With regard to the amount of manure to be employed, it may be observed that, with farmyard manure properly rotted, there is no theoretical limit, especially when the tobacco is intended for snuff, and is grown in a hot climate, where the physical properties of the soil are of the utmost importance. It is said that some Rhenish-Bavarian soils contain as much as 15 per cent. of organic matter, yet the cultivator considers it necessary to heavily manure each tobacco crop. Dutch growers apply to the rich alluvial soil as much as 25 tons an acre of well-rotted cattle-manure. In America, it is reported that the heaviest crops are obtained on soil newly taken up, and very rich in vegetable mould. It is considered nearly everywhere that tobacco will pay best when heavily manured. The first care of even the poorest peasant in the tobacco districts of Germany, Holland, &c., as soon as he sells his tobacco, is to purchase the manure which he considers essential to his success.
The amount of any special manure which can be applied without injury to the plants depends very much on the solubility of the stuff, and the manner of applying it. Highly soluble salts, such as soda or potash nitrate, should be applied in smaller quantities than salts which dissolve slowly. With regard to the manner of applying concentrated manures, it is evident that, when a salt is applied in close proximity to the plant, less will be required than when strewn over the whole field. When applied in solution, not more than 300 lb. of nitrate per acre should be used at one time. The amount to be applied varies also with the soil; a sandy soil, which has little absorptive power, should receive less than a clay. Salts easily disintegrating should not be applied before tobacco has been planted, especially not before heavy rains which would carry off the salt. To supply the potash required by the tobacco plant, 200 lb. of good saltpetre per acre would be sufficient in most cases. Lime, although removed from the soil in large quantities, is rarely applied to tobacco as a special manure. Where wood-ashes can be had at a moderate price, lime may be applied in this form. Some ashes are very rich in lime. It has been found that ashes obtained from beech-wood contain 52 per cent. of lime, and those from oak-wood as much as 75.
Whilst most growers are agreed that tobacco is a crop demanding a rich soil, there is a want of uniformity of opinion as to the best method of manuring. On this point, C. Schneider, a successful Illinois planter, says “manuring cannot be done too early, or too heavily. The manures are very different, and equally useful for the different kinds of tobacco. We may classify them as follows:—
“To be applied shortly before planting, and in equal quantities, for all kinds of tobacco: 1. Guano, 200 to 300 pounds on the acre; 2. Poultry-droppings, 400 to 500 pounds; 3. Green manure in any quantity; 4. Sheep-dung, 6 two-horse loads; 5. Cattle manure, 10 two-horse loads.
“For chewing-tobacco and snuff: 1. Sheep-dung, 10 to 12 loads per acre; 2. Cattle manure, 20 to 30 loads; 3. Horse-dung, 15 to 25 loads; 4. Hog manure, 20 to 30 loads. The last two are useless for smoking-tobacco, or for that to be used for cigars.
“The first three manures (guano, poultry-droppings, and green manure) must be followed after the tobacco-crop, by a plentiful supply of stable-manure. The tobacco-stalks themselves, rotted or burned to ashes, sown over the field before the transplanting, or in the planting-furrows, will act as a good manure, but are not sufficient. In highly-worked farms, that is, where the soil is valuable, and cannot remain idle, it will pay every way, to sow rye for fodder on the tobacco-land in the fall; this may be made into hay, or turned under as manure at the beginning of July, just as may seem most profitable. Deep ploughing for the rye, and afterward for the tobacco, must not be forgotten.”
R. E. Burton, in the Sugar Cane, translating from Mitjen’s essay on tobacco growing in the most renowned district of Cuba, has the following sensible remarks on the all-important subject of manuring:—
“Each veguero or farmer should make a hole or rotting-bin in which he should deposit as much muck and leaves as he may be able to accumulate, and, before giving the last ploughing to prepare his field for planting the tobacco, he should spread over it all the prepared rotten manure he can procure. Manure that is not thoroughly rotten injures the plants more than benefits them. A piece of land, well manured and thoroughly worked up, will produce four times more tobacco than one badly prepared would. Consequently no expense or labour is so remunerative as that which is applied to the soil. This is a very important point which should fix the attention of every agriculturist who desires to prosper.
“Agriculturists acknowledge the advantage of manuring. In tobacco cultivation it produces the most brilliant results, but in Vuelta-Abajo it is very difficult to procure sufficient country manure. Yagues (i.e. strips of palm bark used as screens, and for baling) and all the refuse from palm trees are excellent; grass from the savannahs and all kinds of vegetables in a thoroughly putrid state are very good, but it requires a great quantity, and the immense labour to collect and prepare these, frightens the greater number of vegueros, and few have sufficient constancy to enable them to collect enough properly prepared manure for their fields.
“The most which some manage to do is to spread refuse over some portions of land, where it rots and fertilizes the soil; but this system is inefficacious, because the vegetable substances being very light, the heavy rains wash away the greater portion of the decomposed matter, and fully nine-tenths are lost. If the system was adopted of depositing this manure in holes or trenches, from which it can be removed when thoroughly rotted and fit for the fields, it would produce much more with much less labour; for although at first sight the labour appears to be doubled, by having to carry it twice, it must be remembered that one load of well-prepared manure is better than ten or twenty of grass or bush that is not rotten.