224 Tobacco as a Farm Crop for Evgland. 
About the end of March the soil was manured with stable 
manure, bats' guano, wood ashes, and sheep's dung. In Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina the land is usually ploughed deep in 
the autumn, some farm manure being worked in if possible. 
Wheat straw is considered very good, but guano or much farm- 
yard manure is not popular. The land having been re-dug and 
completely pulverised, the plants, which had been raised in pans 
under glass and then transplanted into a hot-bed, were inserted. 
In most cases they were placed in ridges from 3 to 3^ feet 
apart, the distance between each plant being 3 feet. In a few 
instances the young plants were placed on the flat with a trowel. 
At the time of planting the young plants were about an inch 
high, with four leaves showing. There was a continuance of 
dry weather, and the plants were watered three times in the 
next three weeks. 
On July 17th the land round the plants was hoed, and one 
plot was manured with bats' guano and decorticated cotton-cake. 
The plants grew very fast, the average growth being about 
|-inch per diem, until they reached a height varying from 3 to 
4 feet, when the heads were cut off. Each plant had now 9 or 
10 leaves only, and these continued growing until the first week 
in September, at which period they varied in length from 20 
inches to 49 inches, and in breadth from 10 inches to 25 inches. 
A few plants, and among them two of the Kentucky variety, 
were not decapitated, being left to flower as specimens ; subse- 
quently, however, when the idea of saving seed from the 
Kentucky plants occurred to me, I broke off the blossoms from 
all the other plants to prevent inoculation. As a protection 
against frost I covered these two plants with matting (a pre- 
caution afterwards found to be unnecessary), and they fully 
ripened their seed. , 
1 found that the distance between each plant was not great 
enough, for, when the tobacco grew up, there was much difficulty 
in removing the suckers. 
Suckers appeared on July 20th at the junction of the leaf with 
the stem, and I thought by removing them weekly I should be 
able to keep them down, and so prevent them from sapping 
the strength of the plant. I found, however, I was greatly 
mistaken, and the suckers defied all our efforts to remove them 
without injury to the leaf. They grow with far greater rapidity 
here than in America (where, I am told, it is only necessary to 
remove suckers once a week), and they finally attained a length of 
5 feet. One measured during September had an average daily 
growth of ;^-inch, and on some days grew as much as 1^ inches. 
The circumference at the junction with the stem was 1^ inches. 
I frequently removed them myself, and I found my clothes were 
