The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-21

able person upon a bright tobacco farm,
and it usually follows that a man who
understands the cultivation and curing
of tobacco in most every instance handles
it properly after it is placed in the stor-
age barn to be gotten ready for the sales
floor. New land is by far the best for
tobacco. The tobacco grows so much
better upon it and it is more easily Gull
tivated, ripens earlier and has smoother
texture, and a man can cultivate at least
third more hills. This comes from the
fact that it requires a great deal more
work in the preparation of the land during
the winter season, whereas old land can
be gotten ready in a short while and the
plants set out, but it requires more rain
for old land and in wet weather plants
suffer much more, and extra labor to
cultivate it on account of the grass and
weeds. In the Piedmont belt, in which
l live, the first of May is the best time
to set out plants.
'"The primitive method of curing to-
bacco with wood and charcoal has given
place to the system known as lue curing.
BY this method the smoke and dust, with
which the tobacco becomes filled. is
avoided. The stripping and the asserting
of tobacco properly adds materially to
it's value when placed on the market.
Those who sell with good judgment when
the market is active, obtain the best
prices. Those who produce it in it's
highest state, must necessarily be skilled
and especially careful, not only in the
cultivation of the weed, but also in the
curing and handling of it. There are
thousands of tobacco growers who go
along adopting the usual methods prac-
ticed in common by one and all, but who
never learn the true science, or discover
the key that unlocks the door beyond
which the best methods and means may
be obtained to reach the boal of their
ambition.
Tobacco demands the most careful at
tention from the time the seed is sown
till it reaches the sales floor. Unless
this is given it may lose it's great value
in a few hours. 1t must not be neglected
or overlooked in the smallest degree. 1t
has been conceded by all who have pros
pered and made a success in growing
yellow tobacco, that wherever the greed
for the mcneyed crop unbalances the
wisdom Of husbandry the money crop Is
a curse but where it stimulates and pro-
notes the general economy OF the ldIh'
it is the profting farm. There are many
attendant evils to the tobacco grower
such as droughts, frosts, long wet and
continued dry spells, sometimes failure
to raise plants, loss of curing barns by
fire. Frequently sickness among men
prevents the skillful handling of tobacco
at the most important juncture OF the
crop, and then the inferior grades with
which the market is overrun, and when
command only low price, are gathered.
THE experience of my neighbors, ana
my own. justify m in stating 10 you
that no one crop system will pay and
that diversified agriculture is the only
sure and safe road to success.
Reviewing all these conditions 1t Is
pertinent to ask the question: Where
shall North Carolina stand?'
I'm all this great onward rush of de-
velopment, the question demanding the
quick and earnest consideration of every
North Carolinian is. that which l have
presented.
shall we take our rightful place in