How to Raise it Me SK sand. How to Make it Pay. t How to grow and cure—Flues and flue curing—Selections of seed—Varietios for specific t ypes—Varietie suited for the various types—Hybridizing—Preparation of plant beds—Mulehing; and covering—A. standing plant bed—Present status of the various leaf types in the markets—Selection of soil, &e Fertilizers for to- bacco—Planting—Cultivating—Pruning and topping—Cut worms and bud worms—Worming and suckering— Ripening—Cutting and housing—Sun cured—Curing sweet fillers with flues—To cure mahogany eolor— Shipping tobaceo—Curing bright yellow tobacco—The new method of curing—Thejgcience of curing yellow: i tobaceco—Ripening of tobacco—Changes induced by flue girsing—Ondoring—Shijotha—Packing, 4 Price, 25 cents. FOR SALG BY THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. Published by R: L. RAGLAND SEED COFIPANY, : HYCO, Halifax County, Virginia. 1895. n Ly THE | ARGEST... INTHE SOUTH. Wood & Sons, © RICHMOND, VA. @ Seeds a Plants for the Farm. @ Garden. HIGH GRADE SEEDS of every kindand variety + FALL CATALOGUE issued about September ‘Ist. required by the’ Farmer and Gardener. fs ne tions, &c., of Seed Wheat and other Seeds for sawing ‘ILLUSTRATED, ANNUAL CATALOGUE issued — Current’ prices ‘of GRASS and Ciover SEEns, about. January Ist, gives. prices, descriptions, and Srep Gratin, and other Fizip Sieps, quoted on re- 188 eultural directions. ‘Mailed Free. , quest. Correspondence solicited. io 5 _RAGLAND'S TOBACCO =ney ALWAYS. IN STOCK. + ‘i biecte to... ohe Southern Pla nter ° BSTABLISHED 1840. J. F. JACKSON, Editor and Gent! Manager. ‘Teweted to Agriculture, | Trucking, Market+gardening, Live-stock, Poultry, Orchard and Fruit-growing. These questions are handled by prac- tical men; whilst the Editor himself is a Farmer of. twenty- -five years’ experience: Read. what some of our Subscribers say: Capt, J..A. GWALTNEY, of suey Co., ‘Va.—. Fir; JNO. A. LEE, of Lynchburg, Va— — ““T would not be without the Planter for $10.00'a “ Permit me to say I read many Northern, West- year. I have said, and do say again, that the infor- |. ern,and Southérn Farm journals, and none, in my mation I havé got "from the Planter has been worth estimation, compare. i. value, practical suggéstions ’ $600.00 to me.” .- | He: and advice with the Southern Planter.” Mr. JNO. P_ LOVE, of Albemarle Co., Va.— Mr. J. W; GAY, of Wilmington, N.. Ce “The Planter is certainly the best guide for May the Southern Planter ‘long live and prosper , * Southern farming published.” © for each copy is worth the whole year’s subscription.’ | We could.add scores of similar testimonials did space Perel Send. for sam- ple-copy and subscribe at once. Address : Subscription price only THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. $1.09 per year. Published Monthly. Cobacca. BY MAJOR R. L. RAGLAND, OF HYCO, VA. O INDUSTRY has made greater progress in new and improved varieties, implements, fixtures, methods and man- agement, than tobacco-planting during the past decade; iia , and as success therein so greatly depends upon starting Zeke: Yight and pursuing the latest improved methods and prac- e WW EU Yj [3 tices, the publishers sought and obtained from “the most =2) renowned authority on tobacco culture, Major R. L. Ragland, of Hyco, Va.,” a revision of his celebrated manual on tobacco, prepared specially for us at our request, that our ii ‘ readers may be furnished the latest, safest, and best infor- mation on tobacco culture extant. AS A MONEY CROP. ‘An examination of the quotations of prices for farm products in our prin- cipal markets, taken in connection with the cost of production, satisfies us that no crop, of which the soils of the United States are capable of producing, pays such large returns as tobacco where successfully grown and of fine quality. But it is only the best grades of. the various types which pay handsome returns, demonstrating the importance of making quality rather than quantity of most. consideration in its production, and, therefore, the purpose of the publishers im this publication is to furnish such information in regard to the growth and man- agement of the tobacco crop, as will insure a product of the highest quality and price. ‘ THE BEST RESULTS COME FROM ENLIGHTENED PROGRESSIVE EFFORTS “This is emphatically a progressive age, and he who fails to keep full abreas with the times in whatever industry he is engaged, can never expect or realize the full measure of success or honor that follows intelligent industry.”—Western Tobacco Journal, Cincinnati, O. HOW TO GROW AND CURE ALL THE TYPES. The several types of tobacco, whether for chewing, pipe-smoking, or cigars, require different soils and management to insure a product that will command an adequate return for the labor and means expended on the crop. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that the planter should know what type his lands are (1) 2 PROFITABLE FARMING. , capable of producing in the greatest perfection, and the modes and management to accomplish the best results from such choice. A deep rich soil, overlaying a red-clay subsoil, is best suited for dark, heavy shipping tobaccos. | A gravelly or sandy soil, with a red or brown subsoil, is best adapted to the production of sweet fillers and stemming tobaccos. -Alluvials and rich flats produce the best cigar stock. Experience has proved that a gray, sandy, or slaty top-soil, with a yellow porous subsoil, is best for yellow wrappers and smokers. And these grades are in such great demand, and command so much more in price than any others, that we propose, in this short treatise, to devote to them most space; for in the pro- - duction of these, the author has had most experience and success; and while the production of “brights” requires more skill and careful management, they seldom fail to make ample compensation for all the attention bestowed upon them. _ But unless the planter makes provision by building or arranging suitable barns provided with flues, or prepares charcoal, he need not expect to succeed, and had better aim at some other grade requiring less preparation, cost, and skill. Log barns, ranging from sixteen to twenty feet square, are the sizes mostly used. These should be built about twenty feet high in the body, and: covered with shingles or boards. Large logs may be used until the pen is built about seven feet high from the ground. Then if the size is twenty feet, lay off for five rooms, four feet apart, and place tier poles across to form the lower tier. Raise two logs higher all around, and put on another course of tier poles directly over the first. Then, using smaller logs (cabin size), place on three logs higher all around, laying on tier poles as before, and continue to elevate the body of the barn until you have five tiers. Then place two more logs around the plates, and the pen is ready to be roofed. You will then have a barn with five rooms and ' five tiers high. Mark you, the lower tiers are not firing tiers, but placed in the barn for the convenience of hoisting, and for storing cured tobacco when neces- sary. By this arrangement, the tiers are about three feet apart vertically, the body of the barn a cube—as high as it is wide and deep—and the whole arrange- ment conformable to the process of curing. The roof is so constructed, conform- ‘ing to the plan of the tiers below, as to contain three tiers above the joist, vary- ing in length. Such a barn will hold about six hundred and _ fifty to seven hun- dred sticks of medium tobacco, six plants to the stick. To prepare for curing brights, it must be chinked and daubed close inside and out. FLUES AND FLUE-CURING. Flues have almost entirely superseded charcoal for curing yellow tobacco, as being cheaper and better every way. The heat is more readily controlled by: the use of flues—an important item in successful curing—and the tobacco cured therewith is cleaner, brighter and sweeter than that cured with charcoal. The flue is, moreover, the best mode for applying heat in the curing process for any type of tobacco requiring the application of artificial heat, and may be used to good advantage in drying out and seasoning those types cured mainly by the sun and air, and preserving them from injury. Its use is fast “‘superseding the open ‘wood fire with its objectionable smoke,” as predicted by the writer years ago, TOBACCO. 3 é The following cut represents the “Furnace and Pipe”’ flue, more extensively used at this time than any other, and is not patented. It is cheap and reliable, easily controlled, safe, and may be relied upon to work well. Flue Curing. Cut out two or three logs from the end of the barn as represented by the brick work. Then first construct the two furnaces with brick or stone, as follows: Let ° the mouths of the furnaces project fifteen inches outward beyond the wall, and extend the furnaces about five and a half to six feet. The outer wall of the fur- naces should be about fifteen inches distant from the logs or sills of the barn. Build the walls of the furnaces eighteen inches apart and eighteen inches high, running back to fourteen inches high, and let the bottom of the flues slope upward from four to five inches. The furnaces should-be arched with brick or covered — with fire-proof stone, or No. 16 or 18 sheet iron. i Be careful to see that the furnaces at every point are so constructed as not to come in near contact with the sides or walls of the barn, lateral or vertical, and that the exits of the pipe are protected by brick or stone, as seen in the diagram. _ _ Insert ‘sheet-iron pipes on cast-iron eyes made for the purpose and placed into the ends of the furnaces, as near the tops thereof as possible. The eyes are not absolutely necessary, but they greatly protect the pipe from burning, and being fixed into the ends of the furnaces, the pipe is more readily adjusted. For a 20 by 20 feet barn use pipe eleven or twelve inches in diameter; for barn 16 by 16 feet use ten-inch pipe. Extend the pipe all around, with a gradual elevation is foot rise, and with two feet elevation. Cap the ends of the pipes with an elbow. For small barns, the pipes may be brought together midway, by a V-shaped connection into one twelve-inch return pipe, through the middle of the barn. This flue operates well, and is very popular with the planters working a small force and using only small barns, which: are better for them than large ones, and is the cheapest good flue made. Any tinner can make the pipe, and foundries and hardware stores furnish the eyes. The cost of pipe varies from five and a half to six and a half cents per pound. and ten-inch cast eyes cost about two dollars a pair, and twelve-inch eyes 4 PROFITABLE FARMING. about two dollars and fifty cents. The cost of piping for asmall barn varies from eight to ten dollars, or less. ; Patented flues cost more, and some of them are well worth the difference in the cost over the plain flue. The “Regulator” is one of the best, and costs very little more, and as a fuel-saver alone will more than compensate for difference in cost in one season’s curing. . By the use of this flue the heat is more easily under the control of the curer—the temperature being regulated at will by throwing the heat into or out of the barn. The “Regulator” is manufactured at South Boston, Va., by Jordan & Easley. | SELECTION OF SEED. There is no farm crop grown as a staple in the United States that pays better than “good” tobacco; and to grow good tobacco requires, in the first place, good seed; for good seed is at the foundation of all successful farming; and more essene tial, if possible, as regards tobacco, than in any other crop. For in this, the range _ of types, grades, and prices, are wider than in any other crop, while the seed affect Bae Stove for Flues, 2 and control all these more than any other factor. Soil, cine and management next to variety, operate to determine the character of the product. : The variety must be suited to the type which the planter intends to raise and the soil must be adapted to the type, or failure is certain. Bright yellow tobacco cannot be produced on dark rich soil, nor rich dark “ shipping” on poor gray soil; nor will the rich, coarse varieties produce fine silky yellow goods, or the ‘thin silky varieties make heavy, fat, tough export tobaccos. There has been a wonderful improvement in varieties of tobacco during the past generation—improvement by selection in the old kinds and the introduction of new varieties, with superior qualities and characteristics for every type of tobacco. None but an old fogy will continue to plant the old, unimproved varie- ties because they were his father’s or grandfather’s favorites. The world moves seeds are improved, and industries developed and advanced. Our ancestors suc- : TOBACCO. a ceeded with the varieties of tobacco they planted, when there was mainly but one type—the dark shipping—but taste and fashion change, new types are wanted and new varieties suited to these types, and planters who meet the demand are those who make the most money by tobacco planting. Where is the successful farmer who now sows the old wheats once used by his ancestors? Look at the improvement in varieties in vegetables, fruits, farm and horticultural, in the past century. Seeds, like animals, are greatly improved by propagation of selections and judicious crossing; and especially is this true as_ regards the improvement of seeds, when carried on under the most favoring con-" ditions of development as to soil, climate, and cultivation. Virginia is the home of the tobacco plant, and here it develops to the highest perfection, and, conse-’ quently, here have originated the best and finest varieties. She grows now all the types used in plug tobacco and for pipes and cigarettes; and she has some’ sixteen hundred square miles of soil suited to another type—cigar tobacco—and! these soils lie mainly in the Piedmont country, where our people are striving to compete with the West in growing grain. Here is an opportunity that ought to! be improved. _ It is a recognized fact that where any flora develops to greatest perfection,1 there is where the “best” seed can be grown. It would pay planters in the South’ and West, who grow the yellow and dark export types, to get their seeds every year from Virginia, as market gardeners get seeds from localities where the several varieties develop to greatest. perfection, rather than grow their supplies at lower cost, but under less favoring conditions, as to adaptability of soil, climate, &c. They know where to get the best, and are aware of the tendency to degeneration in seeds generally, and the importance of “a frequent recurrence to first princi- ples,” to promote healthy normal growth and maturity. Planters have no excuse for using poor seeds when pedigree seeds of all types may be so cheaply procured. The cost of tobacco seed per acre ranges from ten to twenty cents—the cost of seed of no other farm crop is so little. VARIETIES FOR SPECIFIC TYPES. We will premise by stating that only an approximate guide may be given for the selection of varieties suited to the several types. The variation in soil and climate in different localities greatly modify the selection. For what is best in ‘ some localities is not best in others; and trial, at last, must determine what is best in every case. When this is found, it is well to stick to it and plant mainly of this variety, and sparingly of others until a better is found, if possible. VARIETIES SUITED FOR THE VARIOUS TYPES. For dark, rich “shipping,” nothing has been found superior to the following: James River Blue Pryor, Lacks or Beat-All and Medley Pryor. For sweet fillers: Sweet Oronoko and Flanagan, For stemming: Long Leaf and Broad Leaf Gooch, Hester, Tuckahoe, Big Oronoko, and Lacks. . For mahogany wrappers: Tuckahoe, Sweet Oronoko, Flanagan, Primus, Long Leaf Gooch, and White Stem. For cutters: Hyco, White-stem Oronoko, Yellow Oronoko, Granville Yellow, Sterling, Lacks, Yellow Pryor, and Hester. 6 PROFITABLE FARMING. For yellow wrappers and fillers: Sterling, Primus, Granville Yellow, White- stem Oronoko, Tuckahoe, Hester, Long Leaf Gooch, Yellow Oronoko and Yellow Pryor. / : Trial will determine what variety is best for any locality, as no one variety is best for all locations. To plant varieties unsuited to the type, or on soils unadapted thereto, is to invite failure every time. The leading cigar varieties are: Connecticut and Pennsylvania Seed Leaf, Imported and American Grown Havana,.and several Spanish Strains. In localities liable to early frost it is safest to plant the earliest varieties of the several types, such as Sterling, Primus, Granville Yellow, Hyco, Hester, Sweet Oronoko and Bradley for the manufacturing types, and Havana, Big Havana, and Persian Rose for cigars. - White Burley, when grown on rich limestone soil, makes a mild type of tobacco in great favor, but this type cannot be successfully produced on silicious soils, such as are best adapted to all other leaf types; and for this reason, it has invariably proved a failure in the old leaf producing States east. Southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky produce the best grade of this type. Sweet Oronoko—the Eastern Burley—makes mild, sweet substantial chewing and smoking goods, unexcelled by Burley or any other type, when properly grown on silicious soils. sare. Hyco and Lacks cure readily and more certainly of colors desired in types for which they are recommended. Hester and Long Leaf Gooch possess greater adaptability to soils than any others, and therefore succeed where others fail. Sterling, Yellow Oronoko and Yellow Pryor are unexcelled for producing the finest Lemon Yellow goods, while Long Leaf Gooch, Tuckahoe and Hester make the finest Orange Yellow. , Bradley makes fine manufacturing and good cigars. Big Havana is the best Americanized Havana, and Persian Rose, the earliest cigar leaf, is one of the most promising foreign varieties. HYBRIDIZING. New and superior varieties are being constantly originated through hybridi- zation, and that planters may be enabled to develop and test them, the following instructions are given to aid them in efforts in this line: The bloom of the tobacco plant (see Fig. No. 2) has a monopetalous in fine dibula-formed corolla, i. e., the petals are joined as one in a funnel-formed corolla; within which are fine stamens (the male organs of the flower) adhering thereto and surrounding the pistil (the female organ), which terminates in the ovary below the nascent capsule, where the seeds are formed. The end of the stamens are capped with anthers which secrete the pol'’en or fecundating dust which is taken up by the stigma, the vascular upper end of the pistil, and thus fecundation is effected. THE MODUS OPERANDI OF HYBRIDIZING OR CROSS—FERTILIZING VARIETIES, If the pistils of the Oronoko variety are fecundatea w'th pollen from stamens of the Pryor, the cross is a hybrid-Pryor on Oronoko, an ee versa when the pistils of the Pryor are fecundated with pollen from the Oronoko, the hybrid is an Oronoko on Pryor. TOBACCO, 7 To accomplish such crosses readily, it is necessary to select blooms at the stage of inflorescence just before the corallae open; then carefully open the tube, say of the Oronoko, with a small sharp-pointed pen knife, carefully remove the stamens, then take stamens from say the Pryor bloom just before tt opens natu- rally, and insert these Pryor stamens into the corolla of the Oronoko and around the stigma thereof, and from which its own stamens had been removed, thus fer- tilizing the stigmas of the Oronoko with pollen dust of the Pryor stamens, and thereby producing a cross or hybrid Oronoko and Pryor. By the above-described mode, crosses of any varieties of the species nicotiana tabacum may be effected, and by any planter of intelligence, if directions are followed. NATURAL DEVELOPMENT AND CAREFUL PROPAGATION. Some of our best varieties are accidental crosses produced by insects carry ing the pollen from the bloom of one variety into that of another. Some again are developed by careful selection long continued with reference toward increas- ing certain desirable qualities—perpetuating and increasing the good points and “breeding out” the objectionable ones—until the highly developed plants became a new variety, sui generis, as are some of our most popular.and desirable ones now in use. The top flowers alone ought to be crossed upon, the lower or sucker branchez being removed as soon as the plant is selected for a seed plant, and then opening them in the order of their maturity, or just as they show signs of opening naturally. If the flower is allowed to open naturally self-fertilization is apt to take place before the stamens can be extracted artificially. The following cuts represent the tobacco flower in all the stages of its growth from the green bud to the fully ripened seed capsule. Fig. 1. Fig. 4. Fig. 1 represents the bud of the tobacco plant, natural size. Fig. 2 represents the flower and all the organs male and female, complete’ and natural size. Fig. 3 represents the flower magnified, with all the organs male and female, stamens and stigma, complete. . Fig. 4 represents the flower magnified, showing the male organs or stamens complete, and the stigma or female organs clipped off by tweezers. 8 PROFITABLE FARMING. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. & Fig. 5 represents the flower magnified, showing the female organs or stigma only, with the male or- gans or stamens clipped off by tweezers. Fig. 6 represents the seed capsule, natural size, in the green state, just as it reaches the maximum of its growth. Fig. 7 represetits the Seed capsule in its dry or cured condition, ready for cut- ting from the main stem of the plant, to be hung up in a dry room for preservation. - Fig. 8 represents the capsule broken open with seed exposed, ready for the lant-bed. - For the guidance of the planter we give the definitions, or nomenclature of the essential organs of the tobacco plant, as a more intelligent guide to crossing varieties. Stigma, the upper extremity of the pistil, or that part which receives the pollen; pistil, the central organ of the flower, consisting of the ovary, stylus and stigma; style or stylus, the stalk or elongation of the ovarium which supports the stigma; ovary, the organ containing the female ova, or in which impregnation is performed, the hollow case enclosing the ovules or young seed; stamen, the male apparatus or fertilizing organ of the flower, consisting of fila- ments, anther and pollen; filaments, the fine threads of which the nerves, skin and flesh are composed; anther, that part of the flower containing the pollen or fertilizing dust by which the seed-vessel is fructified; pollen, the powder or pul- verulent substance contained in and on the anther of the flower; capsule, the woody seed-vessel of the plant. Norr.—The publishers take pleasure in stating that the tobacco seed raised by Major R. L. Ragland, of Hyco, Va., have won a deservedly high and exten ive ' reputation, both at home and abroad, as the best for all the distinctive types grown in the United States. They are grown on scientific principles and by the latest improved methods, and have received the endorsation and recommendation of the Tobacco Associations of Virginia and North Carolina.] ; Of the multitude of certificates recommending Major Ragland’s seed we select only one, which is instructive, and covers the ground completely: “We assume that you have secured seed of absolute purity and with as much care as you select for other crops. By far too little attention has been paid to this. You can no more gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles than you ean get good tobacco from impure or imperfect seed. It is a mistake to think it economy to buy or borrow from your neighbor whatever he has, simply because it is called tobacco seed. The raising of seed is as much a business by itself as is any other branch of agriculture. The proof of this is found in the results TOBACCO. 9 obtained by those who have used seeds grown for market at such places. as the Ragland Seed Farm, Hyco, Va. Due regard should be had as well to the nature of the soil as to the type of tobacco desired.”—W. H. Snow, High Point, N. C. The scope of this work does not permit us to enter further into this subject, but full information as to the varieties of seeds adapted to the several types cap be obtained from Major Ragland as above. PREPARATION OF PLANT BEDS. There are two modes for raising plants—in hot bed or cold frame, or in the epen air; one or the other of which has preference according to locality—the former being more practiced north of forty degrees latitude, while the latter is preferred south of that line. We will here give both, that planters may choose. For a hot bed, select a southern or southeastern exposure, sheltered on the north, dig and shovel out a space five by twelve feet or any required length, to the depth of eighteen inches. Place straw to the depth of three or four inches in the bottom of this trench, and cover with fresh unrotted manure from the stable to the depth of six or eight inches; then cover the manure with soil (woods mould is best) five inches deep. How to cover the bed with canvas will be presently described. Tobacco seed is sown on the bed thus prepared at the rate of two teaspoon- fuls to a bed five by twelve feet. To sow regularly, mix the seed with a fertilizer, ashes, or plaster, and sow in drills three inches apart. When the plants have pretty well covered the surface of the bed, remove the canvas during the day, and only replace it when there is dang®& of frost, or to keep off the flea-bugs. There is the advantage of having earlier plants by this mode and perfect security against the flea-bug, which will repay for the additional cost of raising at least a portion of the plants needed for the crop by this safe mode. But there is no question that open air beds are cheapest. And where this mode of raising plants is practicable, it is greatly to be preferred for the main supply of plants. It is the well-established opinion that plants raised in the open air stand transplanting better and usually grow off quicker than plants raised in hot bed or cold trame. On the selection of a proper locality for a plant bed, and its preparation largely depends the timely supply of strong, healthy plants, without which it is impossible to raise a crop of fine grade. The planter, therefore, cannot be too careful in choosing a sheltered spot, neither too wet nor too dry, as rich naturally as can be found, and located so as to possess different degrees of moisture. Go into the woods—original forest, if possible—and select a spot near a branch or stream of water, embracing both hill-side and flat, and having a southern or southeastern exposure, protected by woods on the north. Burn over the plat intended for plants, either by the old or new method. The first consists in placing down a bed of wood on small skids three to four feet apart on the ground well cleared and raked. Then fire this bed of wood and permit it to remain burning long enough to cook the soil brown for half an inch deep. With hooks, or old hoes fastened to long poles, pull the burning mass of brands a © distance of four and one-half or five feet, throw on brush and wood, and continue burning and moving the fire until the bed is burned over. Never burn when the 10 PROFITABLE FARMING. land is wet. It will require from one and one-half to two hours to cook the soil properly. . Or, better still: Rake over nicely the plat to be burned, then place down poles from two to four inches in diameter, three and one-half to four feet apart, over the entire surface to be burned. Then place brush thickly over the plat and weight down with wood, over which throw leaves, trash or other combustible material; over this sprinkle kerosene oil, and set the whole on fire and burn at one operation. — But any mode of burning the plat will suffice, provided that it is effectually done. After the plat has been burned and has cooled, rake off the large coals and brands, but let the ashes remain, as they are essentially a first-class manure. Then coulter over the plat deeply, or break with grub-hoes, and make fine the soil by repeated chopping and raking, observing not ‘o bring the subsoil to the surface, and remove all roots and tufts. Manure fi-m the stable, hog-pen or poultry house, or some reliable commercial fertilizer, should be chopped into and thoroughly incorporated with the soil while preparing the bed to be sown. Expe- rience has demonstrated that it is better to use both. A good tobacco fertilizer mixed with equal quantity of poultry-house drop- pings and thoroughly incorporated, makes a most excellent manure for plants, and so does a compost made with selected chemicals, stable manure and rich moist earth. The latter when composted in time is the best and surest. But beware of using manure containing grass seed. The judgment of the planter must guide him in the amount of fertilizing material to be applied at this stage; but it is well to remind him that the tobacco plant rarely responds to homepathic doses of plant food, but that the allopathic usage suits it best. This plate illustrates the sowing, treading and trenching of a plant-bed 1 location—where there is less danger of ‘injury to the plants by the flea-beetle, ead nghere bein ‘uait ont longer during ouene and furnish a larger supply of plants, The treading is greatly enjoyed by the pee the colore Pee who sing and dance, ‘‘cutshines,’’ as they prance over the surface to firm dig and oe ' asten ee of the Pere uaaer the slave regime it was the custom to strike Ip a jig or corn-husking song as the work progressed, the old joining th i the excitement increased, thereby winding up the jobina regular jeliificstion eh pone Reta ee Sow at the rate of a tablespoonful of seed, which is about half an ounce, on every fifty square yards at first sowing, and later resow with a heaping teaspoon- “TOBACCO. | 1 ful over the same surface, to secure a good stand. Injury by frosts or bugs may require a third or fourth sowing. Sow a little thick rather than too thin to meet contingencies, and secure a good stand in time. ' The best way to sow the seed is to mix them thoroughly with a fertilizer or dry ashes, and sow once regularly over the bed, reserving seed enough to cross- sow to promote regularity. The tobacco seed is the smallest of all farm seeds, and consequently requires a light covering. Ifthe seed are sown before the 20th of February, the best way is to firm the surface of the bed by treading it over closely, but if sown later, sweep lightly over with a brush or light rake. Then run surface drains through the bed, with inclination enough to pass off the witer. To do this properly, run them off four or five feet apart with the foot, then open with a narrow grubbing-hoe to the depth of three or four inches. Then trench deeply around the outside of the bed, to ward off surface water and prevent wash- ing. : Mulching and Covering.—Hog hair whipped fine and scattered over the bed attracts and retains moisture, protects the plants from frost, and acts as amanure. There is no better covering for a plant bed, but unfortunately it is rarely ever in full supply. Fine brush should be placed thickly over the bed, or, if not handy, cover with straw or chaff free from grain. A covering of some such material is necessary, or thet young plants are likely to be killed by frost or suffer from drought, and they: thrive better with some protection. Canvas Covering for Plant Beds.—A coveririg of thin cloth has been found té hasten the growth of plants and protect them from freezing and injury by the flea-bugs. This makes the bed warmer, and acts as a cold-frame, the canvas take ing the place of glass. | This cut is intended to show how to construct a canvas covering over a plant-bed, First, boards should be placed all around the bed close, so as to prevent the little black beetle, or flea, from creeping through, eighteen or twenty inches high on the upper side and sloping to ten or twelve inches on the lower. Then prepare a lot of small stakes (small round poles, one and one half inches in diameter, make good ones), sawed into lengths graduated from two feet to eighteen inches long, and sharpened at one end. Drive these stakes six feet apart, in rows, through the bed for the laths, two inches wide and ‘one inch thick, to rest upon. The middle lath should be a plank one inch thick and six inchés wide. Pap gfe Then drive | ju PROFITABLE FARMING. sen-penny nails, eighteen inches apart, all around the outside of the boarding, and from five to six inches from the top edge. Also drive nails in the middle board, eighteen inches apart. Make the covering in two pieces, each the size of. half the bed—say ten by ten yards—and sew on the outer edge, all around each cover, loops of cloth, made of common domestic, eighteen inches apart, to receive. a cord or twine, which runs through loops all around and tie, and the cover is ready to be placed over the bed and fastened by pulling the twine or cord over the nails all around, letting the two covers meet in the middle over the six-inch board. By this arrangement the cover is kept fast over the bed at the right distance above. the plants, and may be removed and placed over it at will in less time than by. any other known contrivance. A Standing Plant-Bed.—Every planter ought to have a standing plant-bed, which may be secured in the following way: Some time in July or August select one of the best of the old plant-beds, and with hoes shave down the green plants over its entire surface, and cover over thickly with straw or leayes, then place green brush thickly over the bed and weight down with wood. When the whole is dry, some time in the late fall or early winter, set on fire, and thus reburn over the bed. Then chop and rake fine, sow and trench as when first prepared. Repeat the same operation every year, and, if the bed is manured properly, it will improve and prove a stand-by for many years. ‘ Unburned Beds.—Plants may beraised by going into the forest, selecting a moist rich plat, and after raking off the leaves, coultering or chopping the surface fine, manuring heavily, and sowing the seed, But such beds rarely hold out well if the season be dry. They never “repeat” well after the first “ drawing” like burnt beds, which are more reliable for a successive supply of plants as the season advances. Time of Sowin. Seed—The time for sowing varies with the latitude, variety, and season. Between the parallels of 35 and 40 degrees north latitude, compass- ing the great tobacco belt, beds may be sown any time between the Ist of January and 20th of March, and the sooner the vetter for bright grades, which ought to be planted early to mature, ripen and yellow, preparatory to being cured early in the fall, when the most successful curings are usually made. Yellow tobacco ought to be planted out:in May, but June plantings usually do best in heavy dark grades. The planter will consult his interest by sowing at a-proper time to suit the grade he desires to raise. Plants set out after the 10th of July rarely pay for growing and handling, and if not planted by that time, it will be wise to plant the hills in peas, potatoes, or something else. Hastening the Growth of Planis—As soon as the plants become “ square ”—i.e., have four leaves—you may begin to force their growth, if necessary. Nothing is better at this stage of their growth than to apply dry stable manure, rubbed fine, and sowed over the bed, applying at the rate of five bushels to every one hundred square yards. Be sure to have it dry and fine, and apply when the plants are dry. This is a favorable time to apply a good fertilizer, and the best time to apply it is. during a shower, or when it is apparent that one is impending. Every planter should compost in time stable manure free from grass seeds along with prepared chemicals suited to tobacco, using just enough moist rich earth to promote fer- mentation. Nothing is better than this compost for a top dressing on plants to. poe rapid, vigorous, stocky growth, defying the ravages of the flea-beetle and. astening their preparation for transplanting. . TOBACCO 13 , Look Out for the “ Flea-Bug.”—TIf the “ fly,” as it is called, begins to devour the young pane apply plaster, in which rags saturated with kerosene oil have lain for a few hours, covering the plants with the plaster, if necessary, to keep the little pests from devouring them. Repeat the application after every rain unless the flies have left. . A covering of green cedar brush has driven off the fly when other remedies failed, and saved the plants. If the flies are numerous, the planter can save his plants only by vigilant and constant attention. Hard burning, early and thick sowing, liberal and frequent applications of manure, are the best safeguards, which rarely fail to reward the planter with an early and full supply of stocky plants, and with some left for his less provident neighbors. Some planters, if such they may be called, always fail—some never. Follow the latter, and you will always be right. Canvas-covered beds are the surest protection, and seera the best every way. IMPORTANT. At the risk of repetition, but to make plain further instruction on a branch of the subject about which beginners are less informed and most need advice, the author adds what follows: PRESENT STATUS OF THE VARIOUS LEAF TYPES IN THE MARKETS—FUTURE PROS= PECTS, ETC. The dark export type is dull, and excepting the best grades, is selling below the cost of production, and consequently offers no inducement to planters to raise the type, except a few in Southside Virginia, and portions of Kentucky and Tennessee, where soils are peculiarly adapted to this and unsuited for other types. Planters in North Carolina and Piedmont Virginia will do well to let this type severely alone and grow only the manufacturing types—and of these mainly the bright yellow, for which their lands are peculiarly adapted. Portions of the Piedmont section in Virginia and North Carolina can successfully produce a rich mahogany, which is always in demand at remunerative prices. The mahogany type is usually grown on soil somewhat too rich for the finest brights, and the fact that the leaves grown upon rich soil possess more substance (cellular tissue, oil, and gum,) is the main reason why they cannot be cured with higher color. Where the soil is well adapted to this type, it is profitable, because it usually commands a high price, and its product is from 25 to 33 per cent. more than bright yellow. The sweet sun-cured type is usually produced on soils similar in character istics to those which produce the mahogany type, and when there is a failure to catch and fix the mahogany color by flues, 'a nice red color similar to sun-cured is obtained by running slow fires in the flues, and thus making a nice sweet filler almost as good as tobacco cured entirely by sun and air. But the usual mode now practiced by the most successful producers of the sun-cured type, is to place the tobacco on scaffolds, so soon as cut, near the barn, and permit the leaves to cure by sun and air, if the weather permits, and then remove the tobacco into the barn and apply slow fires in the flues to dry out thoroughly stems and stalks. A sweet sun and air cured filler is always in demand at paying prices, and a taste once acquired for this type will usually reject all others as inferior. In fine, 17 14 PROFITABLE FARMING. for plug and fine-cut chewing, nothing surpasses.the “old favorite.” The reason for this is.that thoroughly ripe tobacco mellows in the sun and under a low artifi- cial heat in curing, develops sugar in the leaves, which is fixed before vinous fer- mentation takes place, and the vegetable oils are retained to improve the aroma _ and taste. VARIETIES SUITED TO TYPES. It is of prime consideration to select varieties adapted to the type sought to be produced. Those which develop with a coarse thick fibre and hold the largest percentage of gum and oil are the kinds which maké the heaviest and waxiest shipping. Mahoganies require a large well-shaped leaf, closer and more elastic fibre, less gum but more oil. Brights must grow rapidly and ripen early, possess silky fibre and less gum and oil than the aforementioned types. But variety, soil, manuring and cultivation all affect more or less the staple through the cellular tissues of the leaves, while the mode of curing determines the color and to some extent the quality, which governs the price. ae THE' BRIGHT YELLOW TYPE. Choose a gray gneiss soil, sandy or slaty, dry and overlaying a porous sub soil—the very opposite to a close, soggy wet soil; for tobacco will not flourish with wet feet, nor will the plants yellow as they ripen on a cold impervious clay soil. Discard all lands unadapted to this important crop, and what is of more consequence still; experiment on a small scale in testing such as are most likely to produce this type of the finest quality. It is useless to test a spouty, black -gravelly soil, which should always be avoided, or one which is known to cause “frenching,” wallowing, or other abnormal worthless growth, or on which tobacco is liable to fire, spot, or develop frog-eye, for it very rarely ever pays to plant such soils in any type. An experienced planter will rarely err in selection, but some- times nothing short of trial will definitely determine adaptation of soil or variety for the several types. The most prolific cause of failure results from inexperience in not knowing how to prepare for raising tobacco, in constructing suitable barns, and in the lack of skillin curing. Next to these come improper selection of land and varieties unsuited to soil or type aimed to be produced; the variety must be adapted to soil and type, or full success is impossible. It is nevertheless true that during some seasons a pretty fair quality of tobacco is produced on soils not adapted to tobacco, and by the use of varieties unsuited for the type raised, but such are exceptional cases, for never can extra fine crops result from such mismanagement. It will always pay planters to select ' with reference to the adaptation of both soil to type and the right variety for both. Improper and defective cultivation also operates against successful tobacco plant- ing, but the latter is often the secondary consideration in comparison with other mismanagement alluded to above. Possibly. the most discouraging of all the failures results from the want of skill in curing, which comes mainly through practice. It will pay any unskilled planter to have his fine yellow tobacco cured by an expert; for it is a pity to spoil a barn of tobacco by curing it up green or black, when it might so easily have been cured of the desired color by one who understands the effects of heat in fixing the color, and how to so regulate the same as to procure the desired end. TOBACCO. 15 OTHER IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS. Some varieties are far more easily cured yellow than others, but no fixed rule can be given for regulating the degrees of temperature to fix the color, during _ the curing process, in consequence of the variable condition of the material operated upon, which variations are caused by differences in soil, climate, variety, weather, and season. Therefore, the curer must at last rely mainly upon his judg- mont in regulating the temperature so as to make a successful cure. During some years (such as 1889 proved to be up to 9th of September) all tobacco planted on gray lands well drained and in some one or other of the reliable yellow varie- ties cured yellow readily when heat was applied. In fact, it was almost impossi- ble for any one, with even a modicum of experience and common sense, to fail in curing the desired color. But that portion of the crop ripening efter the 10th September required far more skill to yellow and cure successfully, and the reason ‘for the change was in the changed condition of the tobacco. It would extend this branch of the subject much beyond prescribed limits to expiain the rationale of a super-abundance or lack of sap in the leaves, more or less oil and gum, and how these affect the color under the application of hot, dry or moist air during the critical process of curing. But. it is becoming plain to most planters with more or less experience, that success in curing is oftenest obtained for ripe plants of the earliest plantings grown: from the earliest varie- ties. It is notorious that gieen plants will not yellow properly, nor will the utmost skill in curing fix and retain the desired colorin immature tobacco. Warm, calm ‘weather greatly aids in curing successfully. Therefore, it is important to plant such kinds as possess fine texture, grow rapidly and mature early, when the weather conditions are most favorable to curing the finest and brightest goods. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS WHICH APPLY TO ALL THE TYPES. The foregoing, in relation to raising plants and what follows, under the head- ings, Preparation of the Soil, Manuring. Planting, Cultivating, Pruning (called “Priming”’), Topping, Worming, and Suckering, apply substantially to all the types up to the stage of harvesting when different methods become necessary, which are specified under each type. SELECTION OF SOIL, PREPARATION AND MANURING. ‘he tobacco plant thrives best in a deep, mellow, loamy soil, rich or made so with fertilizers. The subsoil ought to be sufficiently porous to permit the water falling on the surface to pass downward readily, and not to accumulate to drown and stagnate. If old land is selected, it ought to be fallowed deep in the fall or early winter, that the frosts may pulverize it. Turn under, if possible, some coarse farm manure, for its decay will greatly help to loosen the soil, while furnishing food for the crop. As a coarse manure for yellow tobacco, nothing is better than wheat straw turned under in the fall and winter. The plants rarely fail to ripen yellow in color on land thus treated. 16 PROFITABLE FARMING. In the early spring more manure may be applied, but it is better that this should come from the compost heap. Follow the application of the compost with one-horse turning plows, crossing the previous ploughing, turning not exceeding four or five inches deep—about half the depth of the first ploughing. Then, just before it is time to plant, run double-shovel ploughs over the lot, crossing the previous furrows, and follow with harrow or drag, crossing again to thoroughly make fine. These repeated ploughings, crossing each time every previous one, never fail, if the work is done when the land is in proper condition, to put it.in proper tilth. ead Let the planter remember that “a good preparation is half cultivation,” and not stop until the land is in proper condition. : In preparing land for tobacco, be sure you don’t plant varieties unsuited to the soil or type, else failure is inevitable. The cause of so much mean, nonde- script goods on the markets every year is mainly attributable to failure in plant- ing the proper varieties on the right kind of soil, and planters should carefully note this and sow seed suited both to soil and type. If any one knows of a better way, then let him pursue it—the writer knows of none better. And just here it may be well to state that perfection is not claimed for any mode or practice recommended in this book, but only the best methods known to the author are given, for guidance to the uninitiated. We live and learn, but life is too short to learn every good thing by experience unaided. Every man owes something to those who are to come after him; to freely give as he has freely received. But the author is not writing for those who know. more than he does—and doubtless there are very many—but for beginners, and those having but little experience in tobacco culture. He gives no advice which he has not followed in his own work, and recommends nothing which experience has not commended as the best in theory tested by practice. Those who possess a better knowledge of the subject, and whose practice is verified by results, ought by all means to give the public the benefit of their knowledge and experience. Planters will gladly welcome their teaching, and honor them for their service. But, to return, having put the land in nice “order,” lay off the rows with a shovel plough, three feet three inches apart, and follow, drilling along the furrow a good fertilizer at the rate of some two hundred and fifty to four hundred pounds per acre, according to the natural strength of the soil and the quantity of manure previously applied; then follow with one-horse turning plows, lapping four furrows on the fertilized trench, and when finished in this manner your lot is ready to be planted, whén the beds have been “patted” with hoes, with “pats” two feet ten inches apart, to mark points for setting the plants. In the older portions of the fine yellow tobacco country the applications are becoming heavier from year to year, some planters using as much as six hundred pounds to the acre. New ground, or old field that has grown up and been cut down, will require different preparation from old smooth land. But on the former our best brights are raised. Any preparation that will put the soil in fine condition, clear of roots, tufts and trash, is all that is required. Experience teaches that if land is cut down two or three years previous to its being prepared for tobacco, it greatly facilitates the preparation and helps its fertility. Much of the vegetable material, both in and upon the soil rots, the roots break easily, and the soil is altogether lignter and finer. - TOBACCO. 17 While it is economy to dispense with the hand-hoe in making hills on old land—the plow doing all the work, as it ought, when it can be well done—yet on stumpy, rooty, and rough land the hoe is indispensable in the preparation of a hill, as it should be made to receive the plant. But before the hills are made, it may be well, unless the soil is naturally rich—and such is not often the case with soils best adapted to yellow tobacco—to apply some fertilizing material to hasten forward the plants, and mature them properly and early. Here commercial fer- tilizers have done, and are doing, their best work. Bulky, coarse manures often do more harm than good on new and puffy soils. The smaller the bulk, and the more concentrated the fertilizing elements, the more readily they are appropriated and assimilated by the plants, if of the right material, and in the most available form. Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, lime, and soda are most necessary for the tobacco plant; and a fertilizer which supplies the relative quantity of each, and from the proper sources, will never fail to show good effects therefrom if the rainfall is sufficient to quicken their action. Most of the soils best adapted to the finest types of tobacco, especially bright and sweet fillers, are thin and poor, and need plant food to push the plants for- ward, and rapidly, in growth and maturity, so that the product may be ripened and mellowed of yellow color, preparatory to being housed and cured. FERTILIZERS FOR TOBACCO. “While chemical analysis defines the composition of plants, it does not define proper feeding, either in the proportions or forms best suited to the crop.” Tobacco is grown for its leaf crop; not the largest product, however, that can be grown on the soil, but such as possess fine clastic texture, color, and other desirable qualities, according to type. In a crop like tobacco, where the commercial value is largely influenced by artificial conditions of development, the plant food ought to be abundant, solvent, and furnished in form and proportion, which practice has demonstrated as pro- motive of the best results. “It is a problem of practice, enlightened by science, and not to be figured out by science.” And, moreover, one which each planter, to some extent, must determine for his soil and the type for which it is best adapted. There is no tobacco fertilizer made suited to ail the types and varied soils. The “universal cure-all pill” is as inapplicable to the varied forms of disease as the universal tobacco manure for all the types and soils. - CHLORIDES OBJECTIONABLE. Tobacco grown for its leaf product indicates that potash is applicable as a manure, but certain forms or combinations of potash are not suited therefor, since it has been clearly demonstrated that chloride of potassium (‘muriate of potash”) is really objectionable. For Stoner says: “The objection to chloride of potassium as a manure for tobacco depends upon the fact that leaves of this plant which have been grown upon land rich in chlorides will not burn readily when dry, apparently because the chlorides tend to prevent a certain swelling or puffing up of the ashes in the half-burned tobacco, which is favorable to bringing the parti- cles of carbon into intimate contact with the air. Numerous experiments in proof of this peculiarity of the chlorides have been recorded.” 18 PROFITABLE FARMING. Experiments by Nessler and Schloesing were conclusive as regards the capacity of cigars once well lighted to hold fire, being in inverse ratio to the chlorides employed in growing the tobacco of which the cigars were made. The variations running from “absolute incombustibility” of tobacco grown with chloride of calcium, to one which held fire for three minutes grown with sulphate of potash. Boussingault obtained practically similar results. The above objection applies mainly to cigar tobacco, but chlorides also act injuriously on the texture and flavor of the leaf manufacturing types, and there- fore planters should scrupulously avoid using fertilizers containing chlorides in any form; for it stands to reason, aside from experience, that a manure which “hinders beet sugar from crystalizing and tends to make potatoes waxy rather than mealy,” as chlorine does, can scarcely be expected to improve the texture and flavor of the tobacco leaf. But the sulphate and nitrate of potash can be used most advantageously in manuring for any type of tobacco, and particularly on soils deficient in potash. A superabundance of potash tends to keep the tobacco plants green even while ripening, and for the yellow type thus interferes with curing the desired color. It would serve a good purpose to require analyses made of all tobacco fertil- izers to state the percentage of chlorine along with the other materials contained therein for the guidance of planters. Analyses may indicate, but do not deter- mine, the real value of a fertilizer. The estimated commercial value of any fer- tilizer is based on the available percentages of phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash contained therein; but analysis does not determine its true value, because it failsto specify the forms and quality of these constituents. The experiment stations in the several States are engaged in a most com- mendable work in testing fertilizers on various crops to find out in what forms, proportions, and combinations fertilizing materials produce the best results. ; “The continued use of any one manipulated fertilizer is injurious and disap- pointing.’ : It has been plainly demonstrated that the same fertilizer used year after year under the same crop, as is done in some portions of the tobacco belt, ultimately fails to give satisfactory returns. The product not only grows less in yield, but inferior in quality, while the land seemingly gets poorer every year. This is because of the failure to furnish elements needed by both crop and soil, and of which they have been deprived, while others have been accumulating to the extent of such over-supply as to injuriously affect the crop. The soil thereby “thrown out of balance” may need possibly only one or two elements furnished to produce large crops of fine quality. A change of brands sometimes works wonders in one season, while a continued use of the same afterward leads to disappointment as before. Of the causes injuriously affecting the yield and quality of the tobacco oe SE aes ee decade, aside from the injudicious selection of soil and vari- eties, none have been more potent than the wrong selection and i i application of so-called fact fertilizers. : aE MPP METO: Extensive areas of poor gray silicious soils in the yellow belt are rendered capable of producing good crops of fine yellow tobacco, by the aid of commer- cial ode oF pee when of composition suited thereto. . _Mode of Applying Fertilizers—Planters differ in the manner of applvi fertilizers, whether in the hill, drill or broadcast. That the same qaesdig cae TOBACCO. 19 further and produce larger results the first year, for the quantity used when applied in the hill or drill, is generally conceded. But advocates of broadcasting claim that when the crop, to which the fertilizer is applied, is to be followed by another in quick. succession—to be sown in wheat as soon as the tobacco is removed—then broadcasting is the best, for reasons which seem too apparent to need explanation. Having prepared the land for hilling, apply the fertilizer by whichever mode the planter prefers, and in such quantity as the natural strength of the soil indi- cates, laying off the rows three feet three inches apart, and make the hills about two feet ten inches distant from centre to centre. Mark the measure on the hoe- handle and require the hillers to apply it frequently as a guide. The rows should be wider apart than the hills, to afford proper cultivation without breaking and bruising the plants at the final plowing—a matter of no small importance, 2s the least blemish on a fine leaf nearly destroys its value as a wrapper. , -This plate illustrates the work of hilling. It is becoming common to plant on the drills instead of in hills, where thorough preparation has been made on clean soil. But it is well to chop fine that portion of the drill where the plant is intended. to be set, and then-:pat it firm with the hoe to facilitate planting and cause the plants to root better. Planting —Having prepared the hills, you are ready to plant any time after the Ist of May. Planting is often most effectually done when the hills are being made in May, and the land is moist with the winter’s sap, by planting in the afternoon the hills made the same day. If properly planted, very few of the plants will fail to live. Observe to draw the plants one by one from the bed, and handle so as not to bruise them. It is a waste of time and plants to set out very small plants, but wait until they are proper size—the largest leaves about two and one-half to three inches wide. Puta basket of plants in the hands of a boy. or girl, who drops a plant on each hill, dropping in one or two rows, according to age or expertness. The men follow, with each a planting peg made o/ hard wood, six inches long, one and a quarter inch in diameter at large end, und tapering to a point. Each planter takes a ‘hand plant” to start with (unless the dropper has learned to drop two plants on the first hill), and pushing his planting peg some two inches into the hill, withdraws the peg, inserts the plant, and by a dexterous movement of the peg and the knuckles of the left hand, closes the dirt 20 PROFITABLE FARMING. gently but compactly around the roots. He then picks up the piant on the hill as he moves forward, and by the time he reaches the next hill has adjusted the plant in his hand to insert into the hole in the next hill. Thus the “hand plant” facilitates the work. Try it and you will be convinced. There is art in planting properly, as is shown in the increased number of living monuments that attest superior work. But why enter into such minute details? say some. That you may start right, shun the errors of inexperience, and practice at the start the best methods, as demonstrated by successful practice. If the soil is dry when the hills are made, then it will require a “season” for planting. The best come with showers. It is not well to plant soon after a soaking rain, but wait until the land settles. If the plants are good, seasons favorable, and the planting well done, very few will die if transplanted before the 10th of July. After that time all is uncertainty. Hence the importance of getting a stand before that time. After planting is over, it will be necessary to replant from time to time as seasons occur, embracing every opportunity to fill up the missing hills. If cut- worms are troublesome, hunt for and destroy every one as far as possible; for it is useless to put a plant in a hill where one of these pests has taken up quarters, ‘and expect it to live and grow. ‘One woman dropping the plants from a basket on the hills for two men to follow planting them. Cultivating. —It is important to commence cultivation soon after planting, to loosen the soil and start the plants growing. Just at this point many planters fail to do their duty, which no subsequent work can atone for. Early, rapid, and ,thorough cultivation is necessary to produce first-class tobacco. If the prepara- tion has been thorough, thrice plowing, followed each time with a han- hoe, will utiles for the crop. : or the first plowing, no implement 1s better than the wing coul best the cultivator or double-shovel with the coulter points. The ieee may be effectually done with the turning plow or cultivator; if grassy. use the first. The last plowing is most effectually done with three furrows with the single eevee furrow on each side, then splitting the middle with the “hird and last urrow. TOBACCO. | at Never “scrape down” tobacco with the hoe without putting back on the hill or bed as much dirt as is scraped down. This will prevent baking, and save many plants should a dry spell follow the hand-hoe working. Any process which stirs the soil effectually and often, and keeps the plants free from grass and weeds, will con- stitute good cultivation, no. matter how and with what implement done. Old land will require more work in cul- tivation than new, and dark grades more than bright. Short singletrees should be used after the plants are half grown, to prevent tearing and breaking the leaves. ji Ele The yellow grades shoald be cleared of grass (imam and weeds before the first of August, and not plowed thereafter; but the hoes may be used at any time to clear out , the crop till the leaves. commence graining. The longer tobacco is plowed the later the plants will be in ripening; therefore, the impor- tance of giving early and thorough cultivation. Any one who can raise, good cabbages ought tof know how to cultivatelig tobacco, as the cul- tivation is very similar ~ Sometimes it becomes necessary to push the plants forward, where previous manuring has proved inad- equate, to hasten ripening, so as to escape frost and to cure well. I would advise the use of some good standard fertilizer, applied around the plants, in quantity about 150 pounds per acre, and éarth scraped upon the fertilizer around the tops of the hills as applied. Bemis Tobacco Transplanter SS PRUNING AND TOPPING, Under this head there is wide difference of opinion. ‘Breaking off the small and inferior leaves of the plant near the ground is called “priming,” or pruning proper, which operation is done along with the “topping,” if done at all. There are advantages for and against priming, but all resort to topping—plucking out the seed bud and adjacent small leaves with the thumb and-finger. Some contend that pulling off the lower leaves saps the plants and retards the growth ifthe weatheris dry. That permitting the lower leaves to remain on the stalk protects the upper ones from sand and grit, makes them cleaner, and therefore more sal- able. Sand and grit are the terror of the tobacco buyer. On the other hand, 1t is contended by some that by pulling off the lower leaves, which are generally useless, the remaining leaves receive more nutriment and contain more wax, oil, and gum, and that the lower leaves harbor worms and make the worming proces more tedious. - 22 PROFITABLE FARMING. It is best to wait until a considerable number of plants begin to button for seed before commencing to top. Topping should be the work of experienced and trusty hands—men who can top, leaving any required number of leaves on a plant without counting. The secret of this—no longer a secret to the initi- ated—is, that the topper soon learns to know that counting the bottom leaf and the leaf that hangs over it in the third tier going upward, make nine leaves, including both top and bottom leaves. Fixing this in his mind, the topper has only to add to or deduct from this index leaf marking nine, to leave any desired number of leaves on each plant with certainty and without counting. Young man, if you don’t know how, get some old negro toshow you. Topping, you will find, is a slow business if you -have to count the leaves on all the plants topped. If the plants are not “primed,” then the “bottom leaf” must be fixed by the eye, looking upward for the leaf in the third tier, which hangs over it, to catch the cue as before. If priming is done, don’t err in pulling off too many leaves. No regular rule can be given, so the planter must judge for himself. The reason given for waiting until many plants are ready to be topped is mainly that more plants may ripen together, and be ready for the knife at the same time. This is an advantage that applies with strong force to all tobacco intended for flue curing. The number of leaves to be left on each plant varies according to the time the work is done, early or late, the appearance and prospective development.of the plant, the season, whether propitious or unfavorable, strength of the soil, and amount of fertilizing material applied. On medium soils, in ordinary seasons, the first topping should be from ten to thirteen leaves—rarely more—for brights. For sweet fillers from nine to ten, and for dark, rich shipping, from eight to nine leaves are enough. As the season advances reduce the number of leaves accord- ingly, remembering that quality, more than quantity, regulates returns. This illustrates a field of tobacco undergoing the laying-by process, the final work of ” and topping, as this latter work was formerly done when both Gperstians were perio cece aa ay the same “ hands,’ i. e., laborers. Now the “‘hoe-hands” only perform the hoe work, and topping is done by ae ee ara on ute frm Jy Gxecuting this amy poten work. The toppers now never carry a hoe in eir hands, but go right along the rows, carrying two ata time, pinching out th topping with both hands. ; . om : @ buds tn the process.of Many devices have been resorted to in.order to lessen the number and miti- gate the ravages of the horn-worm, but the lack of general and continued efforts TOBACCO. 23 from year to year has brought only partial relicf. Some years they come in great numbers, and, despite the best ‘efforts of the planter, seriously damage his crop. Perhaps the next year they are few, and give him no trouble. It is the nature of this insect to raise at least. two broods during the year. The hawk-moth or tobacco-fly usually makes his appearance in Virginia in the month of May. The eggs deposited by the first moths hatch out in from five to seven days larve or worms. The worm sheds its outer skin twice before it gets its growth. The grow- ing stage of the worm lasts from twenty-five to thirty days, and after it has attained its growth it gorges itself a few days longer, and then crawls or burrows into the ground, where it soon passes into the pupa state; and after some twenty- three or twenty-five days from the.time of its crawling into the ground the pupa sends forth a moth to lay more eggs and hatch out more worms. Each moth is capable of laying on an average two hundred eggs. So that for every moth in May we may reasonably expect at least one hundred worms of the first brood; and if none of these are destroyed, but all allowed to change to moths, and these latter to raise a horde of worms, what wonder that the second brood sometimes appears in such countless numbers as to defy all efforts to destroy them before they have ruined the crop. Every moth ought to be destroyed as they appear, and this may be done to great extent by injecting a few drops of sweetened Cobalt (which is a poison) into the flowers of the Petunia, Honeysuckle, or Jamestown (Jimpson) weed, which will give them their final quietus, But this hunt for the moth is not general, and if it were some would escape. But if every planter would wage a war of extermination on the first brood of worms—unfortunately a thing rarely done—they would never appear in such unconquerable hordes later in the season. The suckers should be pulled off every week as they appear, and ought never to be permitted to get over two inches long; for, if permitted to grow large they abstract much that would otherwise go to perfect a rich, silky leaf. No planter need expect a crop of fine grade who does not pull off the suckers while small, and prevent the horn-worms from riddling the leaves. RIPENING. The leaf type, as contra-distinguished from cigar tobacco, is known to be ripe when its color changes from green to a*greenish yellow, thickens, so that when the leaf is folded over—the under surface being outward—and pressed between the thumb and finger it cracks open. The upper surface of the leaf is roughened, for reasons stated under Science of Curing Yellow Tobacco, and gene- rally of a mottled yellow and green color. Ripening of this type usually takes place in Virginia and North Carolina in about five to six weeks after the plants have been topped, sometimes longer when growth has been retarded by drought. The cigar type ripens about two weeks sooner after topping. [Nore.—Mr. §. P. Carr, of the tobacco commission firm of Carr & Dickin- sons, Richmond, Virginia, and by the way one of the best-posted tobacco men engaged in the tobacco industry, writing to the “Western Tobacco Journal,” gives the following advice and information in regard to the best stage in which to har- vest tobacco:| Just as granulation reaches its maximum, if the weather continues open and cool, as is most likely at cutting time, the stalk ceases to_ pump nourishing plant 24 PROFITABLE FARMING. food from the soil into the leaf, since the leaf is full beyond its capacity to take more. Slow decadence of the stalk’s vitality now sets in, and, following the economic law of nature, it begins at once to return to the soil, by capillary absorption, the surplus elements not needed to mature seed for the perpetuation of its kind. If there are no seeds to fill, as in topped tobacco, it sends up the requisite nourish- ment through its instincts for that purpose, and then begins to slowly absorb the filling of the leaf, and belting the main stem and laterals as described above. The same rule applies to the cutting of tobacco that applies to the cutting of clover, hay and timothy, or any other kind of provender. If the grasses are cut over-ripe, or after reabsorption has returned the oils and albuminoids to mother earth, they cure up woody and lifeless, and are rejected by stock of all kinds. If cut while in the flower, when all the plant cells are surcharged with saccharine and other constituents belonging to their nature, they are fixed by curing, and are soft, waxy, flavory, and sweet, making foods of the highest standard of their kind. Wheat, oats, corn, and other grains suffer deterioration from over-ripeness or remaining too long unharvested, as every farmer knows. CUT—WORMS AND BUD—WORMS, The cut-worms are troublesome only during the early stages of plant-growth, waen they crawl from the ground during the night and cut off or devour the small plants. Clover lands and such as have borne a heavy crop of weeds the year previous are the favorite haunts of the cut-worm. On such, it is sometimes almost impossible to get a stand owing to the extensive depredations from this nocturnal insect. No remedy has been found, except to hunt diligently for every marauder and kill him on the spot. | The bud-worm, so called from its habit of selecting the buds of the plants to feast upon, while scarcely so numerous as the species heretofore described, inflicts for their numbers more damage than the horn-worm, because they eat the small tender leaves full of holes and utterly ruin them—a small worm destroying often more than half the leaves on the plant. Like the cut-worm, the bud-worm must 7 ee for and killed—being easier found, as his lurking place is always im the bua. A field where worming and suckering are going on: turkeys ares i for they are expert worm-catchers, eee ys are seen assisting In the former process, TOBACCO , 25 CUTTING AND HOUSING. Do not be in a hurry to begin cutting your tobacco until it is ripe, and enough fully and uniformly ripe to fill a barn.