The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-11-26
P0ssu1n and Goose
Pumpkin and Tobacco
By SAVOYARD.

which you could taste the corn silk,
some time ago l tried TO tell what
should follow a feast of pot-Iicker a
broth of equal excellence with 'p0ssum
or goose, and as promotive Of felicity
ana longevity. ] allude to q ouid ~
tooacco | have not now that comuo-
slton before me-; but when saw II
IN print | realized that / had been
guilty of a series of omissions and az
| have been asked to repeat the thing
by sundry persons, who never knew II
except from hearsay, / sha now pro-
pose a new and a more accurate edi-
ton, as follows, viz:
In the first place. the harrens" n
Kentucky is the land where the TO
pacco plant attains its acme. There.
on d frosty morn in autumn. the vir-
gin wood exudes saltperre and the soil
= Ieltic enough for hemp or turniu
without embarrassment 10 its exhaust
Tess energies. That was when | was
a boy Rocky, rough, a nkhol on
every tract; s~ubterranean streams.
draining every square mile; the Nam
moth Cave, just across the line; the
vegetable growth scrub hickory, scrub
post oak, wild grapevine, dense hazel
nut thicket, here a black walnut there
a red ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS May ap-
pie, perhaps from the mandrakes with
which Leah hired Jacob of Rachel.
w mere ana CIedT n pdJCI1 IN the
late June or early July, digging up all
the sturnps possible; pile the brush and
get all the rails you can of the post
oaks and haul off the fire wood. Leave
the debris to rot till d dry spell in
anuary then set it afire, and dig up
the remaining stunps. Now pillow it
with a jumping cutter ahead of a very
narrow bull tongue and harrow, pill
ing the roots. Repeat his operation
when the winds Of March have made
the ground dry enough for the plow
after the rains, the sleets, the freezes.
and the thaWs Of February. Get every
root out Of the way, and again in
April go over it. pillow and harrow. In
May, about the 18th, Prov and har-
row a fourth time, lay the ground
off as for corn, three feet each way,
and then transplant the tobacco from
the bed. They used to make hills for
this, but that has been found to be
useless labor. When the plants have
been set for some eighteen days, go
over the ground with the hoe and de-
stroy all vegetable growth but the to-
bacco and be sure that our plant is
of the yellow prior variety. If you
neglect that precaution all your labor
is vain. Your tobacco will not be fit
to chew.
Now put the cultivator to it-that
is, pillow it as you do corn, and Guilt
vate it with double shovel and hoe
frequently this tobacco is for local
domestic use, not for market. Early
in July prime" the plank, and prime"
high enough-that is, taxi off the
bottom leaves that rest on the ground.
By the 10th of August top the
plant. leaving from fourteen to six
teen leaves on it. Now 'succOr" it
and worm it daily, and a successful
way to worm is by prevention, as
follows: Grow jimson weed on the
edge of the patch, put in the blossom
a strip in which a pinch or two of
cobalt had been dissolved. 1t is a
great labor-SaVer.
Keep the suckers off and the worms
off, and let the tobacco get dead ripe.
The dews of cool. early autumn nights
help it immensely, giving it body and
ripening the nicotine. / heard a man
who knew nothing in the world about
tobacco sing the praise the other day
of a pipe that took the nicotine out of
the tobacco before the smoke got to
the palate. / ventured to say to him
that I would as soon smoke corn fod-
der or drink whisky from which all
| alcohol had been banished. Nobody
ever chewed or smoked or snuffed to-
bacco except for its nicotine, and no.
body ever drank whisky or wine or
beer except for the alcohol of it-as
well drink stump water.
Then. on some glorious morn of
splendid October, the season of incip-
lent Indian summer, when the fodder
is in the ere the frost is on
the pumpkin-when the dew is heavy
and the air is crisp-when the magni-
ficent sun of such a day is well on his
course in the heavens-gO into the
patch and cut the tobacco, hang i
on the stick" and never let it touch
mother earth Take it to the scaffold.
imprOViSe0 in the patch, of rails or
poles, and let it there 'yaller" until it
is as the hickory leaf turned golden at
the first tGuch of utum breeze. Let
it hang for t~Wenty-fOur or fOrty-elght
hours and then house it in a barn
tight enough to exclude the light, and
almost tight enough to exclude the air.
Two days later fire it by means OF
charcoal, heating the building to that
degree that drives the sap from the
leaf to the stalk, and makes the stalk
as dry as last years corn huck
When the welcome rain of NoVem-
Der that patters on the roof and
makes sleep the sweetest of all Gods
blessings has brought the leaf in
ease" strike it down and strip" it,
selecting the choicest leaves for chew
ing. Then bulk it, and as carefully
as though you were putting it in the
hogshead to compete for a prize. In
March hang" it again. so that the
winds may'make it as dry as Tophet's
powder house, until it turns to snuff
at the slightest touch. April showers
will bring it in case" when it must
again be bulked with all the care ana
tenderness and nicely of the Novem-
Der bulking. with this addition:
! Sprinkle on each layer a handful of
~sun-dried peaches-about a peck of
peaches to each 100 pounds of tobacco.
And so, let it be. The sweat"
will come in the latter art of May.
Take it up some time W the
summer soltice and July 10. stem it,
lightly spray it with old peach brandy
in which new honey has been dis
, solved. Twist it. not more than seven
| leaves to the twist, n not too tight;
Law it away in an air-tight chest of oak
that has been in the household. time
out of mind, and when pot-licker time
comes, the following November, take
a twist of that tobacco and it will beat
anything for chewing that ever came
off the land drained by Jeemes river,
and for smoking nothing ever came
out of Cuba to compare with tiff
you employ a homemade corn-ccb
pipe.
No wonder some forty vermifuge
doctors starved to death in Barren
county. where the folk in those lays
lived on possum, goose and pumpkin