“Potash is exported in the tobacco crop to the amount of 70–80 lb. per acre yearly, and is required for the stalks to the extent of some 50 lb., making a total of 120–130 lb. As already intimated, potash does not commonly waste from the soil by washing. It is seldom found in appreciable quantity in well or drain water, and most soils absorb it and fix it so firmly that water can remove it but very slowly. It does, however, appear in the drain water from very heavily dunged fields, though in small proportion. Stable or yard manure on the average contains one-half per cent. of potash, or 10 lb. per ton. Twelve or thirteen tons of stable manure would therefore contain the potash needful to produce a crop. The dressing of 20 tons of 10 cords of stable manure, per acre, which is often employed on tobacco, is doubtless enough to fully supply the crop, and the application of additional potash is apparently quite unnecessary. The employment of potash salts upon tobacco lands would therefore seem to be uncalled for unless the amount of stable manure is greatly diminished, or its quality is very inferior. In case potash salts are to be applied, the best form to make use of is potash sulphate, of which 250 lb. contains 135 of potash. Next to this is probably potash carbonate, i. e. the ordinary potash of commerce, which contains some 70 per cent. of potash; 200 lb. of this would be sufficient for an acre. To apply it I would suggest breaking it up into small pieces and soaking it in two or three times its weight of water until the lumps crush easily, and mixing these with so much ground gypsum as will make a mass dry enough to handle. “Kainit, which contains some 15 to 20 per cent. of potash, but also 10 per cent. or more of chlorine, is not so good for leaf tobacco, and least of all to be recommended is potassium chloride (muriate of potash) which is nearly half chlorine. “Magnesia is an element which is abundantly provided for in stable manure, every ton of which, according to analyses on record, contains some 3 lb. of this substance. “Lime is supplied in relative abundance in stable manure, the average ton of which contains some 15 lb. We have seen that 600 lb. of gypsum contain as much lime as the average tobacco crop: guano, dry fish, and superphosphate, each contains some 5–10 per cent. of lime. There is, furthermore, little likelihood that any soil intended for tobacco would not of itself contain enough lime to support the crop. Lime in the caustic state has, however, a value independent of its direct nutritive power, which is well worth the attention of the tobacco raiser. Of this I shall write briefly in a subsequent paragraph.