, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Ba- 

 reilly, Moradabad and Saharanpur). Another explanation is offered by the fact that 

 tobacco intended for chewing is left out on the ground nearly twice as long as that in- 

 tended for smoking ; in the latter case the leaves are carried in when of a black colour, 

 and in the former case not until they have been burnt reddish brown (Etah). The 

 leaves are carried in when damp with dew in the early morning, as so to run as little risk 

 as possible of breakage. The process which follows resembles but little the elaborate 

 curing practised in America, in which the leaves are hung in a closed house or shed. 

 If the plants were cut down whole they are now stripped, and the leaves are then heaped 

 in a mass for fermentation, being arranged with their apices pointing towards the cen- 

 tre of the heap and their stalks outwards. Occasionally the heaping is carried out in a 

 hole or trench in the ground. They are allowed to remain in this condition for a period 

 varying from three days to a month, fermentation being occasionally assisted by a 

 sprinkling of water, which should be brackish if possible. The temperature is carefully 

 watched, and immediately it rises too high the heap is opened out, the leaves turned 

 over and made up again. When sufficiently fermented the leaves are pliable and can 

 easily be made into " hands " or coils, which when finally dried are ready for sale. If 

 no immediate market for them can be obtained they are " bulked," i.e., heaped in a 

 corner of the cultivator's house, or occasionally hung from the roof, until they find a 

 purchaser. 



Diseases and injuries. Tobacco docs not appear to be infested in this country with the multitude of cater- 



