78 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[M u:ch. 
mainder of tlie crop, like other great results we 
read of, was —on paper. 
- 4 --—- 
How Tobacco is Grown and Prepared for 
Market — • • II. 
{.Continuedfrom page 47 ) 
Field Culture.— After the plants are set, some 
will he cut. off by worms, and some will die from 
transplanting. New plants should be put in the 
vacancies as fast as they are made, until about 
the tenth of July, after which it will be too late 
for them to mature. To hasten the growth of 
these late set plants, it is £ good plan to give them 
some extra manure. A mixture of three parts 
guano to one of plaster will be found to aid their 
growth. Some apply this in the drills before the 
plants are set, at the rate of about 500 pounds of 
guano to the acre. After being strown in the 
drill, it is covered by throwing up a light furrow 
on each side, and the plants are then set upon the 
ridge. If this is not done in the first preparation 
of the field for planting, the dressing may be ap¬ 
plied at the first weeding, about ten days after 
the plants are set, covering it with the hoe. 
The tillage of this crop is much like that 
of corn, only that it will not bear neglect as well. 
In the first and second hoeing, the ground should 
be deeply worked between the rows, to make a 
mellow bed for the roots to penetrate. The horse- 
hoe or cultivator should be kept moving as often 
as once in ten days, until the leaves are so large 
as to interfere with the operation. Many culti¬ 
vators only hoe three times, but no crop pays 
better for a frequent stirring of the soil. Not a 
weed should be suffered in the tobacco field, if a 
prime crop is desired. 
Enemies. —One would suppose that so disgusting 
a plant, and especially one so destructive to ani¬ 
mal life, would be secure from the attacks of in¬ 
sects ; but no crop suffers more from the depre¬ 
dations of these robbers. No sooner is it set, 
than the cut worm commences his work near the 
root, and the supplying of new plants forms a 
large item of labor upon many plantations. One 
of the best remedies for this enemy is plowing 
the previous Fall or Winter. This brings up a 
multitude of the larval from their Winter quarters, 
and the frost makes quick work with them. If 
this has not been done, there is no remeedy but 
to watch for and destroy them by hand. 
The tobacco worm, that preys upon the leaves 
of the plants, is the larva of the Sphinx Carolina. 
The butterfly is “ash grey; fore wings have 
blackish wavy lines ; hind wings whitish in the 
middle with four black bands ; on each side of the 
abdomen are five orange colored spots; the tongue 
excessively long; wings expand about 5 inches.” 
The larva is a disgusting looking green worm, 
transversely wrinkled, with seven oblique white 
lines on each side, and a rust colored caudal horn ; 
generally known as the tobacco worm. These in¬ 
sects transform so deep in the ground, that the 
plow does not usually disturb them. There is no 
remedy but the thumb and finger. They arc ex¬ 
ceedingly voracious, and ruin the crop in a few 
days, unless they are destroyed. 
The crop is also liable to be injured by high 
winds and by hail, when it is in its most succu¬ 
lent stale. In some localities, it is liable to be 
frost bitten, which makes an inferior article. It 
is more liable to damage from the elements than 
almost any other crop. 
Pruning, Toi’iunq, and Sbckkring.—T he object 
aimed at by the tobacco grower is, to throw 
all the energies of the plant into a few large 
leaves. For this purpose, its natural habits must 
be interfered with, in several respecls. As the 
plants approach maturity, they throw out on the 
top a blossom bud called a button. This must be 
removed soon after it shows itself, together with 
such small leaves as can not be fully developed. 
The place where the seed stem is to be broken 
off, depends somewhat upon the strength of the 
plant. About six inches from the top is the rule; 
more, in the cases of small late plants, and less 
in the more vigorous. The number of leaves a 
plant will mature, will be readily learned by ex¬ 
perience. They run from six to twelve leaves in 
common fields. 
A shoot is thrown out at the foot of every leaf 
stalk, which must be very carefully removed. 
This throws the sap into the leaves, and expands 
them. These operations strip the plant of all 
superfluities, and the field presents a goodly ar¬ 
ray of long broad leaves, upon stems from two to 
four feet high. 
Cutting up and Housing.— It takes about 
three months from setting the plants, to mature a 
crop. They begin to assume a spotted and yellow¬ 
ish appearance, the velvet pliability of the growing 
leaf is lost, the veins become swollen, and the 
leaf breaks easily and with a clean brittle frac¬ 
ture upon the under side. It seems full of sap, 
and thickens up in texture. This is a critical 
time with the crop, and demands the closest at¬ 
tention and activity of the cultivator. The value 
of the tobacco depends upon its undergoing a pe¬ 
culiar fermentation, as it dries slowly in the shade 
after cutting. Dried in the field, it is worthless, 
and over ripe plants make an inferior article, 
however skillfully cured. The fermentation gives 
a peculiar color to the leaves, which depends 
somewhat upon the stage of growth at which 
they were cut, and upon the skill in the curing 
process. The color preferred, is some shade of 
cinnamon, though fashion changes somewhat 
with this, as with other articles of luxury. 
All the plants do not reach a uniform maturity, 
but it is best to take them all clean in the cutting, 
as the scattering plants are more liable to injury 
from the sun, the w’inds, and the rain. When the 
majority of the plants reach the desired maturi¬ 
ty the harvest should begin immediately. The 
plants require very careful handling, as the mid¬ 
ribs of the leaves when ripe, are brittle, and the 
substance of the leaf itself is delicate. The mid¬ 
day sun, if it fall upon the 'wilting plants, will of¬ 
ten hasten the fermentation, and change the col¬ 
or so as to spoil the article. In clear hot weath¬ 
er, the plants should not be cut until two or three 
o'clock in the afternoon. After cutting, the 
plants are turned occasionally, and with great 
care. None but trusty reliable hands should be 
set about this work. When the dew falls, the 
plants are put in small bunches of three or four 
together, and thus left over night. Plants cut 
just at evening, may be left untouched until the 
next day at II A. M., when they are turned over, 
and after the sun has had time to dry off" the 
moisture, they may be carried immediately to the 
shed. The plants cut earlier in the day, and laid 
in heaps for the night, should be opened as soon 
as the dew is off, and when thoroughly wilted, or 
at any rate before II o’clock, they should be 
housed. Every plant should be handled by the 
but. Any fracture of the leaf is a serious dam¬ 
age, and puts it into a lower grade in the assort¬ 
ing. There is a good deal of diflerence between 
five and thirty-five cents a pound, on which the 
cultivator should keep his eye in the 
Todacco Shed. —In the South, fire is much used 
in curing. In the North, the sheds are so 
ventilated that no fire is needed, and a better arti¬ 
cle is secured. Suecess depends almost entirely 
upon the completeness of the ventilation, which 
should not only be veitical/but at the sides. The 
usual plan in Connecticut is, to have a building 
twenty four feet wide, to give room for two tiers 
of twelve-foot rails, or poles. The tobacco is 
hung upon these rails in tiers one above the oth¬ 
er, about five feet apart. The building is made 
high enough to accommodate three, or at the 
most, four of these tiers. The tobacco poles are 
supported by joists or beams, five feet, apart, at 
the sides and in the middle of the building. The 
siding of the barn tuns up and down, and every 
third board is furnished with hinges. Ventila¬ 
tion is also provided for at the bottom, either by 
raisins the whole shed a short distance above the 
ground, or by having doors swinging vertically 
on each side of the barn. The lower tier of dry¬ 
ing plants should not come within three feet of 
the ground. The roof, also, has a ventilator ex¬ 
tending the whole length of the ridge, and made 
with valves something like a window blind, so as 
to lurnish air even in showery weather. The 
leadin g idea of the whole establishment is, to 
carry off the moisture of the plants as fast as pos¬ 
sible without artificial heat. The roof must he 
made rain proof, for the plants are gieallv 
damaged by wetting after the drying has com¬ 
menced. 
The number of plants that can be dried proper¬ 
ly upon a twelve-foot rail, depends upon their 
size. The largest plants, say from four and 
a half to five feet in length, should have from 
ten to twelve inches space, or from twenty four 
to twenty eight plants to a rail. Four-foot, plants 
will go from thirty to forty to the rail, and the 
smaller plants about fifty. The curing of tobac¬ 
co, either with or without fire, is an art that can 
only be learned by practice. It requires skill 
and good judgment that can not he communicated 
by the fullest description. 1 We will only add 
further, that in the most drying weather, with a 
clear northwest wind, it is advisable to close the 
ventilators on the*windward side, and in rainy 
weather, they should be closed up tight. As the 
air drying process makes the best article, we give 
no directions for curing by artificial beat—these 
may be found in the Agriculturist Vol. XVI, p. 54. 
After the curing process in the sheds, which 
takes two or three months, the leaves are strip¬ 
ped, assorted, and packed for market. As the 
preserving of the leaves xcliolc , is a matter of a 
good deal of importance, damp weather is select¬ 
ed for this purpose. When the stern is thorough¬ 
ly dry, the leaves may be safely packed. Tobac¬ 
co once hanked too wet can not be dried, and if 
boxed up too damp it will spoil. Three grades 
of tobacco, and sometimes four, are made in the 
assorting ; perfect wrappers consisting of the 
best; imperfect wrappers consisting of large bro¬ 
ken leaves and the smaller ones ; and the balance 
for fillers. 
--- «•-. -- 
Planting Sorghum. 
A subscriber writes from Morgan Co., 0., as 
follows. “ I am gratified with the encouraging 
reports on sorghum. I have manufactured three 
small crops with very good success, and at the 
same time gained some valuable experience. [ 
would recommend to all intending to plant the 
coming season, to secure good seed, which is 
now plenty,* and use it liberally. Better have a 
quantity to pull out than he obliged to plant the 
second time. I find it docs well at three feet 
apart each way, with five canes in a hill w hen 
•There is considerable inquiry for good seed, which 
docs not appear to be plentiful in this market. Tlioso 
who have a supply of really good seed, should adveitise 
the fact, stating piice, etc.—JE d.j 
