time to set out this second crop, and they will then mature sufficiently 
for seed before frost. 
TOBACCO CULTURE AND FERTILIZATION. 
The methods of tobacco culture and curing are so various that it will 
be impossible, in a short article, to give any directions that will be of 
general use. The preparation of the soil for the crop, and its subsequent 
cultivation, and the* curing of the crop, all vary with the region and the 
kind of tobacco that is grown; and to some extent, the fertilization will 
also vary with these different conditions. For the growing of the heavy 
dark leaf, a soil abounding in humus, and on which a growth of legumes 
has been buried, is essential, while for the golden leaf tobacco, a smaller 
amount of nitrogenous matter, is needed; but no matter what kind of to¬ 
bacco is grown, there is one requisite for all, anl this is potash in an avail¬ 
able form. All growers understand the need for an abundance of potash 
for this crop, but it is not so generally known that the form in which 
the potash is supplied is more important than the potash itself. Farmers 
are too ready to assume that a low price per ton means cheap potash, and 
hence when they want potash, and see that kainit in the crude state is of¬ 
fered at about one-fourth the price of the muriate and high grade sulphate, 
that it is the cheaper form, they do not reflect that the market price is 
based upon the amount of actual potash which the article contains. 
As the potash salts are all imported from Germany, the price at the 
seaboard is nearly uniform for the potash contained in each. But when 
the salts are shipped to the interior, the cost of the potash in each 
form rapidly changes by reason of freight charges. It costs just as much 
to freight a ton of kainit, containing 12 per cent, of potash, as it does to 
freight a ton of muriate or sulphate containing 50 per cent, of potash. Any 
one, then, can see that the potash in the kainit rapidly becomes more 
costly than that in the concentrated forms; but this increase in price is not 
the chief reason why tobacco-growers especially should avoid the use of 
the crude salts of potash. Kainit has associated with it a very large per 
centage of the chloride of sodium (common salt). If this is applied 
to the tobacco crop, it will result in serious damage to the market value 
of the leaf, as it is well known that the chlorides are injurious to tobacco, 
particularly to that which is to be burned. This will be noticed to a less 
extent when the muriate is used; but the muriate is still a chloride, and 
to be safe, the chlorides should be entirely avoided, and potash should 
be applied to the tobacco crop only in the shape of sulphate. There 
are two forms, too, of the sulphate, one of which has about 30 per cent, 
of potash, while the other or high grade has 50 per cent. It is always 
a matter of economy to buy the high grade sulphate, and if anyone offers 
sulphate or potash at a particularly low price, you may be sure that it 
is the low grade, and that if far in the interior, the low price is only ap¬ 
parent, and that the actual potash costs more than in the higher priced 
high grade. The most complete fertilizer experiments on record are 
those of the late Major Ragland, for the Virginia Station, and those 
made at the North Carolina Station. In the Virginia experiments, it 
was found that the form in which the nitrogen was applied, had as 
important a bearing upon the profit of the crop as the form of the potash, 
and that the organic nitrogen from dried blood gave by far the best 
results. The greatest profit per acre was where the soil was fertilized 
with the following mixture per acre: 
37 
