An old writer on tobacco says of Suckers and Suckering:—
"The sucker is a superfluous sprout which is wont to make its appearance and shoot forth from the stem or stalk, near to the junction of the leaves with the stem, and about the root of the plant and if these suckers are permitted to grow, they injure the marketable quality of the tobacco by compelling a division of its nutriment during the act of maturation. The planter is therefore careful to destroy these intruders with the thumb-nail as in the act of topping, and this process is termed suckering."
Suckering.
After this operation is performed the planter ascertains in regard to the
RIPENING OF THE PLANTS.
As soon as the plants are fully ripe they not only take on a different hue but give evidence of decay. The leaves as they ripen become rougher and thicker, assume a tint of yellowish green and are frequently mottled with yellow spots. The tobacco grower has two signs which he regards as "infallible" in this matter. One is that on pinching the under part of the leaf together, if ripe it will crack or break; the other is the growth of suckers to be found (if ripe) around the base of the stalk.
Tatham says:—
"Much practice is requisite to form a judicious discernment concerning the state and progress of the ripening leaf; yet care must be used to cut up the plant as soon as it is sufficiently ripe to promise a good curable condition, lest the approach of frost should tread upon the heels of the crop-master; for in this case, tobacco will be among the first plants that feel its influence, and the loss to be apprehended in this instance, is not a mere partial damage by nipping, but a total consumption by the destruction of every plant. I find it difficult to give to strangers a full idea of the ripening of the leaf: it is a point on which I would not trust my own experience without consulting some able crop-master in the neighborhood; and I believe this is not an uncustomary precaution among those who plant it. So far as I am able to convey an idea, which I find it easier to understand than to express, I should judge of the ripening of the leaf by its thickening sufficiently; by the change of its color to a more yellowish green; by a certain mellow appearance, and protrusion of the web of the leaf, which I suppose to be occasioned by a contraction of the fibres; and other appearances as I might conceive to indicate an ultimate suspension of the vegetative functions."