No definite rule can be laid down as to the proper number of leaves to be left on the stalk when the plants are topped. This number varies with the height of the plant and the climatic con ditions during the season. Fourteen to sixteen leaves, however, are considered desirable during the ordinary season. The suckers begin to appear very soon after topping and should be removed every eight or ten days, or once a week when rains are frequent.
The method of harvesting the southern Cuban tobacco is essentially the same as that practiced with the Connecticut Havana Seed tobacco. The number of plants to the lath, however, may be increased to eight or ten, when the growth is comparatively small.
Some growers prefer to prime the Cuban to bacco. This process is more expensive, but a thinner leaf is obtained, which makes it possible to use a certain percentage of leaves for wrapper purposes. There are no advantages in this system over the present method of cutting the plants, so far as the production of a filler leaf is concerned.
Where the soil has been abundantly fertilized and the season is favorable, a profitable second crop of filler can be grown, which is commonly called a "sucker crop." A week after cutting, all the suckers should be broken from the old stump with the exception of one, which is to be allowed to remain and mature. It should be handled in exactly the same way as the original crop. The sucker crop ordinarily produces about one-half the yield of the main crop. Insects are always very much worse late in the season and become very troublesome in the sucker crop.
Worms are usually very troublesome on this variety of tobacco and must be picked off and destroyed as soon as they appear, or they can be poisoned with a very light spray of Paris green mixture. The " powder gun" has come into general use and is rapidly replacing the spray pump for poisoning the hornworm and budworm. The grow ers who still employ the spray pump use one pound of Paris green and an equal quantity of quicklime to 100 gallons of water, this being sufficiently strong to kill the hornwerms without injuring the leaves. If a stronger solution is used there is danger of burning the leaves, so that patches of green will appear after curing. A mixture of one pound of Paris green to thirty pounds of lime or land-plaster (gypsum) is recommended for use in the powder gun.
Zimmer Spanish and Little Dutch tobaccos.
The preparation and care of the seed-bed for Zimmer Spanish and Little Dutch varieties, and the preparation of the soil, methods of transplanting and cultivating, harvesting, curing and ferment ing are essentially the same as for Connecticut Havana. The plants should be set in rows three
feet apart and the seedlings set fifteen to twenty inches apart in the rows. The plants should be topped so as to leave about sixteen leaves for each plant. The average yield of the Zimmer Spanish variety is about 600 pounds to the acre, while the yield of the Little Dutch variety is considerably less.
Maryland smoking tobacco.
The seed-bed should be located on a dark, friable, loamy soil with a southern exposure. The old method of burning the seed-bed has been largely abandoned, but, if used, care should be taken to burn only small timber and brush. A large quan tity of ashes is detrimental to the growth of the young plants. All trees within thirty or thirty-five feet should be cut down and piled on the north and west sides of the bed for a partial protection against the cold winds.
The sides of the bed should be eight to ten inches high, and wires three feet apart should be stretched across it. The beds can be covered with light cheese-cloth or tobacco-bed cloth, after the seed has been sown. The covering serves as a pro tection against the ravages of flea-beetles and other insects, provided there are no open spaces around the bed. When cloth is not used for a covering, the beds must he closely guarded against the attacks of the flea-beetle. When this insect first makes its appearance, the plants should be treated with Paris green at the rate of one pound to thirty pounds of land-plaster. The cloth cover ing should be removed from the beds at least a week before transplanting, to prevent the injurious effects of the radical change from the seed-bed to the open field.
The bed should be spaded to a depth of four or five inches, and all roots and tufts carefully removed. The soil must he thoroughly pulverized with garden hoes, hand-rakes or other suitable implements. Before the last stirring, an application of a highly nitrogenous fertilizer should be evenly distributed over the bed and thoroughly incorpo rated in the soil. A mixture of fifty pounds of nitrate of soda, forty pounds of fine-ground bone, and ten pounds of carbonate of potash, applied at the rate of thirty pounds per square rod, is highly recommended. In most cases it is advisable to replenish the plant-food with a top-dressing or fertilizer of the same composition as that of the first application. This should be applied in liquid form wherever it is possible to wash it in thoroughly: otherwise it is important to top-dress the beds only on hot, dry days. The top-dressing should be used when the plants are two to three inches high.