266 
CULTURE OF TOBACCO. 
CULTURE OF TOBACCO.—NO. IV. 
The third indication is to secure a sufficient 
amount of ammonia to develop the tobacco plants. 
In this paper I have been studious to recommend 
nothing to the planter except what is within his 
reach, save, indeed, lime, which may be in part 
replaced by burnt clay, a substance usually 
abundant where shell marl or lime is absent. I 
shall not, therefore, recommend the planter to 
send after ammoniacal manures, which are sold at 
a high price, and may be difficult of attainment. 
But turning his attention to the preservation of all 
the urine and fseces of his household, as well as 
of his stock; to the collection of woollen rags, the 
refuse of shearings, bristles, old leather, hats, 
feathers, dead animals, horns of cattle, bones, 
blood, waste soap-water from washings, refuse of 
soap making, kitchen garbage, &c., assure him, 
that upon an ordinary plantation, these for the 
most part forgotten articles, will yield enough ni¬ 
trogen for a larger crop of tobacco, than his force 
can raise and cure. Let him reduce the solids of 
this long list of offal by cutting and crushing them 
into small pieces. Let him mix it with fine gar¬ 
den mould and the scrapings of the floor of his to¬ 
bacco barns, and make nitre heaps of the whole, 
freely exposed to the air, but sheltered from rain ; 
let him incorporate lime with these beds, and 
moisten them with waste soap water and urine, and 
at the end of two years from the commencement of 
the practice, by putting up new beds as fast as he 
obtains enough materials, the planter will not only 
be in possession of nitre, but each bed will yield 
him a mass of manure of incalculable value in the 
culture of tobacco. A half pint put to each hill 
twice during its growth, will yield him the most 
luxuriant harvest at no expense , for the trouble of 
collecting is not much greater than throwing away 
rubbish. A load will supply at least an acre, and 
he will have the satisfaction of knowing that his 
liberality in expenditures for his household in 
clothing and food, is attended with an increase of 
crop that will leave a surplus in return. When 
in Virginia, I urged the formation of nitre beds 
upon many friends, but to no purpose ; I trust that 
the present desire, and necessity for improvement, 
will induce some of the intelligent and noble plant¬ 
ers of that country to commence the practice, as 
well as the burning of clay, both of which I shall 
be proud to introduce into their country. Old to¬ 
bacco barns, or temporary slab sheds at their sides, 
are admirably suited for nitre beds, if care be ta¬ 
ken that no water drains out from the heap into 
the soil, as that would lead to heavy loss. 
I have entered into this long account of the 
means of collecting nitrogen at home, because it is 
lamentable to witness so much waste, and disgust¬ 
ing to see the manner in which the above garbage 
hangs around the tenements of negroes. The 
practice would increase their comfort, and add to 
the appearance of the plantation, irrespective of 
the gold falling to the farmer. But it is not the 
only means by which nitrogen may be secured on 
the land. If the highest state of porosity is at¬ 
tainable, no more will be wanted for the produc¬ 
tion of rich plants. This condition, I do not, how¬ 
ever, suppose to be practicable in our coarse til¬ 
lage. Moreover, ammoniacal manures are of 
great value to all the cerealia. The common sta¬ 
ble manure economically managed will be used for 
this purpose. 
There is another grand means of obtaining ni¬ 
trogen on the farm— the cultivation of those plants 
which , requiring little or none from the soil , sup¬ 
ply themselves by drawing largely from the air. 
This practice is one of the pillars of agriculture ; 
like liming, and burning clay, it originated with 
practical men, and as the result of experience. 
But by regardingit in a scientific point of view, it 
will be fully appreciated. We are indebted to 
that profound chemist and splendid agriculturist, 
Boussingault, for ail that is known in this explana¬ 
tion. 
He raised clover , from seed, in a soil utterly 
destitute of organic matter, and found at the end 
of two months, that it had abstracted from the 
atmosphere and fixed in its structure 10 per cent, 
more nitrogen than the seed contained. In anoth¬ 
er experiment, with clover transplanted from the 
field into a soil of calcined sand, there was an in¬ 
crease of 70 per cent, of that element, drawn from 
the air in the same time. Common field peas 
grown from seed in the same soil, also obtained in 
99 days nearly 120 per cent, of nitrogen, above the 
quantity in the grain. 
On the other hand, Boussingault sowed wheat 
under the foregoing circumstances, and at the end 
of two months there was a loss of 9 per cent, of 
the nitrogen the grain had contained. Fine trans¬ 
planted oat seedlings showed a slight loss, even 
when growing in water. 
By the cultivation of clover, beans, grasses, 
Jerusalem artichoke, &c., provided they are fal¬ 
lowed in full growth, immediately before flower¬ 
ing, any amount of ammoniacal substances can be 
concentrated in the soil. I wish to draw attention 
especially to the Jerusalem artichoke ( Helianihus 
tuberosos), because it contains much nitrate of 
potash and ammonia, will grow upon stiff clay, 
and yields a great quantity of substance. This 
practice is one of the most surprising to those 
who have never resorted to it, and one of the best 
scientific experiments in agriculture. A sprinkling 
of powdered plaster of Paris will forward clover 
on poor soils. 
In this discursive essay, written at intervals of 
leisure from more pressing business, there is much 
which will receive criticism. On one point I may 
forestall the farmer. It will strike him that there 
are some substances, as clover, recommended for 
the accomplishment of each of the indications laid 
down, and therefore should meet them all. This 
is true, clover meets all the indications, under 
some circumstances, and it is within my experi¬ 
ence to have witnessed a case where a field that 
would scarcely grow ten bushels of oats to the 
acre, did produce upward of 1,000 lbs. of tobacco 
in three years after, by fallowing a second year’s 
growth of clover. But I have not confined myself 
to recommending clover only, because its cultiva¬ 
tion is not always successful at first ; there are 
tracts of country where it commands so high a 
price that in the contracted economy of new im¬ 
provers of land, it would be considered loo expen° 
