1863 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
109 
as large as for covering corn or potatoes. With the flat 
part or back of the hoe press or flatten the lull down to 
the level of the surface of the ground, taking care to have 
it clear of clods or rubbish. 1 generally make my hills 
with what we call a jumping shovel—the frame of a sin¬ 
gle shovel-plow, made light, with a shovel about eight 
inches square, put on in the place of the common shovel. 
Hitch a steady horse to this, start him in the furrows, dip 
the shovel in the middle of the furrows, and raise it, de¬ 
positing the dirt at the cross of the furrows. Have a hand 
following to level and put down the hills, and take out 
clods. In this way I make, with the assistance of a boy 
fifteen years old, about fifteen thousand hills in a day ; 
with the hoe three or four thousand is a good day’s work. 
Setting out Plants. —From the first to the fifteenth 
of June is the proper time, although, if it is seasonable, 
up to the fourth of July will do, but the sooner after the 
first of June the belter. By this time, with proper care 
and attention, the plants are large enough. The ground 
should be well saturated with rain, and a cloudy day is 
much the best. Immediately after a rain, or between 
showers, call out all the force, for the work is pressing; 
the success of the crop depends on getting it out at the 
right time ; all hands go to the plant-beds, pull the largest 
plants, one at a time ; don’t let two stick together, or the 
boys will drop them together and a plant will be lost. 
After the baskets are full, let one hand continue to pull 
plants. Put the little boys and girls to dropping one plant 
on the side of each hill; let those who stick, take an extra 
plant in the hand, drawing the' leaves together in the left 
hand, and with the fore-finger of the right hand make a 
hole in the center of the hill deep enough to receive the 
full length of the roots without the tap root bending up ; 
insert the plant up to the collar with the left hand ; stick 
the fore-finger of the right hand one or two inches from 
the plant, and press the dirt well up against the roots, 
taking care that the dirt is pressed so as t® fill up the hole. 
Pick up the plant on the side of the hill, and as you step 
to the next hill arrange it for sticking; in this way you 
always stick the plant that you pick from one hill in the 
next, thereby greatly facilitating the work. Sometimes 
the ground is not sufficiently wet, and the sun coming on 
the plant is apt to injure it; at such times take a small 
clod and lay it on the heart of the plant to keep the sun 
off, removing the clod in the evening. As soon as the 
plants have started, the first time the groundis wet enough, 
replant where they have died out. 
Cultivation. —As soon as the plants have taken root 
and commenced to grow, begin to use a double shovel- 
plow, having the shovel next the tobacco, about three 
inches wide and six or eight inches long ; do not go too 
close to the hill, or you may displace the plant; follow 
with a hoe, removing all grass and weeds, leaving the 
tobacco master of the situation. Dig gently the surface 
of the hill, and draw a little fine dirt around the plant, 
and strive to keep the soil around the hill as mellow as 
possible without disturbing the plant. After going over 
in this manner, plow the opposite way, going twice in a 
row. Some prefer the cultivator for going over the first 
two times, and I think perhaps it would be preferable, 
as it pulverizes the ground better than the shovel-plow. 
After going over the field twice, in the above manner, 
commence again with the double shovel-plow, the wav 
the tobacco was planted, following with the hoe, giving it 
a good hoeing as before. Use your judgment about the 
amount of tillage needed ; keep clear of weeds ; keep the 
ground mellow, and when the planls have spread so that 
they are bruised by the hoe and plow r , stop cultivating. 
Worms. —As soon as worms appear, which is gener¬ 
ally when the leaves are as big as a man's hand, go over 
the tobacco, looking carefully at every plant. The worms 
usually stay on the under side of the leaf; if you see a 
hole in the leaf, no matter how small, raise it up and you 
will generally find a worm under it. Worming can not 
be done too carefully. Miss one or two worms on a 
plant, and before you are aware of it the plant is nearly 
eaten up. When you find a worm, take hold of it with 
the thumb and fore-finger, giving your thumb that peculiar 
twist which none but those who are practised in it know' 
how to do, and put the proper amount of pressure on, and 
my word for it you will render his wormship harmless. 
Worming must be continued until the tobacco is cut; the 
last worming to im mediately precede cutting and housing. 
Topping.— The tobacco is ready to top when the but¬ 
ton (as the blossom or top of the stalk is called) has put 
out sufficiently to be taken hold of, without injury to the 
top leaves. As tobacco is not regular in coming into 
blossom, it is the usual practice to let those stalks that 
blossom first, run a little beyond their time of topping, and 
then top all that is in button as you go. There is no par¬ 
ticular hight to top at, but, as a general thing, sixteen to 
eighteen leaves are left; judgment is necessary to deter¬ 
mine where to top; if topped too high, two or three of 
the leaves are so small as not to amount to much; if 
topped low, the tobacco spreads better. If just coming 
out in top, reach down among the top leaves, and with 
thumb and fore-finger pinch the top or button off below 
two or three leaves ; if well out in top, break off several 
inches from the button and four or five leaves below it. 
Suckeking. —As soon as the tobacco is topped, the suck¬ 
ers begin to grow ; one shoots out from the stalk at the 
root of each leaf, on the upper side. When the top suck¬ 
ers are from three to four inches long, the suckering 
should be done. With the right hand take hold of the 
top sucker, with the left take hold of the next 
close to the stalk, and break them off, and so proceed, 
using both hands, stooping over the stalk, taking care not 
to injure the leaf. Break the suckers about half-way 
down the stalk, the balance being too short to need re¬ 
moving until the second suckering. In about two weeks 
from topping, the tobacco is ready to cut; now give it the 
last worming and suckering, breaking all suckers off 
down to the ground, and remove every worm, if you don’t 
want your tobacco eaten in the sheds. 
Cutting and Housing. —As a general rule, tobacco 
should be cut in about two weeks from topping, at which 
time the leaves assume a spotted appearance and appear 
to have fulled up thicker : double up the leaf and press it 
together with thumb and finger, and, if ready to cut, the 
leaf where pressed, will break crisp and short. Do not 
let your tobacco get over-ripe or it will cure up yellow 
and spotted; it is better to cut too soon than too late. 
Take a hatchet or short corn-knife, grasp the stalk with 
the left hand, bend it well to the left, so as to expose the 
lower part of the stalk, strike with knife just at the surface 
of the ground, let the stalk drop over on the ground with¬ 
out doubling the leaves under, and leave it to wilt. The 
usual practice is to worm 
and sacker while the dew 
is on in the morning, and 
as soon as the dew is off, 
to commence cutting. 
There are some who ad¬ 
vocate to cut in the after¬ 
noon, say three o’clock, 
let it wilt and lie out un¬ 
til the dew is off next day, 
and take it in before the 
sun gets hot enough to 
burn it. I prefer the first 
plan, because a heavy dew 
may fall on the tobacco, 
and next day be cloudy, 
leaving tile tobacco wet 
and unpleasant to handle. 
After cutting allow the to¬ 
bacco to wilt long enough 
to make the leaves tough, 
so that they can be hand¬ 
led without tearing. Great 
care is now necessary to 
keep the tobacco from 
sun-burning; the cutting 
should be commenced as 
soon as the dew is off, and 
all that is cut should be 
housed by eleven o'clock, unless it is cloudy; from eleven 
to two o’clock the direct rays of the sun on tobacco, after 
it is cut, will burn the leaves in twenty minutes ; after 
two, as a general thing, there is no danger of such burn¬ 
ing, the sun’s rays not striking direct on the tobacco. 
Have a wagon at hand, with stiff boards twelve feet long 
laid on the running gears: as soon as the tobacco is wilted 
so that it can be handled without breaking, commence 
loading on both sides of the wagon on the front end, lap¬ 
ping the tobacco the same as loading fodder, keeping the 
butts on both sides—build about two feet high, and so on 
until loaded. 
Tobacco Barn. —Mine is 50 by 33 feet, with 18 feet 
posts; the tiers are four and a half feet apart. I hang 
four full tiers of tobacco, and hang between the purlin 
plates in the comb, a half-tier ; the bents of the frame 
are 16% feet apart. I hang on four-feet sticks made of 
hickory, rived one-half inch by IK inches, shaved and 
tapered at one end to enter an iron socket ; I have 
sawed sugar-tree scantlings 16% feet long, 3 by 4 inches 
thick, for the ends of the sticks to rest on and meet in the 
centre of the rail, IK inches resting on it. Some use 
sawed lath to hang on, but the split and shaved are far 
preferable. Hanging on fence-rails with twine is going 
out of use, as it should. I use my barn to store wheat 
and barley, threshing just before tobacco-hanging. My 
barn will hang about seven acres of good tobacco. 
Housing Tobacco. —The tobacco being brought to the 
barn, should be unloaded on a platform or bench conven¬ 
ient for handling. An iron socket, about 6 inches long, 
% by IK inches at the big end, tapering to a sharp point, 
is necessary ; the sticks should be shaved so as to fit the 
socket as near as possible, but do not bring the stick to a 
sharp point, or it will not lie firmly on the rail. Have a 
IK inch hole bored three inches deep in the barn-post, 
three feet from the ground or floor ; let the hole be bored 
slanting down a little, so that the socket end of the lath 
may be the highest; put the end of the stick that is not 
tapered into this hole and the socket on the lath; take 
hold of a stalk with the right hand, about one foot from 
the butt end, bring it against the point of the socket, six 
inches from the butt of the stalk, grasp the butt with the 
left hand, and give the right hand a firm, quick jerk, to 
start the stalk to split; then, with both hands, pull it back 
against the post, and so on until you have the stick full. 
The stalks should not be crowded on the sticks ; four or 
five inches apart is close enough; eight or nine large 
stalks are enough for a ibur-foot stick. Having filled the 
stick, remove the socket, lay your slick of tobacco on the 
floor, and go on sticking until the load is all stuck; or it 
is a good plan to have rails laid on the lower tie, and 
hang for the present as you stick. While one or two 
hands are hanging one load, another may be in the field 
bringing in another. In hanging, have a single block and 
half-inch rope, with a hook at one end ; secure the block 
near where you hang, place the hook in the centre of the 
stick of tobacco, and let the man on the floor draw it up 
to the one who hangs. There should be a stout pine 
board, two inches thick, fifteen inches wide, and long 
enough to reach from tie to tie ; this should be placed 
under where you hang, to walk on. When the tobacco 
is hoisted up, take it off the hook, and walk to the farther 
end of the board; have your rail placed to receive the 
stick, and so continue until the rails are full, then move 
the board and block to another place, and so continue. 
A sixteen-foot rail will hang about twenty-four laths; 
eight inches apart is about the distance to place the laths 
of tobacco on the rails ; if too much crowded, the to¬ 
bacco will house-burn. Care should be used never to let 
a load of tobacco lie long on the wagon, or in a pile, as it 
sweats and heats, and is soon ruined. Always keep the 
tobacco cool. After it is housed, keep the doors open 
day and night, so that it may have the benefit of the 
warm and dry air, for the purpose of curing, closing the 
doors against high winds and beating rains. When cured 
keep the doors closed. 
' Stripping. —When the tobacco is sufficiently cured to 
strip, which will be after it has been well frozen and 
dried out, you will have to watch for it to get “in case” 
for handling ; when a warm, wet, misty spell of weather 
comes, throw open the doors to allow the tobacco to take 
the damp. When the stems of the leaves are so limber 
that they will not snap, and the leaves are pliable, but not 
too wet, take down a sufficient quantity to strip for two 
or three days ; take it off the sticks, make a temporary 
crib of boards about four feet wide, and bulk the tobacco 
in it, laying the tops in, butts out, next the boards. After 
you have made your bulk, cover with an old carpet, 
boards, or anything else handy, to keep it from getting 
too damp, or from drying out. Care should be taken that 
the bulk does not heat; if the stalks are wet, or there is 
any uncured tobacco, forty-eight hours is sufficient to 
spoil the tobacco. During the Winter there are generally 
several tobacco seasons, and by improving them the 
stripping can all be done before March. Having the bulk 
down, we now proceed to strip for market; lay a pile of 
the tobacco on a bench or platform about two feet high, 
and let the most careful and handy man take a stalk in 
his left hand, give it a shake to make the leaves hang out 
free, then pick off four or five of the bottom or ground 
leaves, and any badly torn or diseased leaves, and all 
such as are not considered prime ; do not put any frosted 
or “fat" leaves in, as it spoils the tobacco; pass the 
stalk that is primed to the stripper, and let him take off 
the prime leaves. Take off one leaf at a time, keeping 
them straight in the hand ; when a sufficient number are 
taken off to make what is called a hand of tobacco, take a 
leaf in the right hand, put the thumb of the left hand on 
the end of the leaf, about ong inch from the butt of 
the hand or bunch, and pass the leaf around once or 
twice ; an inch is wide enough for the hand ; open the 
hand of tobacco in the centre, pass the end of the leaf 
through and draw it tight, then squeeze the hand together 
and lay it down, keeping the leaves straight. An inch 
and a half in diameter is large enough for a hand. When 
a sufficient quantity is stripped to commence bulking, 
make two places to bulk in, one for prime and one for 
ground leaf; let the space be according to the quantity of 
tobacco to bulk. A bulk 3% feet high and 20 feet long, 
will hold ten boxes, or about four thousand lbs. of prime 
tobacco ; the sides of the bulk must not be inclosed, but 
left open, so that the butts can dry out; at each end ot 
the bulk put a bulkhead of boards to build against, about 
three feet wide and four feet high ; secure this upright 
and firm ; do not build on the ground, but on a platform 
or floor. Commence at one end against the bulkhead, 
take one hand of tobacco at a time, straighten and 
smooth it, and lay it on the floor at one side of the hulk : 
take another as above, press it against the first, and so 
proceed to lay the length of the bulk ; then turn and lay 
down the other side of the bulk, letting the ends of the 
tobacco lap over the first row about four inches, and 
so repeat, keeping the buts even. After one or two 
