Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/811

 TOBACCO 781 in some cases being checked by severe laws or le useful as a source of revenue. Its pro- duction in England, by a law of 1660, was re- stricted to a very small quantity for medicinal rarposes, and the prohibition still remains in force. The earliest settlers in Virginia en- jjed in the cultivation of tobacco, as it was salable commodity in England ; but as early as 1616, when the colony only numbered 351 persons, a provision was made by law against neglect of food crops in its favor. In the cul- tivation of tobacco the first step is to sow the seeds in a seed bed; the success of the crop greatly depends upon the management of this. A spot with a warm exposure and well shel- is selected, a temporary fence being sometimes put up to protect it from the winds, and as soon as the soil is thawed the bed is lighly manured and spaded or ploughed. It is very common to put upon the bed a cover- ing of brush, burn it, and rake the ashes into the soil ; this burning destroys all the seeds of weeds near the surface, and leaves the soil in good condition. The seeds of tobacco are so exceedingly minute that it is said an ordinary thimbleful, if each germinated, would produce more than enough plants for an acre; but, as is usually the case with very small seeds, a large proportion of them will be covered too deeply and fail. The surface of the bed being raked fine, the seed is carefully mixed with several quarts of lime, ashes, sand, or other material to aid in its distribution, and sown with the greatest care broadcast, and the sur- face well rolled. After sowing, the bed re- ceives the closest attention; watering when needed, applying liquid manure, covering with mats or straw on cool nights, and when the plants are well up killing destructive insects and weeding, are among the labors needed to insure success. When the plants are about 4 in. high they are ready to be transplanted ; the field is previously prepared, and can hardly be made too rich ; stable manure and a great num- ber of artificial fertilizers are applied to this most exhausting crop ; the land is marked out in rows 3 ft. apart one way and 2 ft. the other for small varieties, which will give 7,000 plants to the acre, while for larger kinds the rows are 3 ft. one way and 4 ft. the other, allow- ing 4,200 plants to the acre. Transplanting is done in cloudy weather, the plants being set at the intersection of the rows ; they soon be- come established, and during their growth re- ceive the most thorough cultivation. When the leaves are as large as one's hand, the to- bacco needs " worming." Various insects at- tack it, but the most destructive is the large "green worm," the larva of a sphinx; the common tobacco worm in western states is sphinx Carolina, but S. quinque-maculata, commonly found on the potato and tomato, feeds upon tobacco in the eastern states ; both are large, night-flying moths, with five inches spread of wing and a long coiled proboscis; in their larval state they eat voraciously and grow rapidly, forming when full grown a caterpillar 3 in. long, as large as one's finger, and having an ornamental horn (not a sting) at its tail end. These will ruin the leaves in a short time; the whole farm force is frequently needed to u worm " the tobacco, and it must be ' guarded from these attacks during its whole growth; the worms are killed by pinching them between the thumb and finger. When the plants and the worms are small, a flock of young turkeys may be employed, but later in the season there is no substitute for hand pick- ing. Some have killed the parent insects by placing sirup poisoned with arsenic in the large tubular flowers of the common thornap- ple or Jamestown weed (datura stramonium) and placing these about the field. " Priming " is the name given to the breaking off of such leaves as touch the ground and become broken and soiled ; this is not practised by all plant- ' ers, some preferring to cure all the leaves and put the poor ones by themselves. " Topping " is the stopping of the upward growth of the plant by breaking off the upper end of the stem, in order that the nourishment which would otherwise go to the production of flow- ers and seed may be diverted to the greater development of the lower leaves; some top when the first blossom buds -show, and others leave a given number of leaves, 10 to 16, as experience has proved most profitable. The upward growth of the plant being checked by topping, branches soon appear in the axils of the leaves; these are called suckers, and the operation of removing them is " sucker- ing," which is done as soon as those on the upper part of tbe plant are large enough to get hold of, and the laborious work must be kept up as long as any suckers appear. The matu- rity of the crop is judged of by the color and the feel of the leaf ; over-ripeness is more in- jurious than its opposite. Cutting is some- times done as soon as the dew is off in the morning, and the tobacco housed as soon as wilted ; others cut in the afternoon, and house the next morning. A hatchet or a knife like a corn knife is used, the stalk being severed close to the ground with one blow, and laid down, where it remains long enough to wilt so that it may be handled without breaking the leaves, but not so long as to be sunburned. Where it is an important crop, large buildings (tobacco houses) are erected expressly for it ; these are so arranged that the ventilation is under per- fect control; there are several ventilators in the roof, and each alternate board of the up- right siding is hung on hinges, and so arranged that all may be opened or closed at once; the best houses are provided with a stove. The methods of hanging tobacco to dry vary greatly; the old way is to hang the plants upon poles, which are supported at each end by tim- bers arranged for the purpose ; the plants are tied to the poles with a strong twine; they hang tops downward, and are placed upon al- ternate sides of the pole and such distances