The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-05-09
Planting Tobacco.

MANY persons, especially new begin
ners, commit mistakes in early plant
ing of tender plants, and the rule will
hold good of the whole category, i'm
Guiding tobacco. If the plants are not
absolutely frozen, they are often so
chilled by cold storms that they never
recover or only SO partially, and seri~
ously reduce the outcome of the crop.
In the latitude of Northern Illinois and
Southern Wisconsin, it is not safe to
transplant before the last week in May,
and the trausplanting may be success
fully followed until june 10 to Is.
Regular tobacco growers we'll under
stand the proper time to transplant,
and are very properly guided by the
season. Many farmers, however, now
cultivate more or less tobacco for home
use, and with this class, the plants had
better be retained until the nights as
well as the days are permanently warm.
This class of planters can also care for
their plants in their nursery beds, so
!, that at planting time they will not only
be we'll grown but of uniform size.
In the cultivation of tobacco it is es-
sential that the soil be rs rich as pos
sible. Nitrogen in some form is es-
sential to success. Hence horse ma
nure, in which the ammonia has been
fixed, has been found one of the best
manures for this crop. The land can
not be too rich. Soil is also an i'm
portant consideration. The best is a
firm, compact, sandy soil, containing
the elements of nutrition, and one that
will stand drought well; and one at the
same time, where the drainage is good.
Tobacco cannot be grown on land that
is liable to be water soaked. A soil
containing an excess IF vegetable mat
ter produces an overgrown, coarse
leaf; it ripens up too quickly, and is
full Of gum. If sand Or gravel is in ex-
cess, the plant is apt to blister.
When tobacco is planted in hills
and this plan facilitates ease in cultiva-
tion-the land after being thoroughly
enriched with old barn-yard manure,
should be laid off about forty inches
apart, with q shovel pillow or similar
implement. The hills are then to be
smoothed down SO they may be fiat and
square, and. if some special fertilizer is
used, this should be well worked in. 1t
is essential, however, that the soil be
in the best possible filth, since all the
labor spent in preparing the soil before
planting is amply repaid in the after
cultivation of the plants.
When the plants are set, cut-worms
and other vegetable-eating insects
should be looked after. If the land be
prepared some time before planting we
have known the hills to be sown with
squash or cucumber seeds. These will
appear above ground before the to-
bacco is planted; the cut-worms attack
ing these plants, they are easily killed.
and thus the tobacco crop often saved
from their depredations.
Among the manures that we have tried
rs special fertilizers in the hill, ground
raw bone, treated with ashes, is one of the
best. This special manuring, in addition
to the general manuring, is important.
Whatever the manure used be, whether
guano, super-phosphate, blood manure
or other fertilizer containing any of the
inter compounds, the labor of raising
large, healthy plants is the same as