“We cannot speak from our own experience as to many of these suggested means for overcoming the horn-worm, but we have no hesitation in saying to the farmer, try any, try all of them rather than have your crop eaten to shreds, and the labour of more than half the year brought to naught in a few days, it may be, by a single ‘glut’ of worms. “VIII. ‘Prime high and top low.’ While open to objection in particular cases, even with the character of tobacco chiefly under consideration, and altogether inadmissible, it may be, in the management of other varieties of tobacco, this is a safe rule, we think, to follow in general practice. “We favour ‘priming’ by all means; for when no priming is done the lower leaves (made worthless by constant whipping on the ground) serve only as a harbour for worms, which are the more difficult to find because of the increased burden of stooping. Moreover, if the bottom leaves be saved on the cut stalk, as most likely they will be, there is always the temptation to put them on the market; and against a _sacrilege_ like this we are firmly set, let others say and think what they may. “Yet another advantage to be gained by the removal of these bottom leaves, which is what the planter terms ‘priming,’ is the increased circulation of air and distribution of light thereby afforded, both essential factors, the merest tyro knows, to the full development of plant life. “‘Topping’ (the pinching off with the finger-nail the bud at the top of the plant) is an operation requiring considerable skill and judgment. Let it be performed only by hands having these prerequisites. “That as many plants as possible may ripen at the same time (a desideratum not to be undervalued in aiming, as all should, at a _uniform_ crop) wait until a large number of plants begin to button before commencing to top. Going about through the crop, topping a plant here and there because it may chance to have buttoned before its fellows, is a damaging process not to be tolerated. “No inflexible rule can be given for the number of leaves that should be left on a plant. All depends upon the variety of tobacco, the strength of the soil, the promise of the particular plant, the probable seasons and time left for ripening, &c. “One of the most successful growers of heavy dark tobacco we have ever known, once stated to us his conviction, after years of observation and practice, that one year with another, taking the seasons as they come, eight leaves would give a better result than any other number. Our own experience has tended to confirm this judgment. “IX. See to it that the suckers are promptly removed. It is work quickly done, and with worming may constitute a single operation.