The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1906-03-16

one which is fundamentally wrong, is
seen or the steamboats, which run
down from Blltimnre and Washington
loaded with l,aIcd hay and barrels OF
pork and 0 ben salt meats, and coming
back with decks ticrcd high with these
great hr2sIit ads OF tobacco. Some
thing is rad ally cut of joint when a
country hat can GROW corn and hogs
as easily rs Southern Maryland still
clings t. 'ne plant and continues to
import til; simplest necessities OF
life.
Most of this Sou,h Maryland soil is
naturally fairly fertile, and me of it
was once excellent; but two centuries
of tobacco, with no attention paid to
the question of humus and very little
animal industry, has put it into thor
oughly bad shape. Tobacco has been
focal crop which has absorbed the
labor, the energies and the available
fertility Of the farm. I see no reason
to advise the farmer to cease growing
tobacco. After all, it is the crop that
be and bis negro he! understand best.
But he certainly ought to grow in
addition the bay and the corn and the
bacon that now come from Balti.
more.
| cannot learn that tobacco-growing
as carried on here requires any very
special type of skill or training, al
though the crop is an eXacting one
and at times leeds much attention.
The plants are from home grown seed
sown in seed beds, t. e Young sc Ilngs
being transplanted into rows about
three feet apart, and say 80 inches
apart in the row. Sometimes it is
check k-rowed in cqecks about 33 inches
apart. After hat it is mainly ques-
tien of clean culture by mule labor
and the hoe, They tell me that the
black "man with the hoe is more at
home in this than in at any other form
of labor.
The tobacco is cut when mature,
wilted in the field, then hung up in
the barns to cure, and "stripped" dur
ing warm, damp winter days when
there is moisture enough in the air
to render the leaves soft and pliable,
so that they will not break up in the
handling. These stripped leaves are
then punched into Glands by a twist
of their butts, and packed into the big
hegsheads which make the final pack.
age The tobaccoes are sorted into
three or four different grades, accord.
ing to qualities not readily distinguish b.
ed by one unskilled in the art. Al
most the only outbuildings of impor-
tance on these places are tobacco
barns, and it is surprising what large
barn is required to hang up big crop
of tobacco in shape, so that it will not
be damaged during warm, moist wealth
er. I saw one barn 80 by 120 feet, a
really enormous structure as barns
go. The yield per acre will vary
from two or three hundred up to per-
haps one thousand pounds, which is
called a very heavy crop, although one
grower told me he had made as high
high as 1900 pounds. The usual est-
mate of the cost of carrying an acre
of tobacco is about $50, and with
prices this year ranging from 3 to 8
cents, it is hard to see where the profit
comes in. But certainly tobacco was
once profitable, for it blossomed into
big brick houses, with high ceilings
and broad verandas and generous fire.
places, and in these homes there was
nurtured a stately agricultural life
such as the North will never know.
Some wheat is grown by sowing in
the tobacco stubble, without blowing
and some grass is seeded with the
wheat. The accepted practice is to
feed off the gra SIS without moving it.
The yield of wheat is not large, al
though l hear of 20 bushels per acre.
The important crop other than tobac-
co is eorn-a large white dent, planted
far apart, and one or two stalks in a
hill. The yield-always stated In
"barrels' of about five bushels-is
small, ranging from almost nothing up
to 9, to 8, and l heard of ID "barrels'
per aore. These yields are too small
for country where the soil is fairly
fertile, the rainfall above the average
of the Atlantic states, and the sum.
mers long and VAIN. They have lit
tie, lean, ight-waisted horses of won,
delful spirit and endurance on the
road, for southern Maryland has raced
horses from the beginning, and the
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