The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-02-28
How to Cultivate Tobacco.

rA~ 64 4O0 4A4RO1Lh1lL 0IGk
In producing a crop of tobacco is tt
have an abundance of good, strong
stocky plants. The land selected foI
q plant bed should be of virgin sol
with a slightly southern exposure, il
possible, in order that the youpe
plants may get the benefit of the
warm rays of the sun in early spring.
This is important to bring them for
ward as early as possible. The soil
should be a rich, fertile, black loan.
Black is preferable, because it alb
serbs more heat from the rays of the
sun than does any other color, and
brings forward the plants several
days sooner, which is much to be de-
sired by the tobacco grower.
se After the wild growth has been cut
OF and the leaves and trash removed,
brush and wood should be piled on
the surface in sufficient quantity to
burn the top earth to a reddish tinge
or soft-brick color. After the bed
has cooled, and without removing the
ashes, it should be coultered or dug
up with grubbing hoes. frequently
@0S civ AAOppC0 OfCA WAIn W6GQ-
Ing hoes, until the surface is thor
oughly ~pulverized. All roots should
be removed, as we'll as Jumps of up
turned clay. When nicely prepared
mark off beds four feet wide for con-
venience of sowing.
One heaping tablespoonful of seed
Is enough to SOW ten yards square, or
i IN Sn1oPn Vordc Tho coAI 1h~r,1l
be mixed with a peck or more of
meal, ashes or land plaster to facili-
tate its v distribution over the
bed. To more surely insure this
even distribution the bed should be
sown first one way and then cross
sown. After the sowing tramp or
lightly rake the, bed with a fine gar
den rake and then cover with canvas.
The edges of the canvas should be
tackled to a frame made of scantlings
or poles that should form a frame
around the bed. A few bent arches
made of wire or switches should be
stuck over the bed to hold the canvas
the surface. A trench dug on the
upper side of the bed is necessary to
protect it from the washings of the
surface water, that is apt to collect
the seed in groups in, the low places
OF the beds.
Beds should be burned as, early as
possible when the land is sufficiently
dry after the Christmas holidays.
Those burned and sowed in February
and March, when suitably prepared,
do best. Be careful not to
use too many seed. When this is
done the plants are so crowded that
they grow up with delicate, fragile
and are unable to resist the
shock Of transplanting as well as
plants.
A rich, loose, well drained clayey
soil is best adapted to the growth of
heavy shipping tobacco. Old land
that has grown a crop of clover OF
cowpeas the preceding year. broken
up in the fall well MANFRED, either
breaking or after, with a lib
eral application OF stable manure, is
found most favorable to the produc-
ton of the heaviest types Of tobacco.
New ground tobacco is generally
brighter in color and smaller in yield
that grown on old MANFRED
lots. Fall breaking with three horses
on deep soils is important, because it
destroys to a large extent the cut
that prey upon the young
plants after they are transplanted.
In. March the land should be rebro-
ken with a two-horse pillow and fire.
1uent working with a heavy tooth or
disc harrow is necessary to put the
land in a fine condition of filth.
All the accumulations Of ashes, to-
bacco stalks and scraps should be
scattered over the land before har-
These will be found a most
valuable addition to the stable man
ure that should always be applied in
the fall. When it is put on the land in
the spring, it has a tendency to make
the tobacco plant spot, and it grows
with so much rapidity that, though
the leaves may have ample size, they
will be lacking in body and in finish
when the tobacco is cured.
When the plants in the seed bed
show leaves as large as a quarter of a
dollar it is time to begin to lay OFF
the land preparatory to fertilizing the
same and the making Of hills. Usu-
ally. burrows are run both ways across
the land three and a half feet apart
with a single-horse pillow, and at the
points of intersection of the rows fer
t~ilizers are dropped ranging in guam
tity from a tablespoonful to a small
handful. From $50 to 500 pounds
are used to the acre, the quantity be-
ing regulated to some extent by the
strength of the soil and by the
amount of stable or other manures
previously applied.
In the yellow tobacco regions of
North Carolina and, in the seedleaf
lis tricts of Pennsylvania as much al
TOO to 500 pounds per acre are ap-
piled with most satisfactory results.
The best artificial fertilizer for to-
bacco contains the following:
Phosphoric acid. s per cent
(lA- "-@--A