THE CULTIVATOR. 
8 ® 
REUBEN M’MILLEN S PATENT CAST IRON BEAM PLOW.— (Fig. 29} 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker.— Having purchased the exclusive right of making and vending the above j "'ow 
for the Counties of Albany, Schenectady, Columbia, Rensselaer and Washington, we take the liberty of forwarding 
you a cut of the same. It consists of four pieces of iron, exclusive of the handles or handle, as the purchaser may 
choose, which are of wood. It is so put together by grooves and dovetails, that one small wedge of wood holds 
the whole firmly and permanently together. The beam and land side are cast in one piece, except a small heel piece 
which is so constructed that it can easily and cheaply be replaced when worn out. The share and coulter are in 
one piece, and when worn out can be replaced with as little trouble and expense as any other. The mold board is 
in one piece, and is not exceeded by that of any plow extant for neatness and smoothness in turning a furrow. 
(For further information, see advertisement.) ANTHONY & MORRISON. 
Troy, Feb. 14, 1844. 
TOBACCO IN CONNECTICUT. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker— East Windsor has for 
a long time been as celebrated for its distilleries and to¬ 
bacco as Weathersfield for its state prison and onions, 
and manufactures daily as many bushels of the staff of 
life into the soul and body destroying poison, gin, as 
the states prison numbers convicts. We grow in this 
town annually about three hundred tons of tobacco, and 
in the Valley of the Connecticut about five hundred tons 
are grown annually. The yield the last year was less 
than usual, 1,500 pounds being about the average per 
acre. The price of tobacco the last season of a fair 
growth was 7 cts. a pound, and most of the crop was sold 
before housed and cured. We have two varieties of the 
weed, the broad leaf and the narrow leaf—the latter is 
about two weeks the earliest. 
It seems our tobacco is of a peculiar species, or our 
soil and climate are peculiarly adapted for the production 
of a superior article. 
The soil that produces our best tobacco is a light san¬ 
dy loam. We prepare our beds for the seed as early in 
April as possible—select the richest or best land in the 
garden or on the farm, moist but not wet—manure and 
prepare it as we do for the cultivation of cabbage or any 
delicate plant for transplanting—pulverize, and make the 
bed as fine and smooth as possible; then sow the seed 
broad cast about as thick as we do cabbage seed; then 
roll or tread down the bed thoroughly, that the seed may 
be 'pressed into the soil. The bed is kept clean of weeds. 
In a common season the plants will be large enough for 
transplanting by the 10th of June. The land for the 
crop should be well manured and plowed at least twice 
before the time of transplanting, and harrowed and rolled 
or bushed, and left as smooth as possible. We mark the 
rows three feet apart and straight; on the rows we make 
small hills for the reception of the plants, 2 feet to 2 feet 
6 in. apart. We have our land all prepared by the time 
the plants are large enough for transplanting. If raining 
at the time, we take the advantage of it and get all our 
plants out; if not we set and water. After this, the field 
is examined several times, and where plants are dry or 
injured by worms others are set in. As soon as they 
stand well they are carefully hoed and vacant places filled 
with new plants—after this the cultivator is used between 
the rows and the crop kept clean with the hoe. The 
plants are frequently and thoroughly examined for the- 
tobacco worms, and they must be destroyed; if not the 
crop, is sure to be. When in blossom, and before the for¬ 
mation of seed, it is topped about 32 inches from the 
ground, leaving from 16 to 20 leaves on each stalk. Af¬ 
ter this the suckers at each leaf are broken off, and the 
plants kept clean till cut. When ripe, the time of cut¬ 
ting, the leaf is spotted, thick, and will crack when 
pressed between thumb and finger. It is cut any time 
in the day after the dew is off, left in the row till wilted, 
then turned, and if there is a hot sun it is often turned to 
prevent burning; after wilted it is put into small heaps 
of 6 or 8 plants, then carted to the tobacco sheds for 
hanging. We usually use poles or rails about 12 feet 
long; hang with twine about 40 plants on each rail—20 
each side, by crossing the twine from the plants one side 
to the plants the other, the rails about 12 inches apart. 
It hangs from six to ten weeks to get perfectly cured, 
which is known by the stem of the leaf being thorough¬ 
ly dried. It is then, in a damp time, when the leaves 
will not crumble, taken from the poles and placed in large 
piles by letting the tops of the plants lap each other, 
leaving the butts of the plants out. It remains in these 
heaps from 3 to 10 days before it is stripped, depending 
on the state of the weather, but must not be allowed to 
heat. When stripped it is made into small hands; the 
small and broken leaves should be kept by themselves. 
It is then by the purchaser packed in boxes of about 400 
pounds, and marked seed leaf tobacco. The most of our 
last crop has been shipped to Bremen. 
I think we can cultivate one acre of tobacco with the 
same labor and expense that we can two acres of com 
that produces 60 bushels to the acre, and the manure re¬ 
quired is about the same as for the corn crop, and I do 
not think it exhausts the land as much as the corn crop, 
for it is not allowed to seed. Henry Watson. 
East Windsor, Jan. 22, 1844. 
We have been presented with a scythe from the 
manufactory of Messrs. Taylor, Hitchcock & Co., of 
Wayne, Maine. It is, to appearance, an excellent arti¬ 
cle, and from the representations of Messrs. Breck & 
Co. of Boston, and others, by whom the scythes from 
this establishment have been sold, we have no doubt 
that they will be found satisfactory to purchasers. 
