The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-03-20
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
TOBACCO CULTURE.
A Few Hints on the Subject For the
Coming Season.

! a Few Hints on the Subject For the
| Coming Season.
The following hints on the subject of
tobacco-culture are taken from a cir
cuIar prepared by Colonel r. L. Rag
land, OF Virginia, and, as he is regarded
as very high authority on the subject,
may prove entertaining and valuable to
/ tobacco-growers:
The tobacco plant thrives best in a
rich, warm, well-drained soil, and can be
successfully grown from the equator to
beyond the fiftieth parallel of latitude,
showing most wonderful adaptation to
climate.
Beyond any other field crop grown, to-
bacco requires high farming" i. e.,
heavy manuring and thorough tilIage;
and no crop responds more readily or
bountifully, when the right types are
planted on soils adapted thereto, and the
product properly cultivated, cured and
handled.
SOILS ADAPTED TO TYPES.
A deep, rich soil OVERLAPPING a red or
dark-brown subsoiI, is best suited for
the dark, rich export type. A gravelly
or sandy soil, with red or hght-brown
sub-soil, is best adapted to the produc-
ton of sweet filters and stemming TO-
baccos. Alluvials and rich fats pro-
duce the best cigar stock. White Bur
ley is most successfully grown on a
dark, rich limestone soil. For yellow
wrappers, smokers and cutters, a gray,
sandy or slaty top-soil with yellowish
porous subsoil is preferable. The land
must be loamy, dry and warm, rather
than close, clammy and cold; and the
finer and whittier the sand therein, the
surer the indication of it's thorough
adaptation to the yellow type. The
soil 50 greatly affects the character and
quality of the products that success is
attainable only where the right selec-
ton of both soil and variety is made for
each plat planted, and planters do well
to heed this suggestion.
VARIETIES SUITED FOR THE SEVERAL.
TYPES.
For dark, rich shipping, nothing has
been found superior to the following:
James River Blue Prior, Lacks or Beat
All and Medley Prior For sweet fill
ers: Sweet Oronoko and Flanagan. For
stemming: Long Leaf and Broad Leaf
Gooch, Hester, Tuckahoe and Big Orc
noko. For mahogany wrappers: Pri-
mus, Tuckahoe, Hobgood, Yellow Prior,
Flanagan and Gold Leaf. For cutters:
Hyco, White-stem Oronolxo, Yellow Orc
noko, Silky Prior and Granville Yellow.
For yellow wrappers and filters: Ster-
ling, Primus, Granville Yellow, White
stem Oronoko, Tuckahoe, Hester, Long
Leaf Gooch, Yellow Oronoko and yell
low Prior.
Trial will determine what variety is
best for any locality, as no one variety
is best for all locations. To plant va
rieties unsuited to the type, or on soil
unadapted thereto, is to invite failure
every time.
The leading cigar varieties are: Con-
necticut and Pennsylvania Seed Leaf,
Imported and American Grown Havana.
General Grant Bradley Broad Leaf and
several Spanish Strains.
START RIGHT.
The planter should select and prepare
land suited to the type he purposes to
raise, and then SOW seeds of varieties
recommended herein for the types speci-
fed, in good time, on beds thoroughly
prepared and fertilized-warm southern
and southeastern slopes preferred-and
cover the beds with thin canvas.
South of 81 deg. north latitude seed
may be sown from 18th of December to
10th of March-the month of January
preferable. Further north, SOW later.
Sow at the rate of one ounce of seed to
the 100 square yards, and firm the soil
with the feet or lightly brush them in.
Raking buries the seeds too deep for
successful termination. If the seed
beds are thoroughly MANFRED and can
vased as directed, they will require but
little further attention, and the plants
be ready for transplanting soon after 1st
OF May. Plant no tobacco after 1st of
July, but fill up the missing hills with
field peas or other crop Farmers
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