Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1897-01-07

our market and the markets Of the world
and which are with difficulty sold for a
cent per pound or at best, not exceeding
three or four cents per pound, q figure
clearly below the cost Of production,
and hence, the production of which,
must be reduced to q minimum. The
next step i would advise Il one, upon
which feel / can not lay too much
stress. The careful preparation of the
plant beds and the use of covering for
the plants which not only protects them
from the ravages of the fiy, but operates
TO force the growth of the plants and
enables US TO set them out much earlier
than has been the custom in this locali-
ty.
The varying of our seasons seems to
almost preclude early June planting of
tobacco. And certainly the experience
OF ous planters for the past three or four
years has established the fact; that only
the May planting has resulted in any
thing like fair crop. This early plant
ing has for the most part escaped the
disaster of the July and August drought
and is secured during August, thereby,
escaping the storms of the middle and
latter part of September. My observa-
tons, has for many years, impressed me
with the belief that more tobacco has
been seriously injured by the storms of
September, than by early frosts. So that
l was induced TO secure my crop, il pos
sible, before the fifteenth of September
to escape the bruising from the storms
rather than fear of frosts later.
AS regards the subject of the best fer
tiiizer 20 use upon the tobacco, / am led
20 my conclusions more from my know
ledge Of the financial abilities OF our
farmers, than from my knowledge of
any peculiar advantage of some particu-
lar brand of commercial fertilizers. So
Tar as they are concerned, / advise the
abandonment of all of them. Some, no
doubt, are good, but / venture the as
sertion, that II l had the money that has
been paid for useless commercial ferti-
lizers in Charles county for the past ten,
| or fifteen years, could, with rare ex-
ceptions, pay the individual indebted
ness OF every farmer in the county,
which has accrued within that time. So
much Is valueless. and so little good, that
deem IL best to let them all alone and
devote more attention to making the
manure heap, not only larger but richer
There are times when our teams and
labor are doing nothing, which ought to
be devoted to gathering the waste upon
the farms, the muck from the swamps
and the mould from the woods and with
1t produce fertilizer better in every re-
spect than the commercial fertilizer :
| will make better and prettier tobacco
and above all things does not produce
and bring forth about the first of June,
or July that blighting crop of promis-
| sorry notes, which reduces the proceeds
OF sale of wheat and tobacco, and leaves
the drawer of the note financial wreck.
Maryland tobacco has secured its desira-
bility as being peculiarly a pire-smoking
and cigarette tobacco, because of its
free burning qualities. But this peculi-
ar quality Is being deteriorated, if not
destroyed, by the excessive use of ferti-
lizers containing an undue proportion
| of salt. 1t is readily detected by the
buyer from the whitish mould that is
produced on the stem, and has been
most frequently introduced by the use
of compounds containing Kainit and
Muriate of Potash. Where the Kainit
is compounded with South Carolina
rock and other factors in the compost
ton of low price commercial fertilizers
| by unscientific hands, where an excess
i've proportion of the salt is more likely
to result, With a corresponding injury
| to the crop.
The last point relating to the cultiva-
| tion of tobacco to which would direct
the attention of our planters, is the very
great advantage to be derived from low
topping. No careful farmer, if he can
| help himself, will permit his tobacco
| field to blossom like q flower garden.
There are none who have had experience
in growing tobacco, but what know, that
II is far best to break out the button as
soon as it Eaakes its appearance.
This is not always practicable, as the
plants do not button together. But it
rarely occurs that field of tobacco can
not be topped at the proper stage by go
ing over and topping those plants which
need 1t, at from three to four, and often
less than that many times.
When the bloom is allowed to come
out, the stalk becomes hard very soon,
the top leaves become a temptation to
permitting them to remain and the leaves
that would become perfect are robbed of
that sustenance (which is necessary to
their complete growth and perfection.
II is the experience of all who have ever
followed the process of topping lew,
that the tobacco is more uniform in
length of leaf, fineness of texture and in
weight, and the same can be said of
printing" It certainly renders it much
easier TO strip and the system, if persist
ed in, / am confident, will commend it.
self to all planters who wish to improve
the condition of their crops. Having
said thus much in regard to some sim
pie, but necessary methods regarding
proper cultivation of the crops, will
direct your attention to some points i'm
handling the tobacco preparatory to
sending il to market, which are abso-
lutely essential, il we are To improve its
present standard in the markets The
competition | referred to in the begin
ming Is a menace to the production of
tobacco in this section of country, un-
less we do realize the necessity of i'm
provement upon our part all along the
lines of cultivation and handling of the
crop from the plant-beds to the putting
it in the casks in which il is shipped.
There are many of US who remember the
time, when tobacco stripped from the
stalk without assortment, had ready sale
at remunerative prices. But no plant
err, that regards his reputation, would
think of doing anything of the kind now.
France, that uses nothing but firm leaf
tobacco, they do not buy seconds" at
all, takes as q rule, fully one-third of the
entire Maryland crop. And when we
realize, that their four types of SIS, AS,
BIS and C's embrace the greater portion
of that part of the crop composing the
firm leaf, we can see at once, that our
outlet for the consumption of our crop
of tobacco is very limited. England
competed for this at one time, but is no
longer in the market. Holland, Ger
many, Austria and France take it all,
but II we do not keep it up to the stand
ard that makes them prefer Maryland
tobacco, they will substitute tobacco
grown elsewhere And it is being grown
all over the world. When we realize