[20]

19

need only the addition of fertilizers and manures, and it is believed that with proper care and rotation most of them can be kept up indefinitely.

It is said that the mechanical condition of the soil and the absence of certain inorganic elements have more to do with the production of fine tobacco than a supply of plant food. The soil is indeed a sponge, which receives and retains just fertilizers enough to bring the plant to the proper size, when they become exhausted and the plant goes into a gradual decline, growing more and more yellow and more and more delicate in tissue until it is cut. Too much manure will destroy the fine qualities of the crop, imparing its color and increasing its coarsness.

Old of the proper soil which have been worn out and abandoned make when cleared of their new