The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1896-03-04
Fertilizer for Tobacco.

due in great part to the depletion of the
soil in avail liable potash and the increase
in chlorine. The larger the amount Of
products rich in potash and poor in
chlorine which are sold off from the
farm, the poorer the barnyard manure
is in potash, and the richer in chlorine,
the less adapted will the conditions be-
come to growing tobacco. Corn and clo-
yer are among those crops that remove
the largest amounts of potash from the
soil. If these materials are fed on the
farm and the manure carefully collect
ed and preserved, no considerable de-
pletion of the Ill should result
Farm manure alone may be sufficient
to produce good crop Of tobacco if the
cultivation is in proper rotation, but
unless the soil is rich in potash and
lime the application Of some species Of
manure will greatly enhance the value
of the crop. Wood ashes are a valuable
supplement to farmyard manure. Gyp-
sum is an excellent dressing for soils i'll
good manurial condition; it supplies
the lime needed by the tobacco and is
an effective agent for rendering soluble
and accessible to the plant the potash
and magnesia which too often exist in
close locked combinations. Gypsum ap-
piled on poor lands hastens the exhaus
tion of the soil. It is said that crops
MANFRED with gypsum suffer less from
the effects of drought and require less
irrigation than when MANFRED other
wise, the leaves of plants MANFRED with
sulphate of lime (gypsum), exhaling
less water than when MANFRED with
other substances. AS to the amount Of
manure to be employed, it may be OBJ
served that with farmyard manure prop
erly rotted there is no theoretical linn
it, especially in a hot country, as the
properties of the soil are of the utmost
Importance. Successful planters have
found that it paid we'll to apply to rich
alluvial soil 25 tons Of we'll rotted barn
yard manure to the acre.
The amount of any special or chem
ical manure which can be applied with
out injury to the plants depends very
much on the solubility Of the material
and the manner of applying it. Highly
soluble salts, such as sulphate of ammo
MIA or nitrate of soda, should be applied
in much smaller quantities than mate
rails which dissolve more slowly In the
application of concentrated manures it
is evident that when salt is applied in
close proximity to the plant less will be
required than when strewn over the
whole field. The amount to be applied
varies also with the SOIL A sand soil
with little absorptive power should re-
ceive less than clay soil. Very soluble
materials should not be applied before
tobacco has been planted and especially
not before the heavy rains of May, which
would carry off large part of the fer
tilizing matter.
For tobacco it is not sufficient to ap-
ply the element most needed-potash-
in any form, but to produce a fine to-
bacco with good burning qualities it is
necessary to apply it in a particular
been found that the chloride of potash
produces much inferior tobacco to the
sulphate The conclusions from both the
American and foreign experiments are
that the use of muriate, kainit or other
potash salts containing chlorine should
be avoided. In long series of expert
ments recently conducted at the Con-
necticut station to determine the best
form CT potash for tobacco, it was found
that the double sulphate of potash and
10 ~