Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1893-01-19

L
about raising tobacco that it is i'm
possible for me to answer, so | turn
to your columns to give the desired
information. l take it that you will
gladly give the space, for the Ne~s
and Courier first urged upon the peo-
pie of South Carolina to plant to-
bacco, and especially will you give
aid through your columns to any
thing which tends to build up the
material prosperity of the country.
HOW TO SELECT AND PREPARE
SEED BED.
Select a sloping place with South
ern exposure near branch or pond.
Burn the ground thoroughly by plac-
ing on the bed dry wood or brush to
a depth of an inch. Then take a
mattock and dig the ground, rake it
and get all the clods broken and all
the roots out. Lay off the land or
bed up the hill in rows eight feet
wide. From the centre of furrow
pull the earth up towards the centre
of your row, so as to raise the middle
| three or four inches. The former
burrows will be drain taking off the
water from the centre of the bed and
a path, so that in pulling plants your
hands can reach the centre of the bed.
Mix the seed with corn or cotton seed
meal, so as to be easily seen, and sow
two tablespoonsfuls of seed to the
acre. Use the Hester variety grown
by R. L. Ragland, Hyco, Va. They
cost 50 per pound and one pound will
plant say fifty acres, allowing for bad
stands.
After sowing run hand roller over
the bed and press the seed in. Set a
plank along the edges of the bed,
and on this tack a cloth to cover the
beds, so as to protect the plants from
frost. VIM. NJ. Bird & Co., Charles
ton, keep cloth for plant bed cover
ing that costs 81 cents per yard.
THE KIND OF LAND.
Select a piece of land having a
fair, open front so the sun will shine
on it all day.
Should have from eight to ten
inches of soil with gool yellow
clay subsoil. Break the lard well
with two-horse plough in January !;
rebreak with small scooter plough
in March. In April barror, over the
land and make it fine; reduce to a
powder if possible. LAY off your
rows three and ?. half feet wide with
a shovel plouga. In the furrow put
whatever stable manure can be had,
and on that put from LOGO pounds
to 1900 pounds of F. w. Wagner
& Co.'S high grade fertilizer-same
as you would use for cotton. Iname
F. W. Wagner & Co.'S fertilizers
because I have tried them and know
they are quick and respond readily
Bed as you would for cotton, only
use small ploughs, so as to have flat
bed. The plants will be ready by
the Goth Of April.
A CURING HOUSE.
Go into the woods and cut pine
logs % by 20 feet long. Have two
sides rough hewn, leaving the bark
on two sides; then put up just as
you woald log house, making the
house twenty feet high; put in tier
poles every two feet as you build and
four feet apart, just as you erect a
meat or smoke house. When the
house has settled daub with clay.
Later on I will tell you how 10 put
in hues and furnaces. III the mean
time, write Maj. r. L. Ragland,
Hyco, Va, for his pamphlet on to-
bacco. Then do as near as you can
what he tells you. Get your seed
and SOW this month.
THE RESULTS OF CROP.
planted thirty-three and one-half
acres near Denmark, Barnwell
county, and have now sold my entire
crop and must say some OF my to-
bacco was poor, but the larger por-
ton was good and some was fine
very fine. 1 averaged about 1900
pounds to the acre and sod good
and bad as it lay graded in my barns
for 1aa cents per pound. l might
have done better, but l am content
to let good enough alone. Ireceived
about 1854 per acre. If all of my
tobacco had been like that grown on
field of fifteen acres l would have
averaged IS to 20 cents per pound.
But did not know that good plough
ing and high manuring was so essen
tial to successful tobacco farming.
You need not spend money for ex-
pensiye sticks to cure on. as | did,
and baskets, etc., but later will tell
you how to save oD this line.
THE KIND TO PLANT.
One word about the kind of
tobacco to plant and what kind to
plant for. i used the Hester, and it
made tobacco which all judges pro-
nounced fine, and which cannot be
surpassed for wrappers and filters
for plug work. So expert tobacco
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