326 
MAY 26 
^fitllr Crop. 
CONNECTICUT TOBACCO. 
From the earliest settlement of the colony, | j, 
tobacco sewns to have been grown to a greater t 
or less extent. In the earlier stages of its cul- v 
ture it was grown merely for the personal use of ] 
the grower and his family, for—he it said with ( 
all charity—the male portion of the family were £ 
not, in all instances, tho only consumers of the t 
<• weed,” for we find that the gentle sox also < 
were often addicted to the solacing influences f 
of the fumes of burnt tobacco drawn through a <• 
clay pipe, when such could he afforded; while in i 
its absence, a piece of corn cob was used with a c 
stem extemporized from a stick of elder, or a 
quill from the universal quill wheel. After a t 
while it was grown in a large way, generally with c 
the object of soiling the surplus, for which there ; 
was little domurnl even at a low prico. Where l 
the crop was not sold, much, or alL of it was j 
made into cigars, very frequently by the farmer's t 
wife, daughter or other female help, during tho a 
long, cold winters, or at any other season of J 
leisure. This tobacco, he it remembered, was i 
not “ cured ” according to present idoas, but * 
usually made up the season following its growth, < 
when the curing prccoss should have been in , 
progress. The cigars lirst made were tv con- ; 
glomeration of paste ftud tobacco, and were of ] 
the poorest sort, compared with those of to-day. i 
The manufacturer, however, had then the ad- j 
vantage that there was no revenue tax on either ; 
raw material or manufactured article, and lie i 
was glad to sell them at ft shilling a box holding 
a hundred. Millions of cheap, inferior cigars 
resulted from this crude method of manufacture, j 
Neither assorting, steading nor packing, as now 
performed, was in those days attempted, the 
custom being to toss thorn into bar rels, old tea , 
chests, or any other convenient receptacle, and 
seud them on their travels. Tlio raw materials 
was often sold as low, or lower, than two dollars 
per hundred pounds to speculators, aud, at that 
small price, those sometimes found that they had 
an “elephant" on their hands. 
In the year 1801 a plug-tobacco manufactory 
was started in the town of East Windsor in the 
hope of thereby furnishing a home market for a 
much larger production, and that in time its 
owners would become successful rivals of the 
tobacco manufacturers of Virginia. But this 
enterprise proved a failure, although experienced 
and skilled laborers were imported and employed. 
Yet it was destined to bo productive of good to 
the tobacco interests of the seotion, as it resulted 
in the improvement aud more extended manu¬ 
facture ol' cigars, for winch, in later years, 
Warehouse Point aud Sufliold became so noted. 
Some thirty or forty years ago. a Mr. John 
Moody, who frequently dealt largely in Connec¬ 
ticut tobacco and cigars, concieved tho idea of 
using Connecticut tobacco for wrappers, and 
Havaua tobacco for tillers. Mr. Moody, at a 
certain time, found himself possessed of several 
tons of tho Connecticut tobacco which he had 
bought of producers at two cents per pound. 
Not knowing how to get the ' elephant ” off his 
hands, he went to Now York aud there found an 
old acquaintance, a cigar manufacturer, who had 
an almost unlimited quantity of Havana tobacco 
on hand, without suitable wrappers. Mr. M. 
proposed that this acquaintance sliquid use the 
Connecticut leaf for the wrappers by which 
means ho could work up his llavaua tobacco. 
The idea was adopted and Mr. Moody unloaded 
his elephant at eight cents per pound, thus mak¬ 
ing a now opening tor Connecticut leaf which 
has since grown to he the most noted tobacco of 
the Continent, as tine wrapper leaf, and is in de¬ 
mand, the world over, for the purpose. 
The culture of tobacco, for many years up to 
1872, was one of uninterrupted success, many 
agricultural towns in tho Connecticut River 
Valley by this moans increasing their wealth 
very largely, often doubling it, and more, in the 
course of a decade of years. The late civil war 
cut off the production in Virginia and some of 
the other tobacco-producing States. This, by 
causing a large advance in prices, stimulated to 
a greatly increased production. Very much of 
it however was grown by inexperienced labor 
aud on soil not particularly adapted to the pro¬ 
duction of the linest leaf and best quality. This 
together with the imposition of a Government 
tax and the restoration of its growth in other 
tobaceo-producing .States, aetiug with other 
causes, lias produced a depression of the tobacco 
interest in Connecticut. 
Ou looking over this subject, and considering 
it in all its bearings, the question arises:—How 
cau the prestige of the Connecticut leaf tobacco 
be restored and sustained ? There can be bnt 
one answer to this question, all important to 
many producers, and that is: “ Unless the crop 
we grow commands our best attention and main- 
, tains a high standard of excellence in quality, 
we are by no means sure of a paying return for 
the labor expended.” Fine wrapper leaf requires 
a peculiar soil and careful as well as thorough 
culture in order to he of extra quality. The 
soil for the bust product does not iuelude every 
acre on every farm throughout tho whole State, 
it is only the choice, peculiar soils that grow the 
finest leaf. It would seem from statistics and 
information gleaned from many quarters that 
the production of low-grade tobacco, beyontk 
what can he possibly avoided, is, aud will be, a 
losing or unprofitable business. 7 he people of 
Connecticut cannot compete with others in pro¬ 
ducing shipping tobacco, and none of low grade 
must bo produced if it can possibly be avoided. 
Germany baa been a large customer for tobacco [ 
from the United States. From 1872 she has also 
obtained considerable supplies from British i 
India at prices ranging from 8 1-10 cents, to 3% j 
cents per pound. 
For a great number of yews Virginia stood at 
tho head of the tobacco producing States for 
certain qualities, and tins prestige she still main¬ 
tains. Not content with this measure of success, 
however, sho has begun to think of adding cigar 
tobacco t'j her present productions. Should the 
enterprise be entered upon, Connecticut leaf 
will find a formidable rival to contend with. 
Favored with a more congenial climate and hav¬ 
ing a noil some portions of which arc as well 
adapted to this kind of tobacco as the best in 
Connecticut, crops may be produced there, aB 
successfully, if not more so than in the Connec¬ 
ticut Valley. The greatest drawback against 
hex in the competition lies in her lack of skilled 
and careful laborers. In Connecticut lh<* farmer, 
himself, manages and performs a large part of 
the work on tho crop, or, at any rate, it is done 
under his immediate supervision, whereas iu 
Virginia, it is left in a great measure to laborers 
who have no particular interest iu the crop 
beyond receiving their wages, and as their 
judgment and executive ability are often at 
fault, results must be less perfect than is the 
cases where intelligent, interested labor is em¬ 
ployed. W. W. H. 
TESTIMONY AGAINST BERMUDA GRASS. 
At tho last meeting of the Academy of Sci¬ 
ences, J. It. Scuphani, Assistant Engineer of tho 
Central Pacific Railroad Company, read tho fol¬ 
lowing paper on certain grasses which have been 
recently introduced into California: 
The zeal for the introduction of now plauts 
into a country, when not tempered by judgment, 
often results in much mischief and trouble to tho 
agriculturist. 
Many plants that are Introduced at first by ac¬ 
cident. are encouraged and cultivated a while, 
for their novelty, when a just appreciation of 
their character would lead us to fight and destroy 
them before they hud secured a foothold on the 
soil. 
Perhaps no class of plants is more insidious in 
this respect, than the grarninea. To tho Cali¬ 
fornian, thirsting for green lawns or forage 
plants, anything in t he shape of grass seems ac¬ 
ceptable. But I desire bore to utter a word of 
warning specially against, somo members of this 
family. 
I would first call attention to tho Cyperus- 
hydra or *• nut grass,” though this plant is not ft 
grass proper. This species of sc-dge has been in¬ 
troduced in some manner into the country about 
Los Angeles. 11 is a native of the West.Indies, 
where it is reported to have overrun sugar plan¬ 
tations, and to have rendered them barren. 
This troublesome weed, if let alone, will spread 
rapidly, as its tuberous roots, in alluvial soil, 
strike very deep aud enable it to withstand the 
dryness of our climate. 
I have noticed lately that some newspapers 
have received samples of Bermuda grass, Cyno- 
don dactylon, and are advocating its culture. 
In my opinion this grass is already far too widely 
disseminated in California. The Cynodon dao- 
tylon is the “ doub” grass of India, aud is re¬ 
garded as sacred by tho Hindoos ou account ot 
its Phoenix-like or indestructible qualities. 
It was first received in California by the State 
Agricultural Society in exchange with au agri¬ 
cultural society in the East Indies, iu about the 
year I85C or 1857. The Secretary of tho State 
Agricultural Society gave some samples of the 
seed to his friends in Sacramento for the purpose 
of testing it. It grew readily from tho seed and 
the flood of lSiU and 1802 spread it over the bot¬ 
tom lauds below Sacramento, aud it is now a 
great nuisance in the gardens of that city, where 
it is known as 44 witch grass.” Its habit of 
growth is low and creeping, making joints every 
half or three-quarters of an inch, sending up 
from these joints small leaves, and from these 
joiuts also sending roots down 60 that, iu 
favorable soil, a small portion taking root 
will spread in every direction. It sends up a 
single stem or culm without leaves to the bight 
of four or five inches, from which three small 
brunches are sent out; these three small 
branches are the spikvleta that bear the seeds. 
It grows readily from the Beed or from any 
part of the plant containing a joint, or from any 
particle of the root. When a space of ground is 
completely covered with it. (and it soon makes a 
thick mat) it then sends its shoots out into the 
air, they fall down on the other shoots attached 
to the ground and make a tangled mass. When 
it once takes possession of a piece of ground it is 
almost impossible to eradicate It. It will grow 
under trees in an orchard and make a thick mat 
about their roots. It appears to live under al¬ 
most any tree except tho willow and eucalyptus; 
they being surface feeders exhanBt tho soil of 
the substances that appear to be a necessary for j 
this plant. Should any of the seeds fall into the | 
crevices of a brick side-walk, even one that is i 
constantly traveled upon, it will send its shoots : 
under the bricks aud lift thorn from their places. I 
It. even defies quantities of salt, which will kill 
almost all other plants. 
This grass is so short, and grows so low to the 
ground that it would make a beautiful lawn if it 
was not that the slightest frost, coming after it 
bad started in the spring, turns it to a dirty 
brown, and it remains in that condition the re¬ 
mainder of the season. Horses are especially 
fond of it; cattle oat it, readily, and hcnco will 
leave almost any other plant to feed upon it. 
Still it is of little value as a forage grass, for the 
reason that it never grows sufficiently tall to he 
cut for hay. 11 has been thoroughly tried in the 
Southern States, and has there been used suc¬ 
cessfully to keep embankments and levees firm, 
hut it has been found a great nuisance in t he ad¬ 
joining plantations, of which it soon obtains par¬ 
tial possession, and the owners of which are com¬ 
pelled to wftge constant war against its encroach¬ 
ments. 
A gentleman in Kern county a few days since 
called my attention to it in his garden, inform¬ 
ing me that he had received a present of a new 
and beautiful variety of grass that would make a 
lawn upon tho dry plains of that county. It 
certainly looked very pretty in tho small patch 
over which it was spreading. I notified him 
that in a short time it would take possession of 
his garden and get into the rich bottom and irri¬ 
gated lands of that county, and ho as great an 
injury as it, was in tho Southern States. Tlio 
plant has no good qualities for the farmer ; it is 
not even beautiful, except, for a few months dur¬ 
ing summer. It furnishes a very stn all amount 
of food for animals, ns it cannot ho profitably 
cut and cured for hay, and, oueo getting a foot¬ 
hold, it never yields. Our farmers should be 
warned not to iutroduoo it into their gardens or 
fields. 
just because in a northern climate, like Aber¬ 
deenshire, for instance, these crops arrive at the 
greatest perfection, both of quantity and quality 
while the cooler air does not agree with the con¬ 
stitution of the mangel. In tho far North, safe 
aud splendid swede crops contrast with poorer 
and more risky mangel crops. In the South a 
precisely opposite rule holds good. 
Such beiug the case, tho wonder is that more 
mangel is not sown. As a sheep food it is, we 
know, inferior to swedes, aud this is perhaps the 
principal reason why its cultivation remains re¬ 
stricted in our great sheep-farming districts. 
For bullocks it is fully equal to swedes, if used 
judiciously, and at the present, time of year, and 
later, it is decidedly superior. Bwodes are, of 
course, wanted in their season, and so also are 
whito turnips, hut for all that we wonder that a 
larger breadth of mangel is not sown in those 
districts where it may be depended upon. 
Successful mangel cultivation commences with 
tho preparation of the land, as immediately after 
the removal of the previous wheat crop as may 
be. It is too late to insist upon tho importance 
of autumn cleaning and the deep winter furrow, 
but those who seized time by tho forelock aud 
secured these inestimable advantages will now 
have reason to rejoice. Better still will be the 
I position of those who ridged up, dunged, and 
s'plit their ridges last November, and can now 
afford to wait until favorable weather tempts 
them to BOW. Their ridges will he fine mold to 
the very heart, aud all that they now require 
will be a light harrowing, re-forming with the 
plow, and for manure, dung supplemented with 
2 cwt. of guano, together with 5 cwt. of salt 
broadcasted over the ridges before, splitting, and 
finally 3 cwt. of superphosphate drilled iu with 
the seed, is a good collective application. 
As to the salt, some little doubt has been 
thrown upon its manorial value, even for this 
crop; but it, no doubt, conduces to the growth of 
mangel, especially when applied to light soils. 
The season exerts a very considerable effect upon 
the action of all manures, and common salt will 
he found most effective in dry and hot seasons. 
It is true that Mr. Lawes, some years ago, de¬ 
clared somewhat against IbO use of salt as a 
manure for mangel; hut it must be remembered 
that Rothamfited is a somewhat stiff soil, and 
also, what is equally important, that Dr. Voelck- 
er’s experiments showed a decided advantage 
from tho use of salt for mangel upon light laud 
in Oxfordshire. 
MANGEL WURZEL. 
Among the root crops, raised for feeding stock 
in Europe, Mangel-Wurzel hold a very prominent 
place, and their cultivation is yearly becoming 
more extensive, In this country, on the lauds of 
intelligent, and consequently progressive far¬ 
mers. This root (Beta altissima ) is a variety of 
the beet, though much larger and coarser than 
tho common sorts. Its leaves afford a very 
nutritions food for ail kind of lire stock, and Its 
roots are exceedingly sweet, and are considered 
as among the very best kinds of food for cattle 
iu winter. In the quantity of nourishment, 
weight for weight, which they contain, other 
crops exceed them, but tho produce, per aero, of 
this root is much greater. It lias been closely 
calculated that 18 tons of mangel-wurzel are 
oqnal to 15 tons of Swcedish turnips, V/ t tons of 
potatoes or 4VI tons of good English hay, each 
quantity containing the same amount of nourish¬ 
ment. But while these roots may bo grown ou a 
single acre of ground properly cultivated, every 
farmer knov.s that a much larger area is usually 
needed to produce an equivalent amount of hay. 
Of this plant the Agricultural Gazette, Eng., 
says that it thrives better than swedes upon 
lands of moderate stiff ness, yields a heavier 
crop, is k-SS affected by drought. less sub¬ 
ject to insect attack or disease, aud is not 
so dependout upon a fine tilth. The swede, in¬ 
deed, runs a terrible risk of failure when it 
struggles into existence from among little dry 
clods ou some blazing day of mid-June—just the 
day to make the turnip fly (skip for joy. Tho 
prospect of the weakly seedling ever arriving at 
that mature size required, sav, for making a tur¬ 
nip-lantern, is remote indeed. Its first two 
loaves arc immediately pitted, perforated, aud 
oonsumed; or if it has the luck to escape such 
utter destruction, have wo not all seen the brown 
ridges upon which it is sown remain, week after 
week, with but little verdure clad ? Not so the 
mangels. They arc sown at a cooler and moister 
period, and when the heat of midsummer arrives, 
although their broad leaves may flag a little in 
the sultry afternoons, in the morning they are 
crisp and vigorous again, and the roots swell 
amain. 
Mangel and its more important relative, the 
! sugar-beet, are grown over vast areas of Central 
and Southern Europe, where tho swede or turnip 
could not stand the climate—a fact which indi¬ 
cates the suitability of mangel for tho drier and 
wanner districts of England. It may ho ob¬ 
served that as wo travel north wards turnips aud 
swedes rise iu favor in comparison with mangel, 
Jann (Economi). 
ENGLISH FARM-YARDS. 
Perhaps the first object in an English barn¬ 
yard to arrest tho attention of an American 
observer would be the appearance of the stack- 
barton. Every hay-stack is neatly raked and 
pulled by hand, so as to present a firm front to 
the weather; the bottom is beveled out with a 
hay-knife to the extent of three or four feet, 
and the top surmounted by a tapering and pic¬ 
turesque covering of haulm sufficient to with¬ 
stand tho heaviest rain-storm and effectually 
resist the inclemencies of winter. The grain- 
staoks (English agriculturists seldom preserve 
their produce in covered barns, as is the custom 
her e) are, for tho most part, constructed ou an 
elevated staddle, supported at tho four angles 
by hewn stone pilllars, surmounted by caps of 
the same material, hut of much greater diam¬ 
eter, so as to prevent rata aud other vermin, 
that cannot progress in an inverted position, 
from getting into the mow. Those, too, are 
protected by a covering of haulm, and remain 
iu position until a convenient time arrives for 
threshing, which operation is performed by an 
itinerant fraternity, as in this country, though 
almost invariably by steam power. 
One of the greatest stack-yard conveniences — 
indeed, in a climate so noted for its changeabil¬ 
ity, an almost indispensable adjunct —is the 
patent “ Rick Cover,” an appliance calculated, in 
souio degree, to obviate tho ill effects of summer 
rain-storms. These articles are made of various 
sizes, to suit every requirement, the covering 
being of waterproof canvas, suspended, teut- 
wiso upon a cross-bar pendent between two 
uprights. The whole is elevated aud kept iu 
position by means of pulleys, the operation of 
erecting or taking down occupying but a few 
minutes, while the canvas can be raised or low¬ 
ered at will, as the progress of the stack neces¬ 
sitates. 
Another noticeable feature is the bains and 
outbuildings—solid structures of brick or lime¬ 
stone, covered by a roofing of tile or slate. 
Those also present, if not a handsome, at least a 
trim appearance, tho doors aud wood-work 
being neutly painted, and the approaches well 
stoned and free from filth. Among many land- 
owners a custom prevails of painting the out¬ 
buildings, gates, aud fences, ou their different 
estates, of one uniform color, so that persons 
cognizant of the fact may tell, at a glance, to 
