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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, FEBRUARY 15, 1882.
5
grass and white clover in quantities given
below.
If you have a piece of cane bottom, fence
it and the adjacent hills in for a permanent
pasture for your stock. As soon as spring
opens plant Cattail millet and forage corn
on rich or highly manured land, to be fed
green during the summer, if needed, and if
not, to be cut and cured for winter. Plant
at once five or ten acres in Bermuda gross.
J. 8. N.
A., Marietta: “My heifers are scouring,
what should be done for them 7
“I have a field which I wisli to get in grass
next fall, how shall I treat it until theu?”
Answer: Give the heifers parched corn-
meul and salt, with good hay; withhold
brnn, cotton seed meal and green food till re
lieved. It will not be necessary to give any
medicine.
Sow your field in oats, and manure them
well. Cut them when fully in blossom and
cure os hay—break the land at onco and sow
in Held peas—when a few pods ripen cut and
cure for hay.
Prepare t he land in September, broadcast
the bone meal or superphosphate and harrow
in well, sow the mixture recommended for
“K” on the freshly harrowed land and roll.
J. S. N.
CRASS ON FRESH LAND.
K., Atlanta, Ga.: “I have some fresh land
from which the timber has been cut and
grubbed, and the land well plowed ; I wish
to get it set in grass. Will it do to sow tliib
spring?”
Answer : Yes; harrow well and sow eight
pounds red clover, four pounds white clover
and one bushel of orchard grass perucreand
roll in as early as possible. J. 8. N.
Tobacco Culture.
From the Plant-bed to the Curing-house. Inquiry
answered.
Mr. P. H. C. Nott, Lexington, Kentucky:
“I have some rich land, part freshly cleared
and part cleared for three years. I desire to
cultivate sixty acres of this land in tobacco.
I have had no experience in its cultivation,
so please tell ntc through the columns of the
Southern World the essential points to be
considered by a novice in the business.”
Our correspondent has asked questions
which would require quite a book to answer
fully, but we will comply with his request
and give him the material points most
needed by him at the beginning of the en
terprise.
SECURING THE PLANTS.
While it would have been better to have
burned the beds for the plunts last fall, it is
not yet too late to burn them and secure
plunts in time for this season’s planting.
No time should be lost, however, in taking
this most important initiatory step.
The location of the beds is important, as
upon a judicious selection of soil and ex
posure depends the success of the work. A
southern or southeastern exposure is to
be secured if possible, near n stream where
water may bo readily supplied in case of
drought. The proper exposure, however, is
of more importance than proximity to
water, os it is of the utmost importance to
have early plants.
The soil selected for the beds should be
virgin and dark in color as a dark colored
soil will absorb heat and advance the plants.
It is important that the soil be dry when
burned; certainly dry enough to be plowed,
hut the dryer the better.
The proper soil and exposure haviugbeen
selected, rake off all leaves and trash from
strips four feet in width and on these collect
hard wood to the depth of four feet, seasoned
wood is best, and burn on the ground.
When the burning is complete, chop the
ground thoroughly every four or six inches
with an old axe or the axe end of a mattock
and cross it in the same way; rake out all
sticks and stones, being careful not to bring
up the subsoil. If the bed is burned in the
fall, the best time for it, leave in this con-
dition until the first of January following; if
burned now, prepare and plant at once. One
heaping table spoonful will sow one hun
dred square yards.
The seed are so extremely small that it is
necessary to mix them with sand, ashes, gu
ano or plaster in order to bow with regular
ity. The seed should be thoroughly incorpo
rated with whatever material is used before
sowing.
Tramp in the seed with the feet, or pack
the soil with a hand-roller—one may be
readily improvised for the purpose. The
seed should not be raked in, as ’there is
great danger of covering them too deep.
When the seed are sown and tramped or
rolled in, cover the bed thickly with leafless
brush as follows, commencing at one end of
the bed, rest the large ends of the brush out
side of the bed, let the but ends of the next
layer rest on the brush ends of this and so
continue till the whole bed is covered. Let
these remain until the whole bed is covered
with plants, and until all danger of frost has
passed. The brush will serve the double
purpose of protecting the beds from frosts
and freezes, and of retaining sufficient
moisture to insure the healthy growth of
the plants.
It is of the utmost importance in the cli
mate of Kentucky, to have plants early, as
such plants make the heaviest tobacco, which
ripens under the influence of the heavy
dews and cool nights of September, Further
south it is not so important, so far as the
ripening of the tobacco is concerned, ns the
seasons are sufficiently long to ripen later
plantings. It is important, however, in any
locality, to secure early plants, on account
of the difficulty of getting them to live if
transplanted later than the first of June.
PREPARATION OP THE SOIL.
While the plants are growing in the bed
the land should be thoroughly prepared for
their reception by deep plowing, heavy
manuring, if necessary, and perfect pulveri
zation.
To secure a warm and perfectly pulverized
bed for the reception of the plants the land
should be listed and checked 3feet each
way. If manure is necessary, it should be
applied under the checks in quantities pro
portionate to suit the strength of the mate
rial used, remembering that the tobacco
plant is a gross feeder, and will bear high
manuring. After the lund has been listed
and checked and the tops knocked off and
pressed with the hoe, it is ready for the re
ception ofthe plants.
If the flea beetle attacks the plants in the
bed, dust them with plaster of parts. This
will benefit the plants and make the fleas
uncomfortable.
A sprinkling of peruvlan guano, a highly
nnunoniated superphosphate, or nitrate of
soda in weak solution, will hasten the
growth of the plants.
Unless the plants are excessively thick in
the beds, they should be allowed to attain
good size before transplanting. They should
not be used on old land until the leaves are
ns large os those of the dogwood. Smaller
plants may be used on fresh land.
1IOW TO TRANSPLANT.
The plants should be. drawn from the bed,
one at a time, and carefully placed in bas
kets or in the body of a wagon for removal
to the field as soon after a rain as the soil
will admit of stirring. New ground may be
planted immediately after a rain, but old
land should not, lest it cakes around the
plant when dry and injure it.
An expert man can transplant 3,000 to
4,000 per day, if he has the endurance to
stoop and plant for a whole day. The leaves
of the plant should be drawn together over
the bud and the plant set so that the bud
will just reach the surface of the ground.
The soil should be well pressed against the
roots of the plant, using care to leave no
hollow space below it. Plants are often lost
by the carelessness of the laborer in pressing
the earth to the upper part of the root, leav
ing its lower extremity dangling In the hole
made by the dibble.
If the plant bed is not well moistened by
rain to the depth of the roots of the plants
it should be thoroughly wet by artificial
means beforo drawing the plants.
CULTIVATION.
Little need be said on this subject, further
than to urge the importance of early and
rapid culture—killing the grass before it
takes hold upon the soil, and keeping an
open, loose bed for the roots of the plant.
After the leaves of the plants attain suffi
cient size to risk being broken, the use of
the plow must be abandoned. In the lost
plowing a “stretcher," a foot in length, may
be used instead of the singletree.
PBIMINO AND TOPPINO.
When the plants attain a height of ten
inches, some of the bottom leaves may be
pulled off or “primed” to facilitate cultiva
tion. When the plant has as many as ten or
twelve leaves more than six inches from the
ground, prime to that height and pinch out
the seed bud, leaving ten or twelve leaves to
the stalk, if heavy tobacco is desired. Care
must be used in topping not to injure the
small leaves next to those removed, asa very
slight injury at that Btage of their growth
will develop into a fatal defect In tne leaf,
probably classing it with the “lugs.” After
the plants are topped they develop very
rapidly, and soon require
WORMING AND SUCKRRING,
which tax the vigilance of the tobacco
grower to the utmost. The least neglect or
relaxation of effort in combatting the
worms and exterminating suckers is fatal to
both the quantity and quality of the crop,
as worm-eaten leaves must go with the
“lugs” and the suckers if allowed to grow,
will so drain the vitality of the plant as to
materially lighten the weight of the leaves.
The moth which deposits the egg which
produces the worm, may be seen between
sunset and dusk flying around the flowers of
the common stramonium or Jamestown weed,
and may be destroyed in numbers, by placing
just before their fading hour, a few drops
of a solution of cobalt in the flowers of the
weed; an ounce of cobalt to one pint and a
half of water to which a little syrup is
added. As a few drops is sufficient for each
flower the solution may be bottled and kept
for daily use. Turkeys may bo trained to
catch the worms, and have been found im
portant auxiliaries in exterminating tbe
pest. If a few worms are caught and thrown
to them when figpt introduced, they soon
learn to look for them and become expert in
catching them.
There are usually two principal cropsof the
worms during the growing season—one early
theotherln August. The egg is deposited and
by the moth (sphinx Corolina) on the leaf of
the tobacco. This hatches under favorable
circumstances, in about twenty-four hours,
when it cats a hole through the leaf and
passes underneath, where it continues its
work of destruction. There is an ichneumon
fly which deposits its egg just under the
skin of the worm where its larvic hatch and
subsist upon the juices of the worm un
til its time for transformation comes, when
it emerges and spins a beautiful white, silky
cocoon upon the back of the worm. As
many as a dozen of these little friends are
often found on one worm, which ceases to
grow and feeds but little after the larviu of
the ichneumon commences its work. These
little friends, however, are not sufficiently
numerous to render us material service.
The suckers, which appear above the
leaves, must be pulled off as fast os they
put forth or the value of the tobacco will be
seriously impaired by the diversion of sap
from the leaves to the suckers.
The two processes of worming and sucker-
ing may be done at the same time and should
receive attention once a week, until both are
destroyed. If they are neglected, all the
previous care, labor and expense, lmvo been
expended in vain.
The harvesting and curing of the tobacco
will be noticed in a future number of the
Southern World if our correspondent so
wishes. J. S. N.
£ur$ J'toch |lepHrtmmt.
The Ntock haw In South Carolina.
Hartwell (0a.) Bun.
Editors Sun : I have been told, by rela
tives and friends in your county, that we
could not raise hogs under the “No Fence”
law. To prove to the contrary, I wish to lay
before them some statistics of hogs slaugh
tered in this vicinity, which carry their own
logic with them:
J. W. Sherard killed 5, about 15 months
old, average net weight 250 pounds.
Or. J. H. Reid, one 10 months old, 320
pounds net.
S. P. Pruit, one 11 months old, 308 pounds
net.
W. D. Hatton, one 12 months old, 300
pounds net.
D. J. Sherard, ten, averaging 250 pounds
net. Two of them weighing 800—not fancy
fed.
0. M. Sherard, one 11 months old, 218
pounds net.
Berry Holland, ten 12 months old, 300
pounds net, each.
J. W. Stewart, one 12 months old, 300
pounds net.
Mahy others had very fine hogs, the par
ticulars of which I am not acquainted with.
If any of my Georgia friends can make a
better showing, I would be pleased to hear
from them through The Sun.
I am much pleased with the change, and
would not return to the old system for any
reasonable sum.
True, the people have made many blun
ders in trying to acquire a knowledge of the
best methods to use under the stock law,
but these errors ore being corrected very
fast. We have yet, in my judgment, to
learn to raise all the feed we possibly can,
and keep all the stock we can feed well
housed. The pile of home-made fertilizers
would then be quite an item to the farmer,
which any man might well be proud of, and
which would be equivalent to cash in hand.
The law is yet in its infancy with us, but
as time progresses I expect Its developments
to exceed the most sanguine supporter’s
anticipations.
Some may ask If many did aotfail to raise
such hogs os above mentioned. Oh, yes;
but what is done by one can be done by an
other under the like circumstances; so that
is no argument against the system.
It was not so much the result of high
feeding os Improved breeding, which cannot
be so well effected when they are allowed to
run at large.
The cost of fencing land is very heavy,
especially with yellow pine. Let us see: To
fence a Held of ten acres will take 4,000 rails,
which, to make and put up, will cost $40,
and will consume 40good pines. These trees
would make 400 feet of lumber each, or a
total of 10,000 feet. Subtract half for the
saw, and you have 8,000 feet for your part,
half of which would puy for the hauling,
leaving you 4,000 feet clear. This added to
the $40 for making fence would run it up to
$80 per ten acres, which is more than the
worth of the land. John G. McCurry.
Moffnttsville, S. C.
LIVE STOCK NOTES.
American Merino sheep are being sent to
Australia.
Seventy-five thousand dollars has been of
fered for Foxhull in England.
It is said that in this country the demand
for Ilercfords is largely in excess of the sup
ply.
The Kansus City Commercial Indicator,
says that, “reports from ranges in different
portions of the west are all to the effect that
cattle are wintering finely.”
The wool growers of Kansas metat Topeka
recently. It was authoritatively stated du
ring the meeting that in Kansas “sheep have
increased in two years two hundred-fold,
and the 1882 clip will not fall short of 10,000,-
000 pounds.
Mr. Clark Pettit, Salem, New Jersey, has
recently imported, direct from Portugal, a
very fine specimen, a boar, of the Jersey red
breed of hogs. Mr. Pettit believes that this
animal can readily be made to attain a gross
weight of 1200 pounds.
Mr. J. T. Norris, of Rock Mills township,
Anderson county, 8. C., has a cow for which
he refused $200 cash. He sold in one year
$100 worth of butter and milk from the one
cow, besides usi ng a great, deal of her produco
for family purposes; and the cow Is not
thorough bred, either.
The San Antonio (Texas) Express says
that the post year was a very profitable one
for the West Texas wool growers. Tho
weather was favorable for the sheep, and no
epidemic was among them. Indeed, the
losses were below the average of good years.
The spring season was a brilliant one, and
tho prices paid for wool exceeded those paid
in any other Texas market. The fall season
was also favorable, although the prices paid
were about three to five cents below those
paid during the spring season.
There has been a recommendation of the
goat us a protection to the sheep going the
rounds. A New Jersey man who has tried
this is opposed to it, observing that he “once
owned a beautiful Angora buck and ewe,
and as the buck was the ‘best man’ in the
neighborhood, I trained the pair to range
with my sheep for the latter’s protection.
This buck could jump any fence in the
country, and could climb any tree growing
in the corner of a rail fence by first getting
on the fence and then into tho tree. In quite
a short time every wether I had was as good
a jumper as the Angora buck, and had I not
converted them into mutton I would have
dad a valuable flock of sheep ruined. KfU
the dogs, but keep the sheep and goats sepa
rate here us well as hereafter.”
The Chicago Breeder’s Gazette says that
“in a certain Iowa town there isa stock farm
which may be worthy of more than a pass
ing notice, since it shows how little, more
than careful, intelligent management, is
needed to make a profitable business of stock
growing. In this place are five acres, of
which one and a quarter are occupied by the
bouse, the garden, and by fruit trees and
shrubbery. On the other three and three
quarter acres stands an ordinary village barn
and inclosures, in which over a hundred
young pigs were frisking about their dams.
The latter were all pure-bred Yorkshires,
Berkshircs and Jersey Reds, and most, if not
all, of the breeding animals were winners at
the fairs in Iowa and other States. The food
throughout the summer consisted largely of
a mash made of heavy bran, with but little
corn. The pigs from this stock sold for prices
ranging from $30 to $35 per pair. The total
outlay for food was $650,50 and the total In
come, above tbe amount paid for food, $1,-
025.”