8 



as possible and cover with some kind of a blanket to retain the 

 heat. A pair of saddle blankets answer the purpose nicely. 



After the seed-beds become cold, they are ready for the seed, 

 and if the top has become packed, it should be loosened and made 

 fine. 



Tobacco seed is exceedingly small, an ounce containing about 

 380,000 seeds, of which, at best, only about 50 per cent, will ger- 

 minate. One pod produces fully 5000 seeds and one plant is 

 capable of furnishing seed enough to plant 250 acres, if all were 

 to grow. One heaping tablespoonful of seed will sow 100 square 

 yards of seed-bed and furnish plants to set from 4 to 5 acres, with 

 10,000 plants per acre, of cigar tobacco. Mix the right quantity 

 of seed with a quart or so of dry, sifted ashes. The ashes show 

 where the seed has or has not been sown on the surface of the bed. 



The seed-box or bed, after sowing, should be watered, using 

 a fine rose watering-pot, so as to moisten the soil and also to pack 

 it around the seed, but only enough water should be used to give 

 the desired result. 



Cover the seed-boxes or beds with open burlap (old grain 

 bags, cut open, do well for this purpose), until the young plants 

 appear, then the boxes are ready for their movable gable-roofed 

 covers. All covers for plants, after they are up, should be so 

 constructed that the roof partially turns the water, or else it 

 drips through in large drops, which soon kill the tender leaves 

 of the plant by pounding them against the ground. All flat cov- 

 ers should be avoided, for the same reason, unless the cover 

 comes in direct contact with the surface of the ground and, even 

 then, a very heavy rain makes a crust on the top of the soil. 



Tobacco seed should be sown thinly, so the plants have room 

 to grow ; each plant should have at least one square inch of surface 

 to make a sturdy plant. Seed-beds should, at all times, be fairly 

 moist and never be allowed to become dry or to show dryness on 

 the surface. The seed is small and is only planted on the surface. 

 Good seed should germinate in from 12 to 15 days. In from six 

 to eight weeks, the more hardy plants will be ready for the field 

 and the others will follow in quick succession, until the bed is 

 exhausted of all desirable plants. 



Young plants should be allowed considerable sunshine to hard- 

 en them before transplanting. 



Every tobacco grower should save his own seed, and, in its 

 selection, care should be taken to save seed only from such plants 



